Improving Metro Vancouverai??i??s public transit system

It seems you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, especially ex GVRD types. Mr. Spaeth has, like many other GVRD/Metro Vancouver types, have deluded themselves that transit has taken cars of the road in Vancouver.Ai?? The reason for declining car use is the changing nature of the city, but this has not translated to […]

Death By Toll

Is anyone surprised by this? If you are, you are either residing outside Metro Vancouver or you are living in a bubble, because the taxpayer is maxed out. The BC Liberal regime of Gordon Campbell has off-loaded so many user fees, taxes and other costs on to the backs of taxpayers that he has all […]

Why we build with light rail

The following was Zweisystem’s first offering on the Rail for the Valley blog, posted on December 12, 2008. Five years and some 1,359 posts later, the message has stayed essentially the same; why does the provincial government and TransLink still pursue light metro instead of LRT, especially when light metro has proven inferior in service […]

Wisdom From Ottawa

  Our friend Haveacow, is a transit professional and his comment, I believe’ gets to core of TransLink’s woes. When you add in the extra costs of operating the Canada Line and SkyTrain ALRT/ICTS Lines, one can easily see why TransLink’s costs are a third higher than Edmonton and Calgary. From Haveacow and please forward […]

So, Where Did The $500 Million Go?

Not before another dime is spent on TransLink, some fiscal sanity must come to TransLink. TransLink has operating expenses which are about one-third greater than the transit industry norm in Canada.Ai?? For the present annual $1.5 billion operating budget of TransLinkAi?? this works out to $500 million annually in unexplained operating expenses.Ai?? How can the […]

Surrey asks feds for $1.8 billion for light rail- Maybe It’s Time To Say Adios to TransLink

Well, Toronto’s crack smoking Toronto’s mayor Rob Ford wants Ottawa to fund his multi billion dollar subway dream, I guess Surrey feels the feds should ante up for transit projects out west. What the likes of UBC professor Larry Franks doesn’t realize or refuses to realize is that Skytrain is obsolete, a yesterday’s transit system […]

South Surrey and Whiterock’s Fifteen Year Itch

Every fifteen years or so, the good burghers of Whiterock and South Surrey agitate for the removal of the BNSF tracks that run on the shoreline from the international boarder to Crescent Beach. Not going to happen. Though safety is the supposed concern, Zwei thinks that property values is the real reason as people living […]

Whistler’s Hydrogen Bus Scheme Fizzles

Not quite a “FastFerry” debacle, but the hydrogen bus scheme was one of dreams, by a premier with very little “cred” in providing affordable public transit. Zwei knew that the hydrogen bus would flop, because the major companies that provide buses, trams and trains, backed off hydrogen fuel cell powered transit vehicles almost a decade […]

How much does a subway cost to build?

Ever how much it costs to build a subway? The proposed 2.5 km (aprox.) London Northern Line extension from Kennington to Battersea Power Station will cost A?870 million or CAD $1,483.6m or put another way, the proposed subway extension will cost over $575.44m per km to build. It seems TransLink builds its subways on the […]

Light Rail Is Not A Panacea

In Canada transit authorities, unlike their European counterparts, tend not to do maintenance until it is absolutely necessary to do so. This means customer affecting break downs do occur and when they do, the transit customer is ill served. Older trams need a robust maintenance routine, to prevent breakdowns and I would wager that the […]