The Trillium Line – The Template For Valley Rail and the E&N

Ottawa’s Trillium, often mistakenly called LRT by the media is actually a DMU operation, using existing railway right-of-ways. In fact, the Trillium Line is in no way connected to Ottawa’s troubled hybrid light metro/rail system. The Trillium Line is a single track, with three passing sidings on dedicated rights-of-way shared with Ottawa Central freight trains […]

Vested Interests

Vested interests: Reason for involvement in an undertaking or situation, especially an expectation of financial or other gain. Vested interests is the real reason for transit planning in metro Vancouver. It is also the reason why the SkyTrain Lobby is so powerful because they are the useful idiots of vested interests. Harsh words indeed. Despite […]

TramTrain – Success Ignored

Rail for the Valley’s goal is the reintroduction of a modern Vancouver to Chilliwack interurban service, using the former and still in use, BC Electric route. This route would provide good rail communication for Vancouver, Cloverdale, Langley, Abbotsford, the burgeoning communities of Vedder/Sardis and finally Chilliwack, with regularly scheduled regional rail service. 15 years ago […]

Expo Line Extension To Langley Bafflegab. Has The Cost Risen To $5 Billion?

The Daily Hive has become TransLink’s official mouthpiece and sadly the Daily Hive, knows very little about transit and even less about SkyTrain light metro. * It is my belief that this article, in part, is in response to this letter to the editor which appeared in the Langley Advance Times. The article below is […]

Where Metro Vancouver Went Wrong

Zwei has belonged to the Light Rail Transit Association since 1983 and I first learned about the LRTA while I lived in Nottingham England in 1974/75. I attended a free lecture in Nottingham about bringing trams back to the city, while I was waiting for my girlfriend who was attending night school at Nottingham University. […]

Rail For The Valley Knew

Well, Rail for the Valley has been sounding alarm bells on this issue for at least seven years, but we were mocked and then ignored by the powers that be.  From January 28,2022: The Mayor’s Council’s Delusions Of Grandeur in 2050 – Where Is The money? January 12, 2022: Troubles At TransLink? December 10, 2021: […]

Tram, Streetcar, LRT – Why The Confusion?

The big problem with light rail is that there are so many definitions that the public get confused. In Metro Vancouver, unscrupulous politicians, planners, and academics deliberately confuse light rail and what is called a streetcar. The article included is now seven years old or seven years and somewhat out of date, as what we […]

Letters

Letters From the Langley Advance Times Dear Editor, For over 12 years, Rail for the Valley has been advocating the reinstatement of the Vancouver to Chilliwack interurban service and in doing so, are being advised by professionals and engineers who have a sound knowledge of public transit systems and transportation modes. The following are pertinent […]

Premier Horgan’s FastFerry Redux!

  Before reading on, please remember this figure of $1.3 billion, as it represents an updated (2021) cost for Rail for the Valley’s Leewood Study, offering a three trains per hour per direction from Vancouver to Chilliwack. Doing the Rail for the Valley blog for the past 12 years has been an interesting experience and […]

It Is Time For The Return of Regional Passenger Rail In BC?

  Calls for a return of an interurban style rail passenger service from Vancouver to Chilliwack; the restoration of passenger service on the E&N; the reinstatement of a passenger service from Vancouver to Prince George;  for a Vernon to Kelowna passenger rail service and now folks in the Kootenay’s want a passenger rail service as […]