Transportation Gridlock is Endemic in Metro Vancouver

After driving into Vancouver yesterday, it has hit home that despite a now over $10 billion spent on SkyTrain light-metro and the Canada line, congestion is getting worse. After being an advocate for better transportation in the region for now over thirty years, I am still amazed by the “SkyTrain ennui” that prevails in most [...]

The French Approach to LRT Versus The American (Canadian) Approach

The following is well worth  read as it compares the French Approach to Modern LRT and the American and Canadian rather dated approach to the transit mode. French v US approach to light rail What we should plan for, instead of playing games with land development. MACRO (regional strategies) * (1) Ressau: (network) Design at [...]

Fire on SkyTrain – The $3 Billion Question

As SkyTrain ages, its equipment deteriorates and today, a fire has happened and apparently not caused by a pyrotechnic birds nest. As mentioned many times by Rail for the Valley, about $3 billion needs to be invested in the ART/ALRT SkyTrain lines to both renew the mini-metro system and to increase capacity. As TransLink’s CEO [...]

Boondoggle In The Making In Montreal

It seems Montreal taxpayers are being taken for a $9 billion Bombardier ride, with the proposed 67 km Montreal light metro project. The proposed Montreal LRT is not LRT at all, rather it is a light-metro, using the Bombardier Innovia body shell, using conventional ‘squirrel cage’ electric motors. Based on the cost of now over [...]

Is TransLink Hiding Subway Costs?

I wanted to post this item, not to show problems with London’s proposed BRT, rather that cost of tunneling had been vastly under estimated on the subway portion of this project. An excerpt from the London Free Press. City hall’s consultant, IBI Group, had dropped a bombshell on city officials that day: The tunnel’s construction [...]

Road Pricing -To Hide Transit Blunders In The past And Blunders Yet To Come

The major rule about “Road Pricing” or congestion charges and that is, one must have an affordable and user friendly transit system in place before road pricing will be accepted by the populace, if not, it is not going to happen. The Metro Vancouver region does not have, nor will have any time soon a [...]

SkyTrain Incidents – A Most Curious Article

Gregory (Scotland Yard detective): “Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?” Holmes: “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.” Gregory: “The dog did nothing in the night-time.” Holmes: “That was the curious incident.” It is interesting what is not reported. It seems, Postmedia did not report [...]

The Regional Mayor’s Pork Barrel Express

The provincial government is in turmoil and those who “Pay to Play” on the municipal scene are getting anxious, as billions in potential profits are being put on hold for the moment. The Metro Vancouver’s metro Mayors Ten Year Plan is nothing more than a skillfully drafted document that is designed to direct the flow [...]

Bombardier’s Blundering Is Alstom’s Gain

Recent problems with Bombardier’s delivery of new trams for Toronto has made Canadian customers look elsewhere. For two long, Ottawa has twisted arms of Canadian transit operators to buy the Canadian Bombardier product, to keep production going, propping up the giant multinational company and garnering votes from Ontario and Quebec. This is not to say [...]

A Novice’s Guide To Transit…………..

……… or cutting through the BS about light rail, SkyTrain and BRT. The following is a guide plus definitions about “rail” transit. ALM: Automatic Light metro, the fourth marketing name given for the SkyTrain family of light-metros, when Lavalin briefly owned SkyTrain before going bankrupt. ALRT (1): Advanced Light Rail Transit, the second marketing name for SkyTrain. ALRT [...]