Light-rail ‘vision’ elevated track would run along I-405 – From the Seattle Times

It seems the hoary old elevated, tunnel, or at-grade debate continues in Bellevue Washington, which is across the lake from Seattle. The success of LRT is to be able to penetrate into city centres cheaply, on-street, where the transit customer wants to go, which is something that a certain rookie Bellevue councilor doesn’t want to […]

A Tram in the Black Forest

This U-Tube of a Karlsruhe TramTrain, goingAi??Ai??about its businessAi??Ai??in Germany’s Black Forest certainly makes a mockery of the ‘needAi??Ai??for density’ claim by those opposing the Fraser Valley interurban. By utilizing existing railway infrastructure, LRT can penetrate into unpopulated areas very cheaply, thus creating a larger tram network, as well servicing far flung transit destinations. Karlsruhe’s […]

The (AVG) Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft GmbH- Karlsruhe’s longest tramtrain route – S4

The AVG’s longest run is now a 210km (130 mile) S4 service from A?ai??i??hringen through central Karlsruhe to Achern, south-west of Baden-Baden. The TramTrain route uses DB mainlines, regional railway lines and on-street running in various cities. The above map gives the various routes of Karlsruhe’s famous TramTrain network;Ai??Ai??largely in an area of comparable density […]

More Financial Woes For TransLink

Instead of doing what most other ‘rail‘ transit projects have done, offer compensation packages to affected merchants and residents along the construction route, TransLink did nothing and now has to pay the ‘piper’s price’. Not only will future awards drive up the RAV/Canada Line’s price tag, the legal costs alone will take money away from […]

‘AmfibusA?ai??i??ai??? gets tryout on the Clyde – You Think TransLink Will Order Some?

From the lighter side of transit, an amphibious bus. Maybe TransLink doesn’t need SeaBus anymore and will buy a fleet of Amphibious buses for a no transfer journey from the North Shore to Vancouver and no more worries about traffic gridlock at the tunnel or the Alex Fraser Bridge, just drive down a boat ramp […]

Of Transit, Funding, TramTrain, and a Sustainable Future.

Zwei first met Brendan Read in 1986, while traveling to Abbotsford on the BR Pacer unit that ran three return service to New Westminster each day during the Expo 86 Worlds Fair. It was during this trip that the idea of the “return of the interurban” was conceived. It was all there, track, vehicle(s), and […]

Commuters haven’t left their cars at home…yet (Surprise, Surprise!)

When one constructs a transit system so user-unfriendly that the vast majority of the public avoid it at all costs, can there be any surprise that the public will continue to avoid public transit, even during the Olympics with its many road closures? Early advertisements that there will be two hour waits at SkyTrain stations […]

"Their" Evergreen Project Gets Funding – Green light for Evergreen 3 – From Modern Railways

What should be of great interest to those supporting the reinstatement of a Vancouver to Chilliwack interurban, is the cost of refurbishing 80 km. of double track (160km. in total), plus 1 km. of new track is Ai??A?250 million or CAD $423.1 million. As the Fraser Valley interurban or TramTrain’s maximum speed would be 100 […]