In Toronto, a Major Victory for Light Rail

It was an $8.4 billion question that had simmered all year, but finally boiled over this week at Toronto City Hall during a no-holds-barred debate that may well determine the future of city’s transit expansion.* http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/02/toronto-major-victory-light-rail/1202/ For years, Toronto struggled to modernize and expand its transit system, which now carries about 500 million riders annually, [...]

Review of Light Rail/Tramway costs

A Federal Parliamentry Review of Light Rail/Tramway/Transit costs must be carried out!  Both Fang & Zwei have posted articles in the past weeks on the high costs of Canadian Light Rail, Tramway & Transit schemes. Vancouver, Toronto and Waterloo. Design, Utility relocation, Financing vehicles (ie P3) Project management, Construction management, Land purchase and now the concern that  Canadian [...]

What’s the Best Way To Get Users To Embrace Mass Transit?

Make it pleasant? Or make it efficient? An article in Slate magazine http://www.slate.com/articles/life/transport/2012/01/jarrett_walker_s_human_transit_are_we_thinking_about_urban_planning_all_wrong_.html Make it pleasant? Or make it efficient? by Tom Vanderbilt A few months ago, at an urban mobility conference in Frankfurt, the British consultant Charles Leadbeater presented a sort of x-y matrix for thinking about how to manage and design cities. The [...]

Transportation Planning – A North American view

An interesting extract from a commentary comparing current North American practice with European `In Vancouver, over a decade ago at the grand opening of the heritage streetcar project, a chap from Bombardier singled me out. What he said after a few niceties, astounded me. To paraphrase, he claimed that: Vancouver’s SkyTrain greatly retarded sales of Bombardier built [...]

The fictitious war on cars

Why the automobile is not — and has never been — endangered Jennifer Good — The Brock Press (Brock University) Canadian University Press http://cupwire.ca/articles/50669   Bike lanes don’t slit cars’ tires. There’s no war zone here. (Photo courtesy of Paul Krueger/Flickr Creative Commons.) ST. CATHARINES (CUP) — “The War On Cars.” It’s a slogan that I first [...]

Trams, Pedestrians & Bicycles + buses & cars in Amsterdam

Trams, bicycles, pedestrians also buses, motorcycles & cars happily co-existing in Amsterdam. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JeWED7Zilo Just to reassure  the  retarded  dingbats amongst Skyscraper,  Skytrain for Surrey, Translink &  Vancouver activists that it can be done  and that no one was killed or injured during the making of this video a Happy New Year to one & all…. the toast is `Shiney [...]

Christmas Greetings

Seasonal Trams & Christmas lights from: Budapest http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzLNouWQlWg&feature=youtu.be&hd=1 Vienna http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wixBopxlTUI Graz http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDANZba5Qxc&feature=related Munich http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXGVFcwE7C0&feature=related and the Budapest Christmas Tram !http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcEZvwMlKMs&feature=related

Toronto Meet Your New Ride

New Toronto Streetcars http://lrv.ttc.ca/  is the website from the TTC on the new streetcars. The Toronto Transportation Society’s December newsletter has some interesting thoughts on the vehicle as well as photos of the half mock-up. The first 80 cars will have both pole and pantograph with the remaining  (109 or 116 depending on the order) [...]

Light Rail runs in inclement weather

Trams and Streetcars "Stuttering & Crapping out" not a chance brother! As in the winter of 2010/2011 when Light Rail & Trams continued to run across Europe as well as in Calgary, despite heavy snow falls, when Skytrain ground to an ignominious halt, likewise recent floods in Europe & Australia haven't stopped the Trams! Montpellier, France [...]

Contrasting Canadian News Posts

Freedom takes Flexity to the North American tram market http://www.railwaygazette.com/index.php?id=44&no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=14068&cHash=3eea2ae186 NORTH AMERICA: Bombardier Transportation President & CEO André Navarri launched the ‘Flexity Freedom’ as the company's tram platform for North America at APTA Expo 2011 in New Orleans on October 4. The 100% low-floor car is a parallel development to the Flexity 2, launched in [...]