News From the Light Rail Transit Association – Los Angeles light rail expands

Los Angeles light rail expands : After a ceremony held on 14 November, the 9.6-km Gold light rail line extension from Union Station to East Los Angeles (Atlantic Boulevard) opened to the public with a free fares offer on 15 November. 50 000 passengers turned up to try the new service, which links with the [...]

Post number 300 and many more to come.

This post marks the 300th posting on the Rail for the Valley Blog and congratulations to (now) Dr. John Buker for all his efforts with the valley rail project. When John asked me to post for the RFV blog, I don’t think he expected such a “stormy petrel“. I have tried hard to keep the blog [...]

To Toll Or Not to Toll – That is The Question

There is a current push to implement Road Pricing or Road Tolls in the region by various levels of government, to help fund public transit. The problem is, Road pricing or tolling will not work unless there is a viable public transit alternative in place. There isn’t and road pricing will fail and those politicians [...]

TransLink – what to do?

Jon Ferry has a go at TransLink in today’s Province and proposes that METRO Vancouver run the regional transit system. Sorry Jon, that will just perpetuate the incompetence that we have all grown to hate at TransLink. The problem with TransLink, aside with provincial interference, is an extremely dated transit modal, based on building very [...]

Adiós The Seattle Monorail Project

The Seattle monorail was to open in 2009; it didn’t. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUoqeRADp4Q] The Simpson’s monorail song, which Seattle’s monorail lobby successfully kept off the airwaves in the weeks leading up to the public ballot on the project. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q44IDYpEeso]

The Seattle Monorail debate – The Blog's Most Viewed Post

The Rail For The Valley’s most viewed blog post is “Seattle’s monorail versus LRT debate – Same story, different players!”,  http://railforthevalley.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/seattles-monrail-versus-lrt-debate-same-story-different-players/  which at first glance is a little puzzling, but when one understands the massive public debate over the proposed Seattle monorail, it is not surprising at all that there is still much interest South of [...]

From the Abbotsford News – TramTrain perfect for Valley LRT

TramTrain perfect for Valley LRT Published: November 10, 2009 The Light Rail Committee has long supported the reinstatement of the Vancouver to Chilliwack interurban service and has long corresponded to transportation experts in Europe and the USA, who also support the return of the interurban. The concept of TramTrain, where specially designed streetcars or diesel [...]

From the Vancouver Province – Canada Line to lose millions each year despite strong ridership – Another TransLink Bambozzle

From the “Tip of the Iceberg Department”; the RAV/Canada Line is going to cost TransLink money but until the BC Auditor General has a go at TransLink, SkyTrain and RAV, the public will never know the true costs of the new subway or of TransLink’s metro operation. The $14 million to $21 million shortfall mentioned is [...]

A Chilling Video From U-Tube – Saved by a ….. metro driver!

This video was on the news of late and it shows by metros should have a driver. Sadly if this were the ‘driverless’ SkyTrain, the results would have been tragic. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa-K_faYyoA]

From the Gaurdian UK – Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure, says whistleblower

Some sobering news from the U.K. If the article is true, then Campbell’s gamble on Gateway and the new Port Mann Bridge will be a colossal mistake; again the same is true of the RAV/Canada Line and the yet to be built Evergreen SkyTrain Line, which are far too expensive to expand to meet demand. [...]