Chilliwack passenger rail supporters: Volunteers, donations needed!
Rail For the Valley plans to be a major presence at Chilliwack's Party in the Park this summer, and we need volunteers.
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Will They Or Won’t They – The (N)Evergreen Line Debate and The 40,000 Person Question
Like a good soap opera, the Evergreen Line debate goes on.
Please let me repeat this for the benefit of TransLink, regional and provincial politicians and especially Ken Hardie LRT can obtain capacities in excess of 40,000 persons per hour per direction in revenue service on simple tram or streetcar lines!
Is the Evergreen Line off the rails?
Meeting to discuss funding options
Both the federal and provincial governments have already committed roughly $1 billion.
Last week Lower Mainland mayors met with Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom to talk about the possible ways to fill the funding gap. Those options include: raising property taxes, traffic tolls or vehicle levies.
The mayors are not too keen to hike property taxes, especially because municipal elections are coming up in November. They also say that homeowners are paying too much in taxes as it is.
Construction on the Evergreen Line was supposed to begin last year, but has been put on hold because of the funding issues. Lekstrom says he's optimistic that they can break ground on the project sometime this year.
The transit line has been in the works since 1986.
News Flash – SkyTrain down again
Here we go again. SkyTrain, as with all other automatic metros, has an Achilles heel – they stop working and more frequently as the metro ages. This is not a problem for light rail, as it is designed to operate when there are minor glitches.
But there is another problem with TransLink and its SkyTrain "transit backbone" theory, when all the bus routes that can, feed one SkyTrain line to downtown, when SkyTrain stops working, transit comes to a standstill and buses must be pirated from other routes (mush to the discomfort of more transit customers) to complete a bus bridge to keep a semblance of transit service running.
With LRT, because it is much cheaper, a network is much easier plan for and when a problem arises, trams an be switched onto another route to its destination with little time loss for transit customers.
With SkyTrain's aging infrastructure, "glitches" will happen more and more, greatly increasing the unreliability of a an automatic metro. With LRT, these sort of glitches are rare, because the signaling is more robust and easier to maintain, thus light rail's reliability as it ages is not a great issue.
SkyTrain's problems as it ages have been long predicted, yet the powers that be remain blind, deaf, and dumb on the subject.
From CKNW Radio
Skytrain Delays This Morning
Mike Bothwell
7/4/2011
Major delays on the Skytrain Expo Line this morning.
Translink's Drew Snider says Skytrain service into downtown from Commercial-Broadway came to a halt this morning, due to a technical glitch.
"We had a problem with the loop, with is the communication lifeline between the trains and the central control computer…and when that computer loses communication with the trains, it shuts things down for safety reasons."
Single-track service is running again to Burrard station, but buses will continue to shuttle commuters from commercial drive into the downtown core.
From CKWX Radio
Disruption on SkyTrain line
A technical glitch near Stadium SkyTrain Station
Technicians continue to work on the problem. All trains have been cleared from the westbound line and attempts are being made to get shuttle service running. For the time being, no trains are running between Commercial-Broadway and Waterfront Stations.
Canada Line is running normally and a bus bridge is moving passengers from Commercial-Broadway Station to Broadway-City Hall.
The Millennium Line is operating between VCC Clark and Sapperton Stations with a bus bridge connecting to Columbia Station.
Copenhagen to get light-rail network by 2020: transport ministry
LRT in Copenhagen
One welcomes the announcement that Copenhagen will have its first tram/LRT line built by 2020.
In several transit oriented blogs, much has been made that the Danish capital, Copenhagen, opted to have a driverless metro, instead of light rail. Automatic metro is the way of the future, was the clarion call by many people supporting light-metro instead of LRT. Upon closer investigation with those who were nearer to the situation revealed that, like Vancouver, automatic light-metro was supported by city fathers, who thought a metro brought a modern image to the city. The same arguments are used to defend SkyTrain light metro system here in Vancouver as well.
SkyTrain's adherents, supported by TransLink's ramping up construction costs for LRT, ignoring the much greater cost for an automatic metro, claimed light-metro was better than LRT because it was faster than light rail, cheaper to operate than light rail and didn't disrupt auto traffic. Sadly none of which is really true.
TransLink's game has always been to design LRT to be an inferior , etc. than SkyTrain.
Meanwhile back in Copenhagen, financial reality soon took hold as it was soon found that the shiny new metro did not attract the motorist from the car and to build a metro network that would offer an alternative to the car would be cost prohibitive. Sadly the same lesson still remains unlearned by the provincial government and TransLink, who continuing doing the same thing over and over again, each time expecting different and much happier results.
The following is what one gets with about the same amount of money for 'rail' transit investment in Copenhagen. (From the Traffic group Letbaner. dk)
- For the same cost of a metro, one can build up to six light rail lines.
- There is a possibility of private finance for LRT, but not for metro.
- Passenger capacity about the same for both modes.
- With LRT there is a 500 metre distance between stops, compared with 1 km. with a metro.
- The light rail system is 30% faster than the buses, but a metro is only 2% faster than LRT.
- With the full build LRT there will about 180 stops compared with only 16 for a metro.
- LRT has a six times better utilization of road space. but with a metro there is no change.
- A LRT system will take 20% to 25% cars off the road, where a metro will take only 1% of cars off the road,
- With LRT, there will be fewer cars and buses on the road, but with a metro, only fewer buses.
One hopes transit sanity will soon happen in the METRO region, but with 'Metro Madness' still in full swing in Vancouver and Victoria, we will get more and more SkyTrain only planning until the local taxpayer is bankrupted.
out &
Copenhagen to get light-rail network by 2020: transport ministry
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90777/90853/7425187.html
Denmark will build a light-rail connection around its capital Copenhagen by 2020, at a cost of 723 million U.S. dollars, the Ministry of Transport said Wednesday.
The 28-kilometer-long railway, which will also link some suburban municipalities, will allow rapid, mass transport of commuters around the city, and help reduce traffic congestion.
The project is estimated to cost 3.75 billion Danish kroner (around 723 million U.S. Dollars), with the Danish government contributing 1.5 billion Danish kroner (around 289 million U.S. Dollars), the ministry said in a press statement.
The rest will be paid for by the Capital Region of Denmark, which includes Copenhagen, and 11 suburban municipalities who have all agreed to the project, it added.
Transport Minister Hans Christian Schmidt said the light-rail would "secure a sensible and future-proofed alternative to the car on an otherwise very trafficked area."
The rail is expected to run along Ring 3, a densely-populated stretch of homes and old industrial areas.
In theory, commuters will be able to switch between the light-rail and other existing public transport infrastructure such as buses and overland trains.
Greater Copenhagen, with around 1.2 million inhabitants, is currently served by trains, underground metro rail and buses. Moreover, some 55 percent of the city's population commutes by bicycle everyday.
Detailed proposals:-
http://www.letbaner.dk/docs/Radiallinie-folder3.3-uk.pdf
and
http://orbit.dtu.dk/getResource?recordId=190793&objectId=1&versionId=1
virtual tram ride
By coincidence
Strange thing that, on the same day the RftV blog exposed certain connections with the TransLink board and Simon Fraser University, the TransLink Board pulled the plug of the Univercity cheap transit passes. One wonders if the same treatment will happen to the SFU aerial tramway as well?
TransLink pulls plug on UniverCity cut-rate pass
TransLink is ending its discounted transit pass program for residents of UniverCity on Burnaby Mountain at the end of this year.
Nearly 900 of the 3,000 residents pay $30 per month for three-zone fare passes under the program, compared to $151 per month for off-the-mountain residents.
The program will end on Dec. 31 and residents have until Jan. 15, 2012, to turn in their passes.
The Community Pass program, unique to UniverCity residents, started in 2006 to boost transit ridership and was largely subsidized by Vancity Financial during its first two years. Since 2008, the program has been jointly subsidized by publicly funded TransLink and the Simon Fraser University Community Trust.
TransLink justified its ongoing subsidies for the residentsai??i?? transit costs by saying Burnaby Mountain is fairly isolated and the cheap fares have helped to fill otherwise empty buses going up and down the mountain after dropping off and collecting students at Simon Fraser.
ai???Itai??i??s based on the fact youai??i??re using capacity that otherwise would be going to waste,ai??? TransLink spokesman Ken Hardie said.
But the TransLink board of directors decided on June 17 to put an end to the subsidization and to cancel the program. An earlier proposal to increase the monthly pass price over two stages, starting with an increase to $46 on Sept. 1, was dismissed.
ai???Recently, TransLink considered an option to increase the pass price in two stages but maintain a portion of the subsidy,ai??? Cathy McLay, CFO and vice-president of financial and corporate services at TransLink, wrote in a letter to residents.
ai???However, in a time when limited funding has made sustaining transit services a challenge, ongoing discounting of the Community Pass cannot be maintained.ai???
Gordon Harris, the trustai??i??s president and chief executive officer, said the trust understands TransLinkai??i??s decision to end the program.
ai???Itai??i??s pretty challenging to provide this kind of transit pass for a single community,ai??? he said.
He said the program had succeeded in its original goal to increase transit use among the mountainai??i??s residents ai??i?? approximately 40 per cent of residents use public transit ai??i?? which is about three times the average in Metro Vancouver.
He said that the community is disappointed by the decision but it should be ai???ready to go without the passai???.
ai???I think people recognize that theyai??i??re living in the larger region of Burnaby and that itai??i??s a community that has benefited a lot in the last five years,ai??? he said. ai???But that was just one of many different programs we launched to become a sustainable community, and now it can stand on its own and people can use transit like everyone else in the region.ai???
http://www.vancouversun.com/TransLink+pulls+plug+UniverCity+rate+pass/5009291/story.html
The Nevergreen Line saga continues
Mayor Trasolini adds his two cents worth in the Evergreen line debate. Nowhere in the letter does he admit that SkyTrain is just too expensive to build and/or that the SkyTrain light-metro system is a dated transit mode, made obsolete by much cheaper and just as effective light rail. Until regional and provincial politicians actually read a book about transit and transit mode, TransLink will stumble from one financial crisis to another.
Mayors’ hands are tied over transit funding
http://www.bclocalnews.com/tri_city_maple_ridge/tricitynews/opinion/letters/123952479.html
The Editor,
In light of MP James Mooreai??i??s admonition that Lower Mainland cities need to provide regional funding in support of the Evergreen Line, it is important to clarify a key fact.
When the provincial government restructured TransLink, it didnai??i??t give the regionai??i??s mayors the power to propose regional funding solutions. The act spells out very strict parameters regarding regional funding for transportation infrastructure.
The act also ties the mayorsai??i?? hands in that funding sources are very narrowly defined. The act includes a detailed approval process that severely limits the mayorsai??i?? role.
The province has given TransLink and a commissioner appointed by the province specific powers relative to the preparation of regional funding proposals (called supplement in the act). Once a supplement has been developed by TransLink and reviewed by the commissioner, only then can the mayors exercise their power to ai???approve or reject any supplement.ai???
Lower Mainland mayors have been given the burden to raise their hand in support of tax increases for regional transportation while bound in the straightjacket of ill-conceived legislation that gives them no influence over TransLinkai??i??s operations and the use of these funds.
Mayor Joe Trasolini, Port Moody
Cutting edge to the cutter’s torch.
What happens to old transportation technology?
It becomes less valuable than scrap!
The Birmingham airport MAGLEV was cutting edge transportation technology in 1984 (two years before the SkyTrain Expo Line opened) but by 1995 was scrapped as obsolete.
This is reminiscent of another cutting edge transportation technology more than a century ago, the atmospheric railway. Touted in the 1840's as a replacement for the new steam railway, a decade later it became but a bad memory for its promoters. The first practical use of the system was on the Dublin and Kingstown Railway's Dalkey Atmospheric Railway between Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire) and Dalkey, 
Ireland. This 1.75-mile (2.82 km) line was built by Vignoles and surprisingly operated between 1844 and 1854, only slightly shorter than the eleven year run of the Birmingham Airport MAGLEV. The few other atmospheric railways built barely lasted a year in operation.
The lesson to be learned in this sad tale is that today's 'state of the art' transit system is tomorrow's obsolete transit system, something that TransLink hasn't realized with the automatic proprietary SkyTrain light-metro system.
Birmingham Airport's MAGLEV carriage resold for £100
A magnetic carriage that transported people from Birmingham Airport to its railway station sold for just £100 after a £25,100 eBay bid was not paid.
The airport used a Magnetic Levitation (Maglev) line between 1984 and 1995 before replacing it with cable cars.
The Maglev carriage attracted 35 bids and was sold on the internet auction site eBay in November for £25,100.
The bidder defaulted but Andy Jones from Warwickshire snapped it up and is moving it to his home near Kenilworth.
Mr Jones said: "The Magnetic Levitation Line came out of use back in 1995 and was put to one side by the Birmingham Airport people and at the back end of last year they decided to sell it on eBay.
Maglev memories
"The bidding went up to £25,000 but whoever bought it the deal didn't go through so it went back on eBay again at the start of this year for Help the Heroes and a hospice.
"So I thought I would get things going by putting in an opening bid of £100 and nobody else bid for it.
"As a consequence I've got a five tonne train to get shifted into a field opposite my house and I've now got to find a suitable use for it."
He said he used to be a frequent flyer from Birmingham Airport and remembered riding on the Maglev.
He said: "As a British invention of its day I thought it was absolutely tremendous. It was the forefront of its technology and a high speed Maglev has just been opened up in Shanghai which I think is a direct development of what took place in the old days."
He plans to work with local companies to refurbish it and to install lighting and seating and said he wanted to hear from any groups who thought they could put it to good use.
Metro mayors pitch ideas to keep Evergreen Line from going off the rails
Looks like the regional mayors are trying to save face with the delay in building the Evergreen Line. How about just saying no.
Regional mayors should tell the Minister of Transportation and TransLink this: "If your government compels TransLink to plan and build with the proprietary SkyTrain light-metro system, then your government should pay the full cost of the obsolete SkyTrain light-metro system".
Really, the appalling ignorance shown by regional politicians about SkyTrain and regional transportation has cost the BC taxpayer literally billions of dollars and it is time that they just say no to further Skytrain development.
Metro mayors pitch ideas to keep Evergreen Line from going off the rails
By KELLY SINOSKI, Vancouver Sun
Translink and the Interurban
As most of you know, the latest transit proposals from Translink have once again neglected the Interurban. Something had to be said.
Here is my Letter to the Editor, now published in the Surrey Leader and other local papers.
Interurban gets rough ride from TransLink
TransLink’s proposed designs for transit expansion in Surrey are an exercise in behind-the-scenes manipulation.Ten designs are presented, and the public is led to believe that because there are so many options to choose from, TransLink must be listening.
In fact, TransLink has ignored one of the main tenets that experts around the world agree is crucial to building a cost-effective transit network: Utilize existing infrastructure where possible. For Surrey, this means the existing Interurban rail line.
The Interurban line has been the subject of extensive study. Years ago, TransLink itself studied using the corridor for a West Coast Express-style commuter rail system. That study found the corridor to be too narrow and too curvy to be feasible for that type of system. This is not at all surprising, since the Interurban line was originally intended with light rail in mind – the line was designed for small Interurbans, not huge WCE trains.
Since then, the line has been well researched, with numerous studies and technical analyses (viewable at www.railforthevalley.com/studies) all concluding the same thing – that the line has the ability to provide needed light rail for Surrey that is cost-effective and quick to implement.
Not only would Delta and Newton be served by the line, the Interurban would also connect Surrey with Cloverdale, Langley and beyond.
How long must Surrey wait? The Interurban is a valuable piece of the Surrey transit puzzle, but the provincially controlled TransLink continues to turn a blind eye to it, even in the face of expert opinion and the support of Mayor Dianne Watts.
For an organization still struggling to fund the Evergreen Line, now 20 years in the planning, and continuing to beg municipalities for more money, TransLink’s obtuseness on the Interurban is unforgivable.
http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/surreyleader/opinion/letters/124020899.html
SFU Gondola Update – Ah, the real story emerges
It seems there is interesting political connections with SFU and TransLink, with the gondola project. TransLink Board member, Howard Nemtin, President, Nemtin Consultants Ltd., is also a member of the The SFU Community Corporation board. Could it be that the Trust’s real estate development arm, UniverCity will use the gondola as a sales tool for their development on the mountain; of course paid for by the regional taxpayer through TransLinik?
Other coincidental connections on the SFU Corporation Board include TransLink Board Chair, Nancy Olewiler, who also is the Director of the School of Public Policy in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Simon Fraser University and a blast from the past, Jane Bird, who is famous for her obfuscation with the Canada Line debacle.
Let us not forget that TransLink subsidizes transit for over 900 Burnaby Mountain residents, with a “community transit pass that gives them unlimited access to the region’s buses and trains for just $30 a month, a perk that seems only to pertain to SFU and its environs.
http://www.railforthevalley.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=5907&action=edit
It seems like again we have foxes in the hen-house, when it comes to the planning for the SFU gondola project and one wonders if the fix is in for a now $120 million (up $50 million from the original $70 million) gondola to SFU.
http://www.univercity.ca/about_us/governance.101.html
http://www.translink.ca/en/About-TransLink/TransLink-Governance-and-Board/Board-of-Directors.aspx
Is the fix in for the SFU gondola?
SFU gondola plan raises concerns in Burnaby
http://www.straight.com/article-399509/vancouver/gondola-plan-raises-concerns-burnaby
The proposed $120-million Burnaby Mountain gondola project poses a dilemma for a group maintaining trails in the environmentally sensitive area.
According to Ron Burton, president of the Burnaby Mountain Biking Association, the construction and operation of a gondola system that would link the Production Way University SkyTrain station to Simon Fraser University could have serious ecological impacts.
They will have to cut and they could cut up Burnaby Mountain in order to put up the gondola and service the towers, Burton, whoa is also a Burnaby school trustee, told the Straight in a phone interview.
Burton pointed out that the gondola infrastructure would slice through the Burnaby Mountain Conservation Area, which includes wetlands, streams, and woods that serve as habitat to various wildlife.
However, Burton noted that the project appears to a make some economic and environmental sense.
According to material put out by TransLink, the gondola system could eliminate 35,000 to 55,000 hours of diesel bus operations going up and down Burnaby Mountain. The transportation authority also claims that the project would save up to two million hours of transit and car travel time by 2021.
Our position is a wait-and-see, Burton said, adding that his organization wants to see more details.
For residents of the Forest Grove community on the lower slopes of Burnaby Mountain, the time has come for action.
Resident Christian Rarinca, a spokesperson for the Citizens Opposing the Gondola, will address members of the Metro Vancouver regional planning committee in a meeting on Friday (June 17).
According to Rarinca, the gondola system would cut across the neighbourhood. They propose to have at rush hour a gondola leaving every 40 seconds, leaving from both sides of Production Way and SFU, which gives us an average of 20 seconds and a gondola will go over our heads, Rarinca told the Straight by phone. It really something that not only destroys the character of the neighbourhood but also it has no benefit for us. The gondola doesn’t stop at Forest Grove to take passengers.
COG’s prepared presentation to the Metro Vancouver planning committee also raises concerns about safety risks. A copy of the paper provided to the Straight by Rarinca states that the construction of towers for the gondola may affect pipelines operated by energy company Kinder Morgan, and this could lead to explosions.
The public has until June 30 to submit comments on the proposed gondola project. TransLink spokesperson Ken Hardie did not return calls from the Straight before deadline.
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