50 Years Out of Date
Memo to the Caisse du Depot: REM is a light metro and light metro is obsolete. Automatic (driverless) railways have issues in the snow.
It snows in Montreal, doesn’t it?
What Vancouver calls SkyTrain is a light-metro and it was deemed obsolete back in the late 70’s and why it was unsalable. Six marketing names and four owners, with only seven systems sold in almost 50 years tells the tale. Too bad the Caisse failed to recognize this salient fact, but greed and good luck with Vancouver’s Canada Line, which is a conventional heavy-rail metro built as a light-metro, combined with some very questionable political interference in Victoria, cause them to believe that they could sell light-metro abroad.
Why would a transportation authority invest in light-metro, when a conventional heavy-rail metro could be built for the same price and carry a lot more customers, with cheaper operating costs.
Again, why would a transit authority build with light metro when a tram/LRT system could be built, costing much less, but offering a lot more advantages, including higher capacities than an automatic light metro.
The above graph avoids the name light-metro and instead uses “elevated LRT” which is a light-metro. There is a reluctance to use the term light-metro in Canada simply because the mode is obsolete, something the Caisse should have known.
As well, light-metro, operating in a subway is in fact a subway, but with much less capacity than operating heavy-rail subway trains.
The Caisse du Depot just learned a very hard lesson, bankers are not transit experts, sadly is the the lesson that politicians never learn.
Plans to sell REM trains to the U.S. have been scrapped, Caisse says La Presse Canadienne, 2025 2:21 PM Construction at the REM station at Sources Blvd. in Dollard-des-Ormeaux May 6, 2025.
Construction at the REM station at Sources Blvd. in Dollard-des-Ormeaux May 6, 2025. Dave Sidaway Montreal Gazette After dreaming of exporting its REM light automated rail service to the United States, the CEO of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec told a legislative committee on Tuesday the idea had been scrapped.
Charles Emond told Liberal MNA Frédéric Beauchemin that the context in which the pension fund had several conversations in 2018 about exporting the service had changed. “I have no intention of exporting the model to the United States in the same way it was discussed at the time,” Emond said. “All of the team is concentrated on delivering the project (the REM expansion in Montreal) in its entirety.” Emond justified the change in policy by noting that “charity begins at home.” His comments come as the existing REM service between Brossard and Central Station continues to be interrupted because of what operators describe as “technical issues” or, in some cases, winter weather.
Meanwhile, the Caisse defended its investments and operations in India in the wake of what the Liberal opposition is describing as a “scandal.” The Caisse invested US$470 million in Azure Power Global, an India-based solar energy company that is now worth no more than US$100 million. The company is at the centre of an alleged bribery scheme. Emond said Quebecers “should not be worried,” saying the incident was an isolated case.
Read more at: https://www.montrealgazette.com/business/article919218.html#storylink=cpy
Tampere, Finland – One Of The Best Modern Systems
The Tampere light rail (Finnish: Tampereen raitiotie), branded as Tampere Tram (Finnish: Tampereen Ratikka), is a public transport system in Tampere, Finland. In November 2016, the Tampere city council approved plans to construct a 330-million-euro (CAD $516 million in 2016 dollars or CAD $660 million in 2025 dollars), 24 km light rail system on the route from the city centre to Hervanta and to the Tampere University Hospital. Traffic on the first two lines of the route (lines 1 and 3) began on 9 August 2021.
Interesting to note the system cost CAD $27.5 million/km to build in 2025 dollars or put another way, the cost of the Tampere Tramway cost less to build than on kilometre of the Broadway subway!
https://youtu.be/vFCy6UsUz7M?si=vic9eEblrkro-xW2
Tram Trains for Romania!
The flexibility of the modern tram to operate on mainline railways is now being exploited in Romania.
This means affordable, quality public transport can be extended to service customers, who would otherwise be excluded from transportation planning.
Until our politcans and public clearly understand that building subways and elevated transit is not how to increase a transportation’s user-friendliness (translates to ridership), rather affordable options, such as TramTrain, serving remote destinations at a far cheaper cost, will attract far more new ridership to transit.
It is time to stop building transit to win elections and build transit to move people!
From the Light Rail Transit Association.
Oradea (population 184,000), a city in Romania which has a smallish tramway system has plans to extend this into a tram-train project.
This will involve using bi-mode and tri-mode vehicles capable of operation on the urban tramway using 600 V dc, the state railway system which uses 25Kv ac and there will be some sections unwired on which battery operation will be used.
Publicity states that there will be 11 vehicles but as this is split into 8 bi-mode and 5 tri-mode it will probably be 13!
An Independent Audit Of TransLink Needed – NOW!
What TransLink wants, TransLink gets as fiscal responsibility is not in TransLink’s lexicon. Public scrutiny of TransLink is non existent. The Mayor’s Council On Transit invests in Transit to secure future elections and reelections and the public is left with a largely 1950’s bus system, tarted up with a now obsolete 1970’s light-metro system.
Positive photo-ops and well practiced 10 second sound bytes for the evening news is more important than providing a user and a taxpayer friendly transit service.
What is telling, mode share for transit in the Metro Vancouver region has stagnated for a quarter of a century, as new ridership comes strictly from population increase.
TransLink is building a now almost $4 billion, 5.7 km subway under Broadway to cater to traffic flows of just over 2,000 pphpd from customers using the Broadway B-99 bus!
TransLink turned a $1.63 billion light rail project in Surrey to a $7 billion, 16 km SkyTrain project on a route that will carry fewer customers than the Broadway B-99 bus!
TransLink is spending $16 billion to extend the Expo and Millennium Lines a mere 21.7km!
There is something radically wrong with Metro Vancouver’s transit system, yet the NDP’s only solution is to raise taxes and fares and throw more money after bad at the system, ever hoping that the transit system will improve.
Taxpayers demand an independent audit of TransLink governance, planning and operation and independent means done by someone outside the BC and SNC Lavalin’s sphere of influence.
Is the Metro Vancouver taxpayer getting good value from money spent on transit?
The transit customer and the taxpayer deserve much better from Premier Eby’s NDP government!
Metro Vancouver’s TransLink plans fare and tax hikes for better service
By The Canadian Press
Posted April 10, 2025
TransLink is proposing a plan to improve its services, ease overcrowding, and finish projects, but it will involve a fare hike and a tax increase for Metro Vancouver residents.
The B.C. government announced Thursday that it would provide $312 million in operating funding to the Metro Vancouver transit operator over the next three years if the rest of its investment plan is approved.
The plan would allow for several improvements, including more service on up to 50 bus routes, extending the North Shore’s rapid bus, and adding West Coast Express train cars.
But it would also mean a five per cent fare increase in July 2026, followed by annual two per cent increases, and there would be another $1.50 added to the current fee to go the airport, along with a 0.5 cent property tax increase, equal to about $20 for a median household.
Denis Agar, executive director of Movement: Metro Vancouver Transit Riders, says Thursday’s funding announcement is a huge sigh of relief for commuters.
“We generated over 3,000 emails to mayors and 3,000 emails to MLAs,” Agar said.
“So we think they heard loud and clear that riders want to prevent cuts and they actually want more service. And it looks like that’s what we got.”
He says he hopes TransLink will use this momentum to come up with a permanent solution to their financial issues.
“This is a three-year plan, that’s when the funding expires, and it doesn’t address some really serious problems that are still left in the system,” he said.
“So we’re challenging the mayors in the province to come up with a new plan in just one year.”
Agar notes the plan doesn’t fund the long-awaited SkyTrain extension to UBC or the gondola up to SFU.
A public consultation process is being held on the plan with comments accepted until April 24. A vote by both the Mayors’ Council and the TransLink Board is expected on April 30.
TransLink provides 5.5 million service hours every year, operating commuter trains and the SeaBus, as well as trolley and regular buses, but has said it faced a shortfall of $600 million per year.
Transportation Minister Mike Farnworth says they know that TransLink is facing a significant deficit as costs and demand for services increase, and the provincial funding will allow for both stable service and for expansion.
The B.C. money is in addition to $1.5 billion over 10 years that the federal government announced for the network in March.
— With files from Srushti Gangdev
Court Case? What Court Case?
The following comment from Mr.Cow has raised eyebrows.
“By the way it’s not 205 Mk 5 Cars, its 41, 5 section vehicles, at approximately 17.63 Million per 5 section vehicle. With entirely new sub systems not the longer versions of the Mk 3 trains with similar equipment that the BCRTC thought it was getting. You see guys, Bombardier promised the Mk 5 wouldn’t be filled with new tech. They changed the designs and brought in new systems, all before their surface transportation group was sold off. This is forcing the BCRTC to now pay for expensive maintenance training and equipment they never budgeted for. Alstom threatened them you better pay up for the new training or else. The court case between BCRTC/Translink and Alstom was settled out of court. However, the fact remains far more money is being spent by BCRTC than planned. Money nobody has.”
Court Case? Settled out of court?
Like all negative news about SkyTrain and TransLink the media sweeps it under the table, with a “nothing to see here” attitude.
This confirms to me, that a fully independent audit of TransLink and the 21.7 km expansion to the Expo and Millennium Lines is badly needed.
The public is being kept comfortably numb by the mainstream media, who only see fit to give air time for positive news.
Škoda ForCity Smart 38T -Trams Get Longer
As the modern tram evolves, companies offer longer trams to cope with ever increasing ridership demands.
With a modular design, this easier to do than a complete new design for a tram.
It also should be noted that Mannheim’s tram system is metre gauge, thus the kinematic envelope for trams is very constricted and the only way to increase capacity is lengthening the tram. Offering 156 seats is impressive, especially compared to a much wider ROTEM EMU, used on the Canada Line, which offers a meagre 88 seats for a 41 metre long two car train-set.
The 38T tram also comes in smaller sizes, 30.5 metre and 40.65 metre lengths.
Škoda Group unveils the world’s longest tram
17 September 2024
The six-car 58.7 m long ForCity Smart 38T for Mannheim. Source: Škoda Group
Belov Sergey, Editor-in-Chief, ROLLINGSTOCK Agency
Savenkova Ekaterina, Editorial Contributor to International Projects of ROLLINGSTOCK Agency
Germany: The six-car 58.7 m long ForCity Smart 38T will transport passengers in the city of Mannheim, where it was officially unveiled.
The streetcar was built as part of a 2018 contract between the Rhine-Neckar region’s public transport operator RNV and the tram builder. The previous record for tram length was held by the nine-car 55.9 m CAF Urbos for Budapest.
The first photos of the 38T were published in June. For 368 passengers, each 38T offers 156 seats, including 12 flap-up ones. The operating speed of the tram is 80 km/h.
The six-car 58.7 m long ForCity Smart 38T at the presentation in Mannheim. Source: RNV
Škoda Group has contracted to deliver 12 38Ts and 68 shorter trams: the 36Ts with a length of 30.5 m and the 37Ts with a length of 40.7 m. All trams, based on the Arctic platform, have been adapted to 1,000 mm track gauge and will operate in Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, and Heidelberg.
A Pre Election Band Aid
When the provincial government spends in excess of $16 billion to extend the somewhat obsolete Movia Automatic Light Metro (a.k.a. SkyTrain) system a mere 21.7 km, the regional transit system as a whole suffers.
The federal government is partly at fault for this growing financial debacle by compelling the provincial government to continue building with the proprietary light-metro system, which patents were once owned by Bombardier Inc. and SNC Lavalin, simply to keep jobs in Quebec and Ontario.
Unlike the American government which vets all transit projects, receiving federal aide, must be peer reviewed. In BC we continue throw good money after bad on the now obsolete light metro system; a transit system which has an international reputation of a Ford Edsel.
$1.5 billion, over ten years amounts to $150 million annually, which would build about 350 metres for elevated light metro and a mere 160 metres of subway construction per year!
By comparison $150 million could by us about 10 to 15 kilometres of RftV’s Marpole to Chilliwack regional railway, per year!
The Liberals, under Carney, must demonstrate some largess of cash to buy votes for the soon to be called election (and maybe called before I post this) as one does not win votes telling politcans to spend within their own (read the taxpayer’s) means.
We are living in dangerous times with a bellicose President Trump wanting to invade Canada and an even more warlike Putin, threatening an ever encompassing war in Europe.
If I were metro politcans and TransLink, I would not be counting your financial eggs before they hatch and start planning for a leaner and meaner regional transit system, because what the federal government promises today, maybe stopped by a national emegancy, such as a massive tariff assault by the American government or worse, war in Europe.
It is “interesting times” we live in and out politcal leaders should be far more prudent with our scarce transit dollars, but of course, never before an election and in Metro Vancouver the word “prudent” is not in the lexicon of elected officials or their bureaucrat masters!
TransLink to receive over $1.5B over 10 years from Ottawa
Posted March 21, 2025
Another $1.5 billion in federal funding has been promised for local transit projects.
The money was announced Friday morning, with Ottawa calling it long-term, predictable funding for the growth and maintenance of public transit in Metro Vancouver.
It will come through the creation of what’s called the Metro-Region Agreement, starting next year.
“The federal government is investing in public transit projects across the country to ensure that more Canadians are connected to jobs, services, and their communities. These sustained infrastructure investments are key to growing the strongest economy in the G7,” the statement from the federal government said.
“Metro Vancouver’s public transit network is one of the busiest in Canada, connecting the municipalities within the region with bus, SkyTrain, West Coast Express and SeaBus services.”
This is on top of $663 million in funding TransLink recently received from Ottawa, and “builds on great investments in the region, including almost $1.5 billion in support of the Surrey-Langley Skytrain and the Millennium Line Broadway Extension projects.”
“The Metro-Region Agreement will also look to accelerate the positive role that public transit can play in creating sustainable, inclusive, and prosperous communities. The Agreement will help ensure that all orders of government are aligned in their efforts to get the most out of investments in public transit to create more complete, transit-oriented communities, improve the housing supply and affordability, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” the federal government said.
1130 NewsRadio has reached out to the Metro Vancouver Mayors’ Council for comment.
The Westerwald Railway Another German Regional Railway
The Westerwald Railway of the district of Altenkirchen GmbH (WEBA, Westerwaldbahn GmbH) is a regional railway infrastructure (EIU) and a railway company (EVU) owned by the district of Altenkirchen (Westerwald) in Rhineland-Palatinate. The company operates the and Betzdorf–Daaden railway lines, the latter as line RB97 in local passenger rail transport. Here it transports approx. 365,000 people and also operates two travel centers in the train stations Wissen (Sieg) and Betzdorf (Sieg), which took the place of the Au (Sieg) station in 2022.
Until 2017, Westerwaldbahn GmbH carried out rail freight transport on various lines, and until 2018 it was also active in bus services, which it has been able to expand strongly under the conditions since then, but therefore continues it as a separate company Westerwaldbus GmbH. The headquarters of both companies are their joint depot in Steinebach/Sieg.
$7 Billion to Move 56,000 (or less) Persons A Day.
If one wishes to know why emergency rooms are being closed on weekends in hospitals around the province, the NDP are spending $7 billion to move 56,000 people a day.
56,000 thousand riders a day? According to Wikipedia, the Broadway 99-B Line bus to UBC, averages 39,900 customers a day (2023)! One thinks that the 56,000 customers a day (or is it 26,000 customers day counted twice?) a tad bit optimistic, considering that the 99-B goes to UBC, a major transit destination and Langley is hardly a major destination.
Also, has TransLink factored in their estimates, that transit trips of more than one hour, actually deters ridership? This makes me think the hype and hoopla about BRT Lines in Surrey/Langley are more to “fiddle figures”, especially travel times because of this unpleasant fact.
The article does not mention the $1 billion Operations and Maintenance Centre #5, needed for the new 5-car rakes of Innovia 300 cars or the $1.47 resignalling of both the Expo and Millennium lines or the yet to be tendered $1 billion plus electrical rehab needed to operate trains on the 16 km extension.
Actually the project’s cost jumped over four times from a $1.65 billion light rail project to a $7 billion plus light-metro project and this will further increase if countervailing tariffs are added on American cement and specialty steel needed to build the guideways.
Both the Broadway subway and the Expo Line extension defy modern public transit planning and showcases the NDP’s being stuck to the dated “SkyTrain” philosophy and begs the question: “Why?”
At best, the line will replace three bus routes (501, 502, 503) with a combined peak hour capacity of less than 1,400 persons per hour per direction, which translates to huge maintenance costs, operating near empty trains another 32 km per round trip.
Rail for the Valley’s $2 billion, 130 km Marpole to Chilliwack regional railway, servicing 12 major destinations, would certainly out perform the Langley extension by offering many more travel solutions. The Langley SkyTrain extension will only offer slower overall travel times by forcing transfers onto potential customers.
This what has happened with the Canada line service, which, by forcing transit customers to make an unwanted Transfer from train to bus at Bridgeport Station has seen a collapse of ridership on transit and an explosion of electric cars in South Delta.
Of course TransLink hides this unpleasant fact, but if one observes, once sardine style, crammed express busses that used to go direct to downtown Vancouver, now see 20 or less customers using each bus.
As there is no independent audit of ridership on our public transit system, one must take any ridership claims by TransLink as suspect, as it is in TransLink’s interest to overstate ridership to keep doing the same thing over and over again, ever hoping for different results.
Despite shrill claims by our local politcans, that Vancouver’s SkyTrain is a world class transit system, it is the only world class system I know of, where no one wants it or builds with it and has been shunned planners around the world for almost fifty years!
Major construction ramps up on Surrey-Langley SkyTrain project
By Simon Little Global News
Posted February 28, 2025
Construction on the new Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension is ramping up, with the project to become much more visible in the months to come.
Transportation Minister Mike Farnworth said Friday that construction for nearly 200 piers and columns that will support the transit line’s guideway has begun.
“Together the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain, combined with the Broadway subway project in Vancouver, will expand our current SkyTrain network by about 27 per cent,” Farnworth said.
“We’re also working closely with TransLink to ensure efficient, reliable bus service that connects with the SkyTrain stations, including access to rapid transit for people who don’t live or work close to the alignment.”
The province says that work will continue through the spring, as crews begin casting more than 4,400 concrete segments that will form the system’s guideway.
Specialized cranes called “gantry launchers” will then begin to lift and install those concrete segments this summer at sites at 152 Street, Bakerview-166 Street and Hillcrest-184 Street stations.
Construction on two future stations, Green Timbers and Langley City Centre stations, is also scheduled to begin this year.
Last summer, the province revealed the cost to complete the project had jumped by almost 50 per cent, from just over $4 billion to just under $6 billion.
The timeline to complete the project was also pushed back a year from 2028 to 2029.
The province blamed inflation, supply chain issues and rising labour costs for the higher costs.
Once completed, the eight-station line is expected to take people from Langley City Centre to King George Station in 22 minutes, with an anticipated daily ridership of 56,000.
Time To Rethink SkyTrain Premier Eby
With a looming trade war with the USA, it is time to rethink the BC Governments exclusive planning, centred around the proprietary SkyTrain light metro system.
Yes, I know the NDP government ministers call SkyTrain a world class system, but it is the only world class system I know of that no one wants to buy or build.
Currently we are spending over $16 billion to extend the Expo and Millennium Lines a mere 21.7 km on two routes that just do not have the ridership to justify this scale of investment.
According to TransLink the Expo Line extension to Langley will carry fewer customers than the Broadway B-Line Bus and the Broadway subway is replacing the Broadway B-Line bus, which has a peak hour capacity of only 2,000 pphpd, from Commercial drive to Arbutus.
In the real world Premier Eby, subways are not built until ridership on a transit route surpasses 15,000 persons per hour per direction! In the late 1940’s and early 50’s Toronto was operating coupled sets of PCC cars on select routes offering peak hour capacities in excess of 12,000 pphpd. The modern tram has the ability to double this at a fraction of the cost.
Yes, I know that the NDP and the current developer friendly Vancouver Council, with their ill-conceived denisfication program for Broadway, believe the Broadway subway will be the great transit panacea.
Sorry it will not be, rather it will become the great Vancouver $4 billion “White elephant“.
Just to remind you Premier Eby, subways tend to be user unfriendly and are poor in attracting new ridership. As planned, the $4 billion subway is following the ghost rails of the previously planned for light rail, terminating at Arbutus and will force an unwanted transfer to a 99 B-Line bus to continue West.
The current estimate to complete the subway to UBC is now in the range of $8 billion and that is before tariffs!
Oh, by the way, TransLink thinks the same because after their $1.47 billion re-signalling program of the Expo and Millennium Lines; the maximum capacity of the Millennium Line (Broadway subway) will be a mere 7,500 pphpd.
Remember those PCC streetcars in Toronto?
The Expo Line extension to Langley is more of the same, a hugely expensive light-metro system, on a route that just not have the ridership to justify the investment. It was the NDP government that turned a $1.63 light rail project into a now $7 billion light metro project and it begs a question.
Why is the NDP stuck to SkyTrain like a tar-baby?
Twice in the NDP’s history, they overturned planning from light rail to the proprietary railway that operates on both the Expo and Millennium Lines.
Remember, no one wants to buy or build with this proprietary railway. Only seven such systems have been built in almost 50 years (only six remain in operation) and the proprietary railway being rebranded at least six times (ICTS > ALRT > ALM > ART > Innovia > MALM), is hardly a positive endorsement for the system.
Now, with the tariff war looming with the United States, the cost of the specialty steel and cement, which the SkyTrain light metro system is a voracious consumer of, will further increase the costs of construction.
A billion dollars here, a billion dollars there and soon the taxpayer will be bankrupted funding what is really a NDP government prestige project, designed to win elections and not move people.
Considering that Rail for the Valley’s Marpole to Chilliwack regional railway plan, will cost around $2 billion, servicing twelve major transportation destinations and attracting more new ridership than the Expo Line extension to Langley, would it not be a wise and prudent decision to abandon all light-metro construction and planning and instead plan for what we can afford and what would provide a modern user-friendly transit service for the Fraser Valley?
Premier Eby, time to stop using jingoistic word salads and cut the apron strings to SkyTrain light metro and instead, do what is best for the taxpayer and the province.
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