A Message To Mr. Horgan & Mr. Weaver: A Train Waiting for You At The Station
The election is over and now there is a good possibility of a NDP/Green coalition government. Rail For The Valley has a message for Mr. Horgan and Mr. Weaver, The Vancouver to Chilliwack TramTrain is waiting at the station for you to board. There is a plan in place, which has received international recognition. [...]
An Election come And Gone
Just brief notes on the election or deciphering the entrails before they get cold. It seems the SkyTrain/TransLink curse has now caused the Liberal Minister responsible for TransLink, Peter Fassbender to lose his seat. Regional transportation has been made the “kiss of death” for politicians by successive NDP and Liberal governments and combined with weak [...]
The NDP Support “Rail” Transit for the Fraser Valley
Well it tool seven long years for this as it is the first time any of the mainstream political parties have even acknowledged the need for a passenger/commuter rail service for the Fraser Valley. The main contender? Rail for the Valley’s Leewood Study provides the the fasted and most affordable service and must be considered [...]
A letter sent to Surrey Council – LRT in Surrey Part 1.
From the usual suspect, long time LRT and tram advocate Malcolm Johnston. What has been forgotten by most, is the historical context for our light metro system has been lost, due to political, bureaucratic and academic intrigue. The illustrations have been removed for brevity. Dear Mayor and Council; My name is Malcolm Johnston and [...]
Tram-trains on test in Sheffield
TramTrain operation is expanding at a good pace in Europe, where the economy and customer friendliness of the mode is now established. Is it not time our politicians, planners and especially BC Transit and TransLink have a look at the mode? I find it disturbing that TransLink is so ready to foist an European road [...]
More Highways On the Horizon
New highways always bring the so called experts into the fray. The problem is; we don’t have any, rather the region has a hodge podge of academics, planners and engineers calling themselves experts and the result is what is happening now. The real problem is this; the population is growing at a huge pace in [...]
Transportation planning has become a bullshit field
Interesting article on Toronto’s transit scene which mirrors Vancouver’s. In Vancouver, decades of bad planning, based on up-zoning properties adjacent to SkyTrain Lines to obtain higher densities, which benefits the “condo kings” and land speculators more than transit customers has lead to a litany of unintended consequences. One of those unintended consequences has brought a [...]
Light Rail Denial And TransLink
There seems to be a general naivete about Light Rail or LRT in the media, due in part to TransLink’s war on LRT, with their well advertised preference for light-metro. Today, except for “niche transit” solutions, public transport is divided into three modes, bus, tram, and metro; with each mode built to economically deal with [...]
The Return Of The Branch Line – Can You Say E&N, RftV?
Most railway enthusiasts in the UK treat Beeching as a leper. In fact, Beeching predicted the end of local railways altogether, leaving the UK with just three or four trunk lines, connecting major cities by the 21st century. This is not to argue that rationalization should not have taken place, but to tear up the [...]
Tram Trains for Hungary!
TramTrain, one of the fasted growing transit sectors in the world and why not; extending public transit cheaply by using existing infrastructure is a win, win situation. The cost of of a 25.3 km of route including 3.3 km of new single track line is CAD $62 million! The cost of the eight Electro-diesel trains [...]
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