Snow was predicted in Metro Vancouver 48 hours ago and today, when it snowed TransLink was completely unprepared!
Eighteen buses were involved in collisions on Friday, but that is not the story. It is what happened on the Canada Line in Friday’s afternoon rush that demonstrates total incompetence at TransLink and ultimately TransLink’s CEO Kevin Desmond must take blame.
My wife, who works in Vancouver takes transit daily and with today’s snow she was confident of a secure journey home with minimal delays due to weather.
Not with TransLink!
It took almost an hour for the Canada Line mini-metro to travel from Broadway Station to Marine Drive, with the train creeping along the route.
At Marine Drive Station, the train finally went ka-put and the customers were left on the train for 15 minutes, then forced onto the platform for a further 15 minutes. Ultimately TransLinkAi?? closed the station and forced customers onto the street, to join a now over a thousand passengers already chased from their trains and waiting for promised buses that never came.
Only two buses in 40 minutes arrive, with one being a small shuttle bus and they only went to the airport, no buses to Bridgeport station, the main transit hub! Brilliant!
Minor fights and scuffles were taking place on the buses as passengers crushed forward to escape the cold and snow.
During this time, almost one hour, no one from TransLink was around to control the mob and people were now in a lynching mood.
My wife escaped the ever growing ugly crowd on the small shuttle-bus to the airport to get warm, leaving the chaos and near riot at Marine Drive Station.
This should not have happened and the complete lack of any customer service,certainly indicates Translink’s management are completely out of touch and ultimately, TransLink’s new CEO Kevin Desmond must take full responsibility and he must resign.
Not only must Kevin Desmond resign, the entire senior management at BC Rapid Transit should be fired for sheer incompetence.
Addendum: CKNW Radio is reporting that TransLink is claiming a bus bridge is operating between Marine Drive and Bridgeport. It is a complete lie, there is no bus bridge, as witnessed by my wife. CEO Kevin Desmond must resign!
Quote: “……..scrapping bike lanes to make way for diverted car traffic defeats the purpose of LRT“
Exactly! To reduce congestion, one must reduce road space, but provide an attractive and affordable transit alternative.
LRT has proven to be that attractive and affordable alternative, something that TransLink and the Metro mayors have yet to learn.
LRT advocates torn over ‘extremely frustrating’ plan to eliminate bike lanes
Hamilton urbanists say scrapping bike lanes to make way for diverted car traffic defeats the purpose of LRT
ByAi??Samantha Craggs, CBC News Posted: Jan 30, 2017 5:44 PM ET
It’s a new frustration for Hamilton urbanists. After years of rallying, they’re finally getting their $1 billion light rail transit (LRT) system. But now the project is threatening their other prize ai??i??Ai??some of the lower city’s hard-won bicycle lanes.
‘It doesn’t make sense.’ – Dave Heidebrecht, chair, Cycle HamiltonCycling enthusiasts will speak up this month on a list of proposed bike lane losses to allow for LRT.
The current plan jeopardizes existing bike lanes along Dundurn Street North, and York Boulevard from Queen to Dundurn, as well as proposed bike lanes along Main Street West from Macklin to Cootes.
“It’s frustrating,” says Dave Heidebrecht, chair of Cycle Hamilton. (Courtesy of Dave Heidebrecht)
“It’s frustrating,” said Dave Heidebrecht, LRT supporter and chair of Cycle Hamilton. LRT and bike lanes are supposed to work together to encourage people to leave their cars at home.Ai??So removing bike lanes “doesn’t make sense.”
‘This is not about throwing bike lanes out. What we said was we need to be up front. We need more lanes of traffic.’ – Paul Johnson, the city’s head of the LRT projectEven if some bike lanes disappear, Coun. Jason Farr said the city would try to replace them ai??i?? on parallel side streets.
For Heidebrecht, it depends on how the city does that. The replacements would have to be at least as useful as the bike lanes are now. And he doesn’t want them to take years.
Paul Johnson, the city’s head of the LRT project, said the main portion in question is the York Boulevard and Dundurn area. Hamilton’s B-line LRT plan is primarily modeled on an environmental assessment from 2011, he said. The lanes deviate from that design.
‘We need more lanes for traffic’
“This is not about throwing bike lanes out,” he said. “What we said was we need to be up front. We need more lanes of traffic. We’re saying we need what it was in 2011.”
There are no plans to removeAi??the Cannon bike lanes, implemented to much fanfare in 2014. “The current plan is we’re not recommending they need to come out for any traffic related to the LRT,” Johnson said.
City council’s LRT subcommittee voted Monday to add a stop at Bay Street, which will add about 50 seconds to the B-line route from McMaster University to the Queenston traffic circle.
Johnson isn’t sure what the additional stop will cost, or how it’ll fit into Metrolinx’s $1 billion budget. Construction will cost at least $2.5 million. That’s not including property acquisition.
The Hamilton Chamber of Commerce asked for a Bay Street stop. City council still has to approve the ask, and Metrolinx has to agree to it too.
TransLink once had user friendly transit programs such as a “family free ride”, but friends of the government who act for lobbyists offering fare-gates and expensive fare card take priority.
In fact most transit authorities around the world have some sort of family program or another, especially on weekends when ridership is at its lowest.
The problem is simple, the Compass Card is not what it should be and has problems with bus and metro trips and would probably have a snit and shut down completely with family friendly fares.
And of course there are those pesky fare gates which sometimes force people to pay more than they should to take transit, which again be unable to cope with a user friendly family fare.
It’s the public that is paying the shot for TransLink, should not management ensure some small perks be available, especially for the poorer member of society who have mobility and monetary concerns?
TransLink, yesterday’s transit system, evolving into yesteryear’s transit service.
Factbender on the opening of the user unfriendly fare gates.
TransLink urged to restore family-free ride program
by Lindsay Howe
Posted Jan 23, 2017
The program was cancelled a couple of years ago
If an adult buys a monthly pass, they can bring another adult and up to four kids
NEW WESTMINSTER (NEWS 1130) ai??i?? You may remember a time when if you bought a monthly adult transit pass ai??i?? you could bring another adult and up to four children under the age of 13 along for the ride on Sundays and holidays for free. While that program was cancelled a couple of years ago, the Mayor of New Westminster says he wants to see it brought back.
ai???We want to do everything we can in our region to encourage people to use public transit. But the reality is when youai??i??ve got a young family, and multiple children, transit can actually be quite costly,ai??? says MayorAi??Jonathon Cote. ai???We should be developing our policies to make it more economically feasible for young families to actually use transit.ai???
Cotes says that with TransLink reviewing its fare policies this year, itai??i??s the right time for people to bring up restoring the program.
As Zwei has said before TransLink and its SkyTrain mini-metro system is extremely user unfriendly.
The current fare regimen is fraught with complications and contradictions, people make mistakes, yet TransLink seems unable or unwilling to fix it.
IT IS A HELL OF A WAY TO RUN A TRANSIT SYSTEM.
TransLink may boast of more fares being collected, but it still costs more to operate the fare gate system than money collected, plus it adds a lot of ill will with transit customers.
This sort of nonsense could have been avoided if a simple fare system was used, with regular inspections by a conductor.
As it stands now, like many others, I will take the car, it is much simpler.
SkyTrain riders’ fare errors provide revenue boost for TransLink
Isabella Daviduk, her brother Corey, right, and friend Scott Martin had to buy ‘exit tickets’ to leave the Waterfront Station in Vancouver on Jan. 18. Mark van Manen / Postmedia News
More than 30,000 SkyTrain riders were forced to purchase ai???exit ticketsai??? during the first five months of the updated fare gates system, netting TransLink as much as $200,000 in extra revenue. Passengers who let tickets expire, lose them, purchase insufficient fare to reach their destination, or fail to buy one at the start of the trip are required to buy a ticket from TransLink machines before they exit SkyTrain stations. During prime time the exit ticket costs the equivalent of a three-zone fare ai??i?? or $5.50 (half that during non-peak hours), no matter how far the rider travelled. Scott Martin and Corey Daviduk of Maple Ridge discovered that the hard way. They boarded at the new Coquitlam station with a one-zone ticket when they should have paid more. As a result they had to purchase an exit ticket before the gates would let them out when they reached Waterfront Station. Her brother and his friend ended up paying $2.75 (for one zone) plus $5.50 (three-zone exit fare), or a total of $8.25 for a one-way trip. ai???I told them it would be cheaper just to buy a day pass,ai??? said Davidukai??i??s sister, Isabella Daviduk, who bought the $9.75 pass that was good for unlimited travel the entire day. ai???Itai??i??s kind of stupid,ai??? said Corey Daviduk. ai???I honestly didnai??i??t know.ai??? Since the new fare gates went into operation, 33,883 riders ai??i?? about 221 a day on average ai??i?? have had to buy exit tickets, according to TransLink. Based on that number of riders, TransLink would have collected between $93,000 and $186,000 in revenue from the tickets, depending on whether those riders travelled in peak or non-peak hours. ai???The number of exit tickets sold has not come as a surprise to us ai??i?? and it is not excessive,ai??? said TransLink spokesman Chris Bryan. There were 6,000 exit tickets purchased in October out of 11.8 million boardings on SkyTrain that month, Bryan said. That works out to .05 per cent of all boardings, or a couple hundred a day out of 450,000 average boardings each weekday, he said. The station with the highest number of exit tickets sold was Waterfront, at 3,194 tickets over the five months, or almost 21 a day. That station also recorded the highest one-month total (August) of 795 exit tickets sold. The least amount of exit tickets sold were at Sea Island station near Vancouver airport on the Canada Line, with a total of 65 for the five months, or about one every two days. At almost all stations, the greatest number of exit tickets were purchased in August, the first full month of the new closed-gate system. The number of exit tickets over five months exceeded the 24,118 tickets issued for fare infractions from January to November 2016, according to TransLink. In 2015, there were about 31,000 fare evasion tickets issued. Tickets with $173 fines are issued to riders who canai??i??t produce a valid fare when checked byAi??Transit Police. Fare evasion tickets dropped 25 per cent after the gates were first closed in early 2016, even before full closure of the gates, compared to the same period in 2015, according to Transit Police. And revenues were up almost eight per cent between April, when the fare gates were first closed or partially closed, and December, over the same period in 2015, said Bryan. That translated into $29 million in additional revenues.
Yes sir, an election is coming and the government is going to spend $70 million dollars to get your vote.
The problem is that the Alex Fraser Bridge sees peak hour congestion in both directions!
Obviously Transportation Minister has not bothered to travel the bridge in peak hours as well, he seems to have snoozed through is math classes as it is just not the Alex Fraser Bridge that has congestion issues, the entire Hwy. 99 and 91A/Richmond connector and Queensborough bridge are heavily congested all through the day and this hair brained scheme will be a complete traffic fiasco! More road space just attracts more cars and more cars add to congestion!
Memo to Todd Stone: Do not make transportation decisions via You Tube, rather hire real experts and do what they say not what you think might get the Liberals reelected.
Memo to Delta Mayor Jackson: Retire now with some dignity (or what you have left of it) as you are well past you “Best before date”.
Alex Fraser Bridge getting counterflow lane as part of $70-million project
The Alex Fraser Bridge will have something in common with San Franciscoai??i??s Golden Gate Bridge after a lane is added to ease congestion.
Federal and provincial officials announced on Thursday that the span across the Fraser River on Highway 91 between Delta and New Westminster will get an additional lane that will be used as a counter flow with the direction of travel changing between morning and afternoon rush hours.
ai???By reconfiguring the Alex Fraser Bridge to seven lanes, weai??i??re able to improve traffic capacity significantly and improve the travel time for commuters and for goods movement,ai??? said Todd Stone, B.C.ai??i??s transportation minister. ai???This is especially important during morning and afternoon peak periods when traffic is the heaviest.ai???
To make the most of the new lane, a moveable barrier will be used, similar to one added two years ago to the Golden Gate Bridge, said Stone.
It consists of steel barriers filled with concrete that are shifted from one side of theAi??lane to the other, like a zipper, by a special vehicle.
According to news reports, the Golden Gate barrier has been a success other than the side effect of more drivers speeding onAi??the bridge. Stone said the posted speed limit on the Alex Fraser will be reduced to 70 km/h from 90 km/h once the new lane is ready.
The seventh lane will normally be a southbound laneAi??but will be turned into a northbound lane during the morning rush by moving the barrier.
The new lane will be created by reducing the width of the six existing lanes and removing the shoulders. The lanes will still be a bit wider than those on the Oak Street and Ironworkers MemorialAi??bridges. The ministry expects some delays as the Alex FraserAi??is reconfigured, but will getAi??as much of the work as possible done inAi??off-peak hours.
The $70-millionAi??project includes adding up to 13 electronic signs atAi??ai???key locationsai??? on highways throughout the Lower MainlandAi??to provide up-to-date information about delays on the four Fraser River crossings.
The ministry proposes to place three signs along Highway 1, five signs along Highway 17 and three signs on Highway 10, andAi??signs on Marine Way and Knight Street. The specific locations for the signs are being finalized.
ai???There are a lot of vehicles on the road and only four Fraser River crossings, so if thereai??i??s a faster route across the river on any given day we want commuters to know where that fastest crossing is,ai??? said Stone.
More than 119,000 vehicles use the bridge daily with half-hour waits and lines more than three kilometres long in rush hour.
ai???The length of rush hour queues is frustrating, to say the least,ai??? said Stone. ai???Thatai??i??s a lot of idling. Thatai??i??s a lot of wasted time.ai???
Delta Mayor Lois Jackson said it took her two hours to get to Burnaby from Delta on Wednesday. She believes the new lane will deal with some of the congestion, but will be a stopgap until a new bridge is built to replace the George Massey tunnel.
ai???Weai??i??re really, really happy,ai??? she said. ai???Itai??i??s going to help out a lot of people until we get these construction projects completed.ai???
The new bridge lane is expected to reduce the morning commute by about six minutes and the afternoon commute by 12 to 16 minutes.
The federal government is putting up almost $34 million and the province just over $36 million.
Stone said the additional laneAi??go to tender this spring and construction will begin as soon as a contractor is chosen. It is expected to be complete in spring 2018. The information signs should be ready by the fall.
A new interchange is also being built at Highway 91 and 72nd Avenue, about six kilometres south of the bridge. Construction is already under way on the $30-million interchange and should be finished by the end of this year.
TramTrain, one of the fasted growing transit sectors in the world and why not; extending public transit cheaply by using existing infrastructure is a win, win situation.
The cost ofAi?? of a 25.3 km of route including 3.3 km of new single track line is CAD $62 million! The cost of the eight Electro-diesel trains are yet unknown as they have just been put out for tender.
The use of Electro-diesels are envisioned, could prove very positive news for the Rail for the Valley TramTrain.
Hungary begins tendering for Szeged tram-train
Written byAi?? Ferenc Joo
Ferenc Joo
HUNGARYai??i??s National Infrastructure Development Agency (NIF) has published a call for tenders for contracts to plan and build the Szeged – HA?dmezAi??vA?sA?rhely tram-train line.
The project – Hungary’s first tram-train line – involves constructing 3.3km of single-track line with passing loops in HA?dmezAi??vA?sA?rhely and an 800m connection from Szeged-RA?kus station to the nearby tram loop.
Tram-trains will use the 22km unelectrified single-track line between Szeged and HA?dmezAi??vA?sA?rhely.
The project involves building catenary, signalling, stations, connecting roads, and car parks. The project is financed by the EU and the money available is Forints 13.25bn ($US 45.7m). The deadline for submission of tender documents is February 15 and the winning bidder will have 20 months to complete the project.
A few days later national passenger operator MA?V-Start issued an invitation to tender for a contract to supply eight electro-diesel tram-trains.
The tram-trains will be equipped to operate under the 600V dc electrification system used on the Szeged tram network and will operate in diesel mode on the line to HA?dmezAi??vA?sA?rhely.
The contract includes an option for four additional vehicles, reflecting the aspiration to extend the tram-train line from Szeged to MakA?.
The vehicles will have at least 46 seats with standing room for a minimum of 92 passengers. The bi-directional low-flow tram-trains will be equipped with retention toilets, two spaces for wheelchairs, and four sets of passenger doors. The tender specifies a maximum speed of 100km/h, a minimum curve radius of 22m, and multiple operation both with vehicles of the same type and the Tatra trams used in Szeged.
The deadline for submission of tender documents is February 8 and the contract has an estimated value of Forints 10bn.
Unlike the mainstream media, the Georgia Straight always has better reporting on the local transit scene.
This is nothing more than a staged media event featuring two growingly unpopular Mayors, Hepner and Roberts and the ever unpopular TransLink.
With a May election looming the Liberals need to show that they are doing something, while the Federal Liberals want to see some action for the millions they have dumped in Metro Vancouver.
Zwei asks the following question: “Why is there consultation after the plans are revealed?”
I know, it is the TransLink “dog and pony show”, where Monty Python style planning from the Ministry of Silly Walk. results in a massive expenditure on very little that will not reduce congestion.
TransLink’s ten year vision is really no vision at all, rather a ruse to keep those six figured paid bureaucrats busy.
Translink says no plans for Millennium Line to UBC yet, public consultations begin next week
Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson speaks to the media at a Translink press conference at Waterfront Station on Tuesday, January 17. Amanda Siebert
At a press conference earlier today, Translink CEO Kevin Desmond was joined by Metro Vancouver mayors and members of the provincial and federal government, to announce a list of service improvements that are being rolled out as part of the first phase of the Mayors’ Council’s 10-year vision.
“These service improvements make room for approximately 185,000 more people on a weekly basis,” he said.
Desmond also announced that in April, major improvements to bus services would begin, with more improvements happening every three months for the next three years.
These will include new B-line routes, as well as new services to areas of the region that are not currently serviced by buses.
Surrey mayor Linda Hepner speaks to media at a Translink press conference at Waterfront Station on Tuesday, January 17.
Amanda Siebert
Consultations for the much-anticipated Millennium Broadway extension and Surrey-Newton-Guilford LRT will begin next week, but those improvements are part of the second phase of the council’s 10-year vision, and won’t be rolled out for some time.
Both Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner called on the provincial and federal governments to make a “firm commitment” with regard to capital funding for those projects.
“Phase two is critical to our overall region and to bringing to fruition the real mayors’ vision for the 10-year plan,” said Hepner.
When asked about the planned routes for both lines, with specific regard to the decision to terminate the Broadway extension at Arbutus Street, Desmond told theAi??StraightAi??that the alignment and start and end points were, “a reality.”
The planned route for the Millenium Line extension along Broadway.
Translink
“I wasn’t here when the decision was made to terminate it at Arbutus,” said Desmond. “The real crush of demand on the 99 B-line now, is really to Arbutus. We have plenty of customers, students, faculty, and workers going out to UBC, but for this first phase, that’s where we really need to get our resources….
“Will rail eventually get to UBC? I’d say that’s probably a good chance. When? I don’t know.”
Mayor Robertson added that the planning for extending the line to UBC would begin in the final two years of the council’s 10-year vision.
Robertson added that, with the planned development of the Jericho lands and the anticipated population growth, as well as the continued growth of UBC, improving transit service to that area needed to happen “sooner than later.”
The first phase of the Millennium Line extension is set to include 6 kilometres of track extending from VCC-Clark to Arbutus under Broadway.
The planned route for the Surrey-Guilford-Newton LRT line.
Translink
The first phase of the Surrey-Newton-Guilford Line, heading along 104 Avenue and King George Boulevard, will include 10 kilometres of two-way, street-level track, 11 LRT stops, and a new LRT operation and maintenance facility.
Public consultations for the Millennium Line extension to Arbutus will take place as follows:
Saturday, January 28 at Douglas Park Community Centre from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Tuesday, January 31 at the Croatian Cultural Centre from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Wednesday, February 1 at Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Public consultations for the Surrey-Newton-Guilford LRT Project will take place as follows:
Tuesday, January 24 at the Guilford Recreation Centre from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Wednesday, January 25 at Surrey City Hall from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Thursday, January 26 at the Newton Cultural Centre from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Let’s see now……election in May; a provincial Premier who doesn’t give a damn about regional transit; political donors getting restless for payback; yes the BC Liberal BS machine is in full swing.
A $100 million/km LRT that goes nowhere and a $3.2 billion subway that goes nowhere, yes the BC Liberals are hard at it.
The question I would like to ask is, who the hell is TransLink going to consult with?
Stay tuned folks the “Trump” style fake news is just beginning on two extremely poorly conceived transit projects.
Consultations on Surrey light rail and Broadway subway to begin next week
Proposed phase one construction of Surrey light rail (Emily Lazatin/ CKNW)
The wheels are finally in motion for a pair of hotly anticipated Metro Vancouver mass transit projects.
TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond says consultation will begin next week on a light rail system for Surrey, and the Broadway subway.
Desmond made the announcement flanked by Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner and Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, as a part of an update on phase one of the Mayorsai??i?? 10-year transit plan.
Light rail consultation will begin Tuesday, January 24, while Subway consultation kicks off Saturday January 28.
As currently envisioned, phase one of the light rail project would run from 72nd Ave. and King George through Surrey Central, before bending east on 104th Ave. to 152nd Ave. in Guilford.
A future phase two would run southeast along Fraser Highway to Langley.
The proposed subway phase one would extend from VCC station west to Arbutus and Broadway. A future phase two would continue to UBC.
Hepner says design work is now underway for phase two of the 10-year plan, but that funding questions remain critical.
On top of new project announcements, Desmond says TransLink is looking to boost the frequency of service across a number of parts of the existing system, with the equivalent of 185,000 bus, SkyTrain, and SeaBus seats per week being added.
He says it will be doubling daytime SeaBus service on Sundays and holidays so that the vessels run every 15 minutes, and will increase Canada Line service during peak hours.
More frequent Expo, Millennium, and Evergreen line trains are also planned during mid-day, early evenings, and weekends.
As from 1 January 2017Ai??100% of Dutch electric trains are powered by wind energy. Ai??The Dutch railways company NSAi??is the worldai??i??s first railway company that gets 100% of its energy from wind energy.
Travelling by train has been the most environmentally friendly way of transportation for a long time already. In the Netherlands they have now taken it to the next level using wind turbines to power all of its electric trains.
The Dutch have a long history of using wind energy to advance.Ai??They used windmills to drain land covered by water since the 17th century.
Famous Dutch polders were drained using wind energy
Energy company Eneco provides NS the energy to transport 600.000 people per day.Ai??Thatai??i??s 1.200.000 train trips per day without any CO2 emissions.
NS requires 1.2B kWh of wind-powered energy per year, which is the same amount all households in Amsterdam consume per year. The partnership with NS, allowed Eneco to invest substantially in the expansion of its wind turbine parks.
Eneco and NS Dutch Railways only sealed the partnership in 2015. It shows what can be achieved on the road to a sustainable future when we really put our minds to it.
How Eneco can provide the required capacity to power the Dutch railways Eneco and NS originally planned to reach 100% of all trains to be powered by wind energy by 2018. But they were able to speed up this process and reached their objective one year earlier in January 2017. “If the Dutch railways sourced 100% of the 1.4 tWh of energy they needed each year from within the Netherlands, this would decrease availability and increase prices of green power for other parties,” explains Eneco’s Michel Kerkhof. “That is why half of the demand will be sourced from a number of new wind farms in Belgium and Scandinavia, which have been specifically assigned for this contract. A key objective is to avoid procuring energy from the limited existing number of sustainable energy projects in the Netherlands, thus promoting renewable growth both domestically and Europe-wide. “This partnership ensures that new investments can be made in even newer wind farms, which will increase the share of renewable energy,” confirms Kerkhof. “In this way, the Dutch railways aim to reduce the greatest negative environmental impact caused by CO2 in such a way that its demand actually contributes to the sustainable power generation in the Netherlands and Europe. Source: Eneco
Other Dutch rail carriers participate too
NS is purchasing sustainable energy on behalf of VIVENS, the association of rail carriers, including: ProRail, Arriva, Connexxion, Kombi Rail Europe, DB Schenker, ERS Railways, HSL Logistik, Rotterdam Rail Feeding and Rurtalbahn Benelux.
In the table below you find a breakdown from which windparks VIVENS gets its wind energy.
Breakdown supplied wind energy per wind park Source: NS Dutch Railways
NS CEO Rogier van Boxtel literally turns the transport sector upside down. Watch how the CEO of NS, Rogier van Boxter, gets strapped to a blade of an old Dutch windmill to illustrate the relationship between trains and wind energy. Source: YouTube NS
Wind power makes economic sense
Wind power makes economic sense. Onshore wind is the cheapest form of new power generation in Europe today. Wind in Europe accounts for ai??i??67bn+ annual turnover and 255,000 jobs. Offshore wind is rapidly reducing costs and will play a central role in Europeai??i??s power mix going forward, according to Wind Europe.
How does it actually work?
This video explains how wind turbines work and provide energy into the power grid.Ai??You can find more detailsAi??hereAi??at explainthatstuff.com. And in this interview with Eneco more details are disclosed how the partnership between Eneco and NS leads to real growth in the supply of wind energy.
So, is the Netherlands leading the way when it comes to sustainable energy? The answer is no. As far as we are aware, NS is the first sizable railway company in the world that claims 100% of its energy is directly sourced from wind energy. In that respect the Netherlands is setting the example.
When we look at the bigger picture on how well the Netherlands perform compared to other European countries in fighting climate change, the Netherlands is not doing well. According to Eurostat, in 2014 only 5.5% of its energy consumption came from renewable energy sources. Compared to the European average of 16% in 2014, the Netherlands is way behind its peers and its European target.
That is the main reason why – together with 900 citizens – the Urgenda Foundation filed the Climate Case against the Dutch Government. And they won.Ai??The Urgenda Climate Case is the first case in which regular citizens have managed to hold their government accountable for taking insufficient action to keep them safe from dangerous climate change.
It is clear the Netherlands needs to do much more to transition to sustainable energy sources and help fight climate change. But let the accomplishment of the NS together with Eneco be an example for the Dutch government to switch gear and go full speed ahead with the transformation of its energy policies. And may it inspire many other railway carriers to follow the NS Dutch Railway’s example.
UPDATED ARTICLE 9 JANUARY 2017
We have updated the article with more information on how wind energy actually works. Also we have specified more clearly that all Dutch electric trains now run on wind energy. This does not include the descreasing – and relatively small – number of trains that still run on diesel. Additionally, we have included the Eurostat numbers that show the Netherlands is way behind its European peers when it comes to EU Renewable Energy targets.
As Vancouver’s metro mayor’s dig themselves further into a financial morass, with the proposed now $3.2 billion Broadway subway to Arbutus and the now over $100/km Surrey LRT, which will demand more and more punitive regional taxation, why instead don’t we plan for affordable European style LRT?
The trouble is, our regional mayors think they live in the 1970’s, where upping taxes imposes no problem’s at all. In fact, the Sky is the limit, for many regional politicians, when it comes to the issue of taxes.
BC and regional politico’s are also wedded for the dated and very expensive proprietary ALRT/ART (SkyTrain) light-metro, which today is seen by the world as a curiosity , not quite as interesting as the Wuppertal Schwebebahn monorail.
ALRT/ART SkyTrain costs more to build, maintain and operate than light rail and it is also capacity constricted, but that does not stop the powers that be to squander more money on this relic, because it is their belief that the public has very deep pockets for this sort of thing. Thus the dreaded threat of “road pricing” or “congestion charges” hangs over the heads of over taxed residents.
TransLink and the regional mayors seem ignorant of recent history especially with the results of the 2015 transit plebiscite and that another way must be planned for.
“Tax and spend – tax and spend” is the refrain of most regional mayors, when instead they should be singing in chorus, “getting our best bang for the taxpayer’s buck“.
It seems those who reside in Cambridge UK, understand this.
Though not Cambridge, modern LRT fits in quite well in dense and/or historicAi?? city centres
providing affordable quality public transportation.
Readers of “Cambridge News” say a congestion charge is not the answer to the traffic problems of the English city and some suggest light rail is a better answer than buses for CAMBRIDGE 50 miles north of London, according to a post on the “cambridge news dot co dot uk” site. Paris or Dublin, Ireland, could be models for such an LRT service:
Congestion charge is NOT the answer to Cambridge’s traffic problems, News readers say
The idea of a congestion charge for Cambridge has got people talking
By Freya Leng
Ai??3 JAN 2017
Making drivers who are coming into
CambridgeAi??pay a congestion charge is not the answer to beating the city’s jams, according to News readers.
Ai??As reported in the News, Tim Bick, leader of the Lib Dem group on the city council and the man who clinched Cambridgeai??i??s A?500 million (USD $611.6 million) City Deal, says the ai???tabooai??i?? against making motorists pay must finally be shattered.
His comments come ahead of a response due to be published by City Deal leaders on Friday (January 6) to the furore that greeted last yearai??i??s proposals to tackle Cambridgeai??i??s jams, including the scheme for Peak-time Congestion Control Points (PCCPs), which would bar general traffic from some roads at rush-hour.
But most readers on our social media channels and website say a congestion charge is not the answer to the city’s traffic problems.
Writing on the News Facebook page, Alexa Stansall said: “This councillor sounds completely detached and removed from the reality of cost of living, Cambridge wages and housing.
ai???The congestion charge will hit those on lower wages that often car share to work and can’t afford the high bus fares into Cambridge. There isn’t ‘an irrational fear’ of the congestion charge it’s a very real fear based on the reality of costs of living wages and house prices in Cambridge.ai???
Eve Wooldrige said: “Ridiculous idea! The bus service is nowhere near efficient enough, or cheap enough to encourage people to use it. The last time I used park and ride, I vowed never to use it again!
“People will continue to drive, unless park and ride charges are reduced to an affordable and tempting level and by running far more buses!! If a congestion charge is enforced, it will just force people to reconsider living and working in Cambridge.”
Michael Abberton said: “Before there is any talk of a charge, the infrastructure has to be in place. Public transport provision and safety measures for cyclists are nowhere near good enough. This will also penalise those people forced out of the city by out of control housing costs. All these elements are linked and have to be considered holistically.
“The introduction of CC without any viable alternative and without addressing affordable housing and rent controls will not do anything to address our catastrophic congestion and air quality crises, and just bring more revenue to the council.”
Other people commenting on the News website, felt a light rail was an option.
Alek said: “A congestion charge is NOT the answer. Cambridge will suffer long-term if that plan were to occur. After all, for shopping and entertainment – People can travel to nearby Newmarket and Huntingdon.
“The answer lies with a Light- Mono rail system, scrapping the guided bus and introducing Trams.”
SashaM said: “A congestion charge cannot be introduced until a sensible alternative is available, i.e light rail or trams.
ai???Buses are not the answer! It takes me 8 minutes to drive into the Grand Arcade – the C7 bus takes 45 minutes usually, 35 if no traffic at all.”
Cambridge1985 said: “For me to use the bus for work, I’d have to pay A?87.50 per month (USD $107.06), on top of my car costs. And for what? The buses in my village never turn up on time, and regularly don’t show up at allai??i??I think there is a lot of work to be done before you can expect people to use the bus services currently provided.
“Rather than constantly trying to squeeze more money out of drivers, maybe make it worth our time to switch over.”
James H65 wrote: “There needs to be an alternative to using the car. Right now, despite horrendous queues, lengthy travel times and hard to find/expensive parking, people still use their cars.
“Why? Because the alternative is worse. Adding congestion charge costs on top won’t make a difference unless there is actually a viable.”alternative.
Writing on Facebook, Theresa Marshall said: “The centre of the city needs to be a no car zone, the buses should be free, cycle paths should be improved and the whole city rethought for the 21st century, it could be amazing if people had the will and vision.”
However, Gazza Lawrence supported the idea.
“Best idea this city has had,” he said on Facebook.
Susan Lazaruk More from Susan Lazaruk
Isabella Daviduk, her brother Corey, right, and friend Scott Martin had to buy ‘exit tickets’ to leave the Waterfront Station in Vancouver on Jan. 18. Mark van Manen / Postmedia News 
Proposed phase one construction of Surrey light rail (Emily Lazatin/ CKNW)
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