TransLink Did Not Bark?
In the Sherlock Holmes story Silver Blaze, by Sir Author Conan Doyle, Holmes was able to deduce that the killer of Colonel Ross's racehorse was the owner of the stable dog. As the fictional Holmes chronicler Dr. John Watson explains:
Colonel Ross still wore an expression which showed the poor opinion which he had formed of my companion's ability, but I saw by the inspector's face that his attention had been keenly aroused
"You consider that to be important?" he asked.
"Exceedingly so."
"Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"
"To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
"The dog did nothing in the night-time."
"That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes.
The only person at whom the stable dog would not bark warnings was the dog's owner. Hence, the dog's silence indicated that the only one who could have entered the stable and lamed the horse, was the dog's owner.
Since then, the metaphor of the "dog that didn't bark" characterizes the import of any conspicuous silence.
TransLink has been conspicuously silent with the Rail for the Valley Leewood Projects Fraser Valley Rail report and one wonders why?
For the first time in TransLink's short history a competitive regional transportation plan has been presented by a credible transportation expert, with emphasis on a variant of modern light rail – TramTrain, yet TransLink has remained silent.
Could it be that TransLink's highly paid bureaucrats think that the RftV/Leewood Report is a superior document and that bringing any attention to it will show how inept and dated their own 'house' product is? Are TransLink's transit planners so embarrassed by their inferior product that any mention of the competing transit plan may instill the notion that the taxpayer has paid ten years worth of taxes into TransLink for nothing?
Think about it; TransLink is demanding new taxes to fund new transit projects (read new taxes to fund the bureaucracy to plan and install those transit projects), yet RftV has provided, at no cost to the taxpayer, released a credible and affordable transit plan providing much more 'rail' route mileage than TransLink's product, at a far cheaper cost. A smart politician may start to ask questions such as; "Why do we need TransLink's expensive planning staff at all?"
TransLink's silence is telling, they are scared of the RftV/Leewood report.
The Evergreen Line – Will Finacial Reality Take Hold?
The problem with the Evergreen Line has always been about expense, what kind of bang will you get out of $1.4 Billion? Not much by all accounts and the lack lustre performance by the Canada Line is now sending financial shivers up TransLink’s spine as bureacratsAi??need oodles of property tax monies to subsidise the Evergreen Line because the ridership prospects are poor indeed.
Contrary to the hype and hoopla by the SkyTrain lobby about the Canada Line (which isn’t really SkyTrain at all), ridership is made up mainly of former bus riders, heavily subsidized students using U-Passes; pensioners using cheap concession tickets and YVR employees riding free on Sea Island, with many riding the line several times a day, inflating boarding numbers! The actual number of people using the Canada line amounts to just over 30,000 to 35,000 a day or about the same number of people that would be needed to justify a much cheaper, at least $1.5 billion cheaperAi??light rail line! Short trains and long headways give the illusion of overcrowding, sadly though there is no financial illusion and TransLink is now canceling rush hour buses that service South DeltaAi??and South SurreyAi??as the expected throngs of new ridership did not materialize.
Beware of those who keep repeating the mantra that the Canada line is a success. A lie repeated many times tends to be viewed as fact.
BC’s Transportation Minister, Shirley Bond, like her many predecessors, is absolutely clueless about public transit, transit modes, and just about everything else concerning regional transportation and the TransLink Board of experts, is nothing more than a bunch of amateurs who do not have the where to understand the concept of affordable public transportation, as they are nothing more than political toadies feeding off the public trough. This sad state of affairs has brought us a largely disfunctional public transit system, which far too expensive to operate and has done little in providing an attractive alternative to the car.
What to do; what must be done?
Let the Evergreen line die a natural death and at the same time, let TransLink follow the Evergreen line to the grave and start afresh. What the region needs is an independent review of ‘rail‘ transportation in the region and the role of public transit. For too long has the mini-metro system has been built to promote high rise densification along its routes and not providing an affordable public transit mode. Our transit modal is based solely on this densification mantra!Ai??Nowhere else in North America isAi??SkyTrain built for regional rail transportation; nowhere else is ‘rail‘ transportation built solely to inflate property values by allowing massive high rise style of densification!
Why does TransLink continue planning with expensive SkyTrain? Gerald Fox, American transit expert gives us a hint; “Vancouver will need to adopt lower-cost LRT in its lesser corridors, or limit theAi??extent ofAi??its rail system. And that makes some TransLink people very nervous.” Could it be that TransLink doesn’t want cheaper LRT or very much cheaper TramTrain, because they just do not have the expertise or the desire to buildAi??with cheaper light-rail? It seems with Translink, cou can’t teach an old dog new tricks and it is time to put it out of its misery.
Ai??
Editorial ai??i?? Time for second act
Arrogant, uninformed or disinterested? Which is it for Transportation Minister Shirley Bond, who is now blaming Metro Vancouver mayors for Evergreen Line delays and funding troubles?
Her ministry has complete control over the project and has known for more than a year that the mayors oppose using property taxes to fund it, and yet she and her government have failed to come up with any solutions more creative than simply extending the deadline for TransLink to ante up its share of the $1.4 billion project.
Sheai??i??s quick to criticize but she bears some responsibility for the current impasse. Why, for example, has there been no progress on the memorandum of agreement signed this fall by regional mayors and the ministry? That was supposed to be the forum in which to discuss alternative funding, such as taxing rising property values around SkyTrain stations or giving some carbon tax revenues to TransLink.
Instead, there is nothing on the table but property taxes. But that well has run dry. It would be better to initiate a vehicle levy ai??i?? which is also unpopular ai??i?? but at least it ties car use to transportation infrastructure. Where is Bondai??i??s commitment to providing a mechanism for collecting a vehicle levy? That was an olive branch that would have got the mayors to the table and solved the funding impasse.
The provincial government canai??i??t have it both ways. It created TransLink and decided a professional board and a mayorsai??i?? council were the way to balance regional politics with objective decision-making. If the province made sure it was funded adequately, there would be less criticism.
The province also ran roughshod over TransLink when it chose to build the Canada Line ahead of the Evergreen Line, which was a TransLink priority. It canai??i??t now simply throw in the towel and walk away.
Having hired the actors and written the play, itai??i??s time for Bond and the province to lift the curtain on the second act of the Evergreen Line.
ai??i??Tri-City News
(Black Press)
http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/langleytimes/opinion/111859519.html
From the Light Rail Transit Association – Mulhouse tram train ready
Mulhouse tram train ready : On December 12, 2010, ai???the first inter-connected tram-train of Franceai??? will enter into service. The public will be able to preview the new line from the afternoon Saturday 11th when there will be free travel on the trams, tram train and buses as far as Lutterbach on both the Saturday and Sunday.
The tram-train provides a third tram line in the city and connects Mulhouse railway station to Lutterbach.
10 December
The Mulhouse TramTrain new route, via a lawned rights-of-way and bicycle route, from the railway main line to the city centre.
Victoria City Council Backs Light Rail
Unlike Vancouver City Council, Victoria City Council is not afraid to say the word Light Rail. In Europe, modern trams have proven affordable to operate in smaller towns and cities, while at the same time bringing the benefits of modern public transit that has made the mode so successful.
A TramTrain service, using the E&N route could connect directly to the proposed LRT lines, providing even greater benefits for those wishing for an alternative way to commute or travel to the downtown.
Having BC Transit doing the planning is worrisome though, as BC Transit has been hostile to LRT in the past and with their anti-light rail cousins on the other side of the pond (TransLink) to advise them bode ill for honest planning.
Rail for the Valley suggests hiring an independant consultant with up to date knowledge on modern LRT and TramTrain to do proper transit planning and just leave the construction of LRT up to BC Transit. Dare we suggest Leewood Projects in the UK as a contender for such a task…………………..
A Tram for All Seasons
Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer
Praise for our ice-beating tram staff from the people of Croydon
Tramlink avoided cancellations, lengthy delays and the avalanche of criticism which, rightly or wrongly, fell on those in charge of the borough’s roads and train lines.
The service received dozens of e-mails thanking staff for their commitment and determination, with one passenger, Shirley Thring, nearly “moved to tears”.
http://www.thisiscroydontoday.co.uk/news/Undefined-Headline/article-2985211-detail/article.html
From Croydon, Basle, Brussels, Budapest, Den Haag, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt & Hanover toAi??Helsinki, Ai??Manchester, Moscow, Nottingham, Paris, Portland, Stockholm, Toronto, Warsaw & Zurich. Light Rail & Tram systems in Europe & North AmericaAi??Ai??have been running faultlessly in the recent arctic conditions, unlike Vancouver’s Canada Line which embarrasingly failed on November 25th after only 10cm of snow fell.
The following image was taken yesterday in Finland’s capital Helsinki.
“… the weather’s bad, the roads are blocked and only the Trams are running….”
TransLink Stuff and Nonsense!
It seems that the regional mayors got tired of Langley City Mayor Fassbender support for the Evergreen line and changed the Chair ofAi??the Metro Vancouver Mayorsai??i?? Council on Transportation and voted District of North Vancouver Mayor Richard Walton as the new chair. No real change, as the Metro Vancouver Mayorsai??i?? Council on Transportation is as about as influential as a wet squib.
http://www.theprovince.com/news/Leadership+changes+TransLink+oversight+board/3954600/story.html
Until regional mayors understand the building new metro lines on routes that do not have the ridership to sustain them will require new taxes which translate into new and more onerous taxes.
The Georgia Straight has a story which confirms that the hype and hoopla from TransLink on the year and a half old Canada Line isn’t whatAi??it seems to be.Ai??TransLink has announced that the South Delta 602 & 603 buses (formerly BRT to downtown Vancouver) did not attract any new ridership and are now cut back to pre RAV days frequencies (about every 30 minutes). Zwei predicted this would happen almost a decade ago!
Also in the Straight are two other interesting items about transit. Simon Fraser University Proffessor Nancy Olewiler has been selected to the Translink Board of Ameteurs, and one doubts very much she 
knows her TramTrain from a PCC! The TransLink Board is nothing more than a huge Liberal pork barrel, for already over paid Liberal cronies to gorge on. The Proffessor of Ecconomics label may look nice but in reality just another passenger on the TransLink Ship of Fools.
http://www.straight.com/article-363943/vancouver/sfu-economics-prof-chair-translink-board
And now from TransLink’s other ‘pork barrel’, TransLink have given Cubit Industries the $180 million Smart Card and Turnstile contract. No surprize there! Funny though that former City of Vancouver City Manager (during Premier Campbell’s time as mayor); former TransLink Chair (Appointed by newly elected Premier Campbell) and now Lobbiest,Ai??Ken Dobell, was also the chief lobbiest for Cubit Industries steering them to the right people. In BC, you get what you pay for!
How would Montreal’s tramways have fared in this week’s snow storm?
How would tramways have fared in this week’s Montreal snowstorm?
By Andy Riga
Whenever the topic of returning tramways to Montreal streets comes up, someone mentions our city’s rough winters.
The issue came up a couple of weeks ago when IAi??wrote abouta Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal study (PDF here). At a press conference about the study, Board of Trade chief executive Michel Leblanc questioned whether streetcars are a good idea for Montreal, considering the snow, ice and cold weather we get.
That story prompted readerAi??Avrom Shtern, the transportation spokesperson at the GreenAi??Coalition,Ai??to write to me.Ai??
“What planet are they from?Ai??All too often, I see reports by high-priced consultants who would like us to believe that they know what they are talking about.
The Montreal Board of Trade study discredits itself by saying that streetcars & related light rail may not be suited to Montreal’s winters.
They have ignored history…Ai?? Montreal’s tramways had operated in the harshest of conditions and were much more reliable in snow and ice than buses, (that incidentally were unavailable in [the Nov. 26] Montreal morning rush hour because of a little bit of freezing drizzle… )”
I asked Shtern to write something in more detail about streetcars in winter.
Here it is:
The Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal discredits itself by saying that streetcars and related light rail may not be suited to Montreal’s Winters.
They have ignored history… Ai??Montreal’s tramways had operated in the harshest of conditions and were much more reliable in snow and ice than busses. Ai??Ai??
Opponents of tramways often repeat the fallacy that streetcars are not suited in winter cities because snow, ice, freezing rain, slush, wind, condensation, etc., can be a problem and can impact on the reliability of operations.
Winter conditions are a challenge in the Snow Belt for all forms of transport butAi??electric trains can and have run in the snow as long as transit management worries about the consequences of shutting down the system.
The AMT’s electric Deux Montagnes commuter line was the last train standing/operating during the 1998 IceAi??Storm. Although it is a heavy rail commuter line it is typical of electric traction systems that are able to sustain operations during winter storms unless the overhead conductor fails.
Quite often, modern transit operators do not want to cope. This recently happened when STM buses did not show up because of a little bit of freezing drizzle and ice on the roads.
According to railway and mass transit expert Ai??Edson Tennyson:Ai??
“…about 1942, a big snow storm caught [Pittsburgh’s streetcar system ] off guard. Car house personnel had gotten fat, happy and careless soAi?? the snow sweepers in the back of the barn were hemmed in by bad order cars. Many sweepers had not been serviced for years and were not working reliably.” But this is a result of bad management not the inherent value of streetcar service. Ai??
Tennyson adds: “Electric traction can work well in snow. In 1949-’51 I worked in Milwaukee on the Rapid Transit. It ALWAYS ran in the ice and snow. Ice on the wire did cause trouble. The motormen had to get out and bang the trolley pole on the wire to knock the ice off but they eventually got where they were going. There were days that nothing moved in Milwaukee but electric traction.
“Some of the motormen, expecting a big storm would sleep in the cars at night so they would be there on time for their run. Shaker Heights Rapid Transit [Cleveland, OH] was more sophisticated.Ai??They sent the Line Car, [Catenary Car], out with two men on the roof with baseball bats. They banged away at the live wire as the car moved slowly Ai??to get the ice off. Ai??Line Cars had wooden roofs and the men had rubber gloves and boots. Deep snow was ploughed.”Ai??
Hydro Quebec now has a melting techniqueAi?? that heats the conductor.
Years past, motorists would switch over to streetcars and trains during winter storms. Many urban electric traction railways added service during stormy periods to carry the “Snow Bird” motorists. The intrinsic efficiencies of the streetcar in snowy conditions is well known in winter cities that host tramway networks such as:
Helsinki, Finland, St. Petersburg Russia, Moscow, Russia, Oslo, Norway, Geneva, Switzerland, Basle, Bern and ZA?rich Switzerland, Gdansk, Poland, (Danzig),Ai??Ulan Bator, Mongolia, Minsk, Belarus, and P’yAi??A?ngyang, North Korea.
P’yAi??A?ngyang has a hard time running the system because of financial difficulties, not because of winter snow. Likewise, Moscow and the new Toronto mayoral administration are currently hostile towards the tramway because of ideology that favours the car above else.Ai??Ai??Ai??
St. Petersburg, Zurich and Helsinki have extensive systems.
The Helsinki tram network is one of the oldest electrified tram networks in the world.
St. Petersburg, Russia claims to be the most extensive network in the world.
Winter cities like Milwaukee, WI, Burlington, VT and Montreal also had streetcar systems which did not cease operations during stormy conditions.
The streetcar has also gotten a bad reputation regarding street congestion.
Buses hinder traffic flow more than the streetcar, as more are required to carry the same passenger load. Below is an image accounting a winter mess associated with articulated buses in Ottawa in 2005. The image below was taken by Harry Gow of Friends of the O-Train.
The following link is to:a photo of one of STM’s predecessor Montreal Street Railway’s snow sweepers.Ai??
this YouTube video of a tramway in snow in Oslo, is on the Projet MontrAi??al Facebook page:
Ai??
The Vancouver Sun Again Embarrasses Itself With a Pro SkyTrain – Pro TransLink Editorial!
In one of the most self serving pro-TransLink, pro-SkyTrain editorials yet, the Vancouver Sun printed a "puff' editorial authored by former Premier Mike Harcourt, who championed the Canada Line, and Dale Parker, Chair of TransLink, whose planning bureaucrats still squander millions of dollars on unachievable metro plans. The aim of the editorial, of course is to try to embarrass the regional mayors to get onside with more tax monies so TransLink can squander millions more on 'pie in the sky' transit planning.
According to Harcourt (please remember this is the chap who built a house on a cliff and with a complete lack of foresight built a sundeck on the cliff without a railing and promptly slipped off and almost killed himself) the Canada Line is a great success and we live in the "…….world’s most livable region……..". Me thinks Mr. Harcourt still suffers from his most avoidable accident.
The Canada Line, a $2.5 billion plus truncated metro line carries less than 40,000 actual riders (some estimates could be as low as 30,000) a day, with many riders traveling free, such as the YVR workers who park at the massive employee parking lots on the periphery of the airport and travel free on the Canada Line (all travel on the Canada Line is free on Sea Island) to complete their journey to work! U-Pass enabled students are using the Canada line multiple times a day, which like a ponzi scheme, drives up the number of boardings, while at the same time not adding new actual ridership.
In South Delta, TransLink is cutting back on rush hour buses because transit customers did not flock to the new metro and former transit customers, who used to have a direct service to Vancouver but now are forced to transfer to the Canada Line, are slowly returning to the car.
If this is the great success as espoused by Harcourt, then please, we can't afford any more TransLink success.
The financial problem facing TransLink is simple: Three decades of planning for the extremely expensive SkyTrain light-metro has blinkered transit planners at TransLink to plan for only SkyTrain. Much cheaper light rail has been rejected outright with a litany of invented excuses, which boarder on being out right lies. TransLink's inbred and self serving SkyTrain light-metro doctrine rejects light rail and treats it as a poorman's SkyTrain, despite the fact the modern LRT is the predominant urban 'rail' transit mode in the world, while at the same, the same planning mandarins quietly plan for massive new highway expansion because SkyTrain is just too expensive to extend into regions where new transit is so desperately needed.
No thanks Mr. Harcourt and Mr. Parker, your sordid spin is not believed. TransLink has utterly failed in providing an affordable and efficient transit system for the region. Planning for affordable transit options such as the Rail for the Valley/Leewood Report TramTrain for the Fraser Valley is rejected outright. TransLink is built on a foundation of moral and financial quicksand. Regional mayors are quite right in rejecting increasing property taxes to pay for more expensive TransLink bureaucrats needed to plan for more costly and largely unaffordable metro projects in Vancouver, which in turn will require even more tax increases in the future to fund.
Gerald Fox, an American transit expert concisely sums up TransLink's financial woes; "……Vancouver will need to adopt lower-cost LRT in its lesser corridors, or else limit the extent of its rail system. And that seems to make some TransLink people very nervous."
TransLink's planning just goes around in expensive circles, achieving very little.
Opportunity for Metro Vancouver transit foundation is now
Rail for the Valley simply makes sense
Rail for the Valley simply makes sense
THE TIMES DECEMBER 7, 2010
Editor, the Times:
While local mayors bicker with TransLink over the funding of yet another grossly expensive metro line for the region, Rail for the Valley, in association with Leewood Projects in the UK, have provided the region with a far cheaper alternative; a TramTrain transit plan for the South Fraser region. The 84 page RftV/Leewood report found that a basic service (three trains an hour each direction), 98 km Scott Road Station to Chilliwack LRT TramTrain could be implemented for as little as $492 million, while a full build, 138 km Vancouver/Richmond to Rosedale service could be had for as little as $998.5 million. Compare this with the $1.4 billion, 11 km Evergreen line. The RftV/Leewood Report has been very well received overseas, with articles on the Valley Interurban in Railway Strategies and the internationally acclaimed Tramways & Urban Transit, yet locally, this very important study has been all but ignored.
TransLink has treated the RftV/Leewood Report with disdain as they continue to plan for multi billion dollar metro lines that the taxpayer just can’t afford.
For the cost of the 11 km $1.4 billion Evergreen SkyTrain mini-metro, we could build 138 km of TramTrain From Vancouver, past Chilliwack to Rosedale and have enough money left over to build a 50 km Vancouver to Maple Ridge TramTrain service. Who builds with SkyTrain today? No one, yet over 20 cities, including Paris are building and or extending TramTrain lines.
In an age of global warming and peak oil, is it not best to get the biggest bang for your transit buck?
Malcolm Johnston,
Delta
Ai??Ai?? Copyright (c) Abbotsford Times
via Rail for the Valley simply makes sense.
Good News Story
Croydon residents praise Tramlink heroes for keeping service running through snow
Croydon Guardian http://www.croydonguardian.co.uk/news/8721876.Residents_praise_Tramlink_/
As trains were cancelled throughout last week and buses struggled to get around due to icy roads, Croydonai??i??s Tramlink managed to run a regular service.
A heroic effort from the Tramlink team mean the service was, at times, the only reliable public transport operating in the borough. The trams usually carry an average of 89,000 people a day, during the worst of the snow fall, this rose to 108,000 residents.
Dedicated staff put in hours of overtime, managers and admin staff trekked to Croydon from Central London and set to work shovelling snow off platforms and gritting them to keep them ice free, as well as clearing fallen tree branches and snow from the tracks.
Tramlink ran ghost trams throughout the night to keep the rails clear and when tram drivers were unable to get to work, their colleagues worked overtime and ticket inspectors – who are also trained drivers – volunteered to help.
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