Will TransLink Overly Invest In Subways In Vancouver?

Interesting article from Toronto. In Germany in the 1960′s and 70′s many cities started building subways and replacing their surface tramways. The first noticeable change was that ridership dropped and for many, journey times increased. This was due to many more km. of tramway being abandoned compared to the very few km. of new subway [...]

Again, Switch Problems Stall SkyTrain! Come On TransLink, Enough Is Enough

Really, Translink can do much better. The claim that the switch is used 500 times a day excuse doesn’t hold water as there are literally hundred of transit systems around the world that have switches that are used 500 times a day or more, yet do not have the problems that are plaguing our aging [...]

Another suicide on SkyTrain

A touchy subject but it must be addressed. A medical emergency is TransLink speak for someone killed by a Skytrain, either by accident or suicide. In most cases some poor soul has decided to end their days by throwing themselves in front of a driverless SkyTrain. For those contemplating suicide, their twisted thinking is that [...]

Challenge Richard

SkyTrain’s Expo Line was built in 1985 and opened in time for Expo 86 with 20 stations connecting Waterfront Station in Vancouver and King George Station in Surrey. Between 1985 & 2012; One Hundred & Fifty One full service tramways have been built & opened worldwide, with another 56 under construction or approval. The full [...]

Does Translink’s wet leaf excuse hold water?

At first glance, TransLink’s excuse for SkyTrain going kaput last Saturday, may explain why the mini-metro stopped dead in its tracks. But there is a problem – SkyTrain is an unconventional railway, powered by Linear Induction Motors or LIM’s and there is no power transmitted to the wheels at all, thus no wheel slip. It [...]

SkyTrain Craps Out Again – So what Else Is new! (Updated)

For the third time this week, the SkyTrain Expo Line has shut down, first due to electrical problems; then for mechanical problems; and as I write this, the news on the radio claims that the Expo Line is closed for electrical and mechanical reasons – go figure. For those who claim that SkyTrain is more reliable [...]

Lies, damn lies, statistics and ART

From the “You’d better believe it” Department Although sometimes attributed to Mark Twain – because it appears in his posthumously-published Autobiography (1924) – this should more properly be ascribed to Disraeli, as indeed Twain took trouble to do: his exact words being, ‘The remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: “There [...]

Transit a hit-and-miss affair in B.C.’s Lower Mainland

Wendy Stueck Vancouver— Globe and Mail Update Published Friday, Mar. 25, 2011 11:00PM EDT http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/transit-a-hit-and-miss-affair-in-bcs-lower-mainland/article1957867/page2/ Shuttling sleekly between Richmond and downtown Vancouver, the $2-billion Canada Line has been a hit since it opened in 2009. But while the Canada Line whisks hundreds of passengers a day to their destinations, hundreds more huddle at bus stops [...]

Tales of Transit studies past – You'd be amazed at the hundreds of politicians manipulated over the last 30 years!

Since SkyTrain was forced onto the region, transit planning has been skewed to fit the expensive proprietary light-metro. Most recently, noted American transit specialist, Gerald Fox, found the business case for the Evergreen SkyTrain Line had, “several instances where the analysis had made assumptions that were inaccurate, or had been manipulated to make the case for [...]