The $100 Question – Will Transit Ridership Return?

The Covid-19 pandemic has transit planners worrying about future operations, especially in Vancouver. Despite TransLink’s claims that…… “The agency is projecting ridership to be at 80 to 90 per cent of pre-pandemic capacity by next year” ………. privately, some insiders are predicting that transit may reach pre-covid levels in ridership in a decade! Why so. [...]

The NDP Are paving Paradise And Turning It Into A Parking Lot – Part 2

Reinstating passenger services on regional railways, it is what government should be doing, to deal with traffic congestion and pollution, but they are not, as government would rather spend money on prestigious “rapid transit” monuments to cut for photo-ops at election time. The E&N, the RftV TramTain from Vancouver to Chilliwack; and the Okanagan corridor [...]

The NDP – Blacktopping Its Way Out Of Congestion

The NDP government is going to try to blacktop its way out of congestion despite the fact that added road space only attracts more vehicles, thus adding to congestion and gridlock at choke points. You cannot blacktop your way out of congestion! The updated cost for the the full build Leewood Study is now $1,5 [...]

Funding – How to restore Passenger Rail

The UK, as well as many European countries, are reopening long abandoned rail routes for passenger service. The lesson is simple, if you want to attract the motorist from the car, you must develop a user friendly alternative. The railway is a proven user friendly alternative to the car. In BC, politicians have not learned [...]

Have We Crossed The Rubicon, With Regional Transit Planning?

According to Suetonius, Caesar uttered the famous phrase ālea iacta est (“the die has been cast”). The phrase “crossing the Rubicon” has survived to refer to any individual or group committing itself irrevocably to a risky or revolutionary course of action, similar to the modern phrase “passing the point of no return” In the late [...]

If the UK is Reinstating former Passenger Routes, Why Can’t We?

Really, $4.6 billion to build 12.8 km of light-metro is an awful lot of money for so small increase in a rail route; 5.8 km to extend the Millennium Line in Vancouver and 7 km in Surrey. By comparison, $1.5 billion would provide a 130 km Vancouver to Chilliwack service, with three trains per hour [...]

Toronto’s ‘SkyTrain’ Is Not Going Softly In The Night

The end of ‘SkyTrain’ service in Toronto is nearing and it seems the subway replacement is now treading on financial thin ice. LRT is the big bogey man of both light and heavy metro supporters, simply because LRT has proven far more economic to operate than light metro and can economically cater to loads at [...]

Sorry City of Vancouver, Movia Automatic Light Metro is the Brand Name…….

……..Of What We Call SkyTrain And It Is A Proprietary Light Metro! Get Over It! Mr. Burgess brought up a interesting point, the city of Vancouver claims that SkyTrain is not proprietary and SkyTrain is the “brand” name. Really? Really, really? The term SkyTrain is used on a lot of elevated transit systems, notably Vancouver [...]

Old News, But Where Is The Funding?

Thanks to Mr. Cow, Rail for the Valley knew about this over five years ago. RftV knew that the current Edmonds yard was near capacity and a new yard had to be built to accommodate the new cars as far back as 2016. Couple of items ignored with this story, which is nothing more than [...]

Zwei’s Road Trip To The Future

  During this Covid-19 emergency, getting housebound is just collateral damage, so Zwei fired up the family chariot and went on a road trip through south Surrey, Langley, Huntington, Yarrow, Vedder Crossing, and Chillwack/Rosedale and was astounded by the mass of development, especially in the Vedder, Promontory areas. Any politician today, who states or claims [...]