Tunneling in Ottawa

When it comes to subways, unless there is no other alternative, Zwei firmly believes they are a vanity project, which only drives up the cost of transit. The same thing happened in Victorian England, where several railways bankrupted themselves by building needless tunnels, because they thought; “a railway isn’t a railway without a tunnel”. The […]

German tram infrastructure

  Here is an interesting web site on German tram infrastructure.  

Rail for the Valley In The news

  From the Chilliwack Times. Dream of light rail from Chilliwack to Surrey isn’t dead The idea of creating light rail on the old interurban line from Chilliwack to Surrey may have faded in recent years, but proponents still want to see it happen and Coun. Sam Waddington says it’s inevitable. ai??i??Ai??image credit: File   […]

TransLink’s New Bus – The World Comes Knocking On Our Door!

The 1950’s Flying Bus caused an equal sensation! TransLink rolls-out block-long bus to solve the pass-up problem Behold, the B.C. Bus Train: the motor coach with the most Ai??bobmackin Ai?? Ai??04/01/2016 The $370 million pledged to TransLink in the federal budget is starting to arrive in Metro Vancouver. The first of three ultra-articulated, block-long buses […]

Surrey LRT – Paying More for Less

Modern lawned tramway in France, will be also be used in Liege. What I wish to illustrate that the 11 km, 21 stop Liege tramway, including 19 Citadis trams, will cost about CAD$51 million/km to build. As well, P-3’s are not a transit funding panacea. The $51 million/km to build is based on a very […]

Easter Parade in Toronto

With thanks to Mr. Cow, wholesome eye-candy! Five Generations of Toronto Streetcars,Ai??a little history: The Peter Witt was the first streetcar class purchased by the then brand new TTC in 1921 and ran in TorontoAi??until 1963. The PCC streetcar ran in Toronto from 1938 to retirement in 1995. The TTC had the largest fleet of […]

BART’s Problems Today Are TransLink’s Problems Tomorrow

Aging metro systems are a big problem in North America and the more complicated the transit system, the more costly it is to maintain. Unlike TransLink, BART’s (Bay Area Rapid Transit) bureaucrats are far more forthcoming with system ills and for that they must be congratulated for their candor. We see none of this with […]

Traffic Congestion Declines

Interesting tidbit from the news which has been overshadowed by the tragedy in Brussels. Traffic congestion is down in Metro Vancouver and this begs the question: “If there is less traffic on the roads, then should we not waste money to plan and build $3 billion SkyTrain subway under Broadway and a $3.5 billion bridge […]

The Federal Budget – LRT Mentioned, But Not A Subway

The Federal budget did not hold any transit surprises, with $370 million to be spent over five years for transit project support. Well, $370 million will buy you about one kilometre of a Broadway subway or put another way, 200 metres a year spread over five years, big deal! We could build 2 km of […]

Trams for Vegas?

Las Vegas has a monorail, but due to political intrigue, it doesn’t service the main airport and is next to useless. I would surmise that the powers that be do not know enough about modern LRT and do not worry about competition from a “tram” What I find interesting is the USD $460 million cost […]