Global News Spotlights SkyTrain’s Ills

To say I am gobsmacked is an understatement, Global News actually had a rather negative story about SkyTrain, which convinces me some pointed questions about the proprietary railway are circling in Victoria. Everything about SkyTrain, from it being forced onto the region in the early 80’s, the NDP flip-flop of the Millennium Line and forcing […]

How Do You Spell Rotten – T-R-A-N-L-I-N-K

Local independent reporter has been tearing into TransLink and the TransLink story seems to go from bad to worse. Where is the Vancouver Sun? The Province? Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition? With Transit, there are so may rotten apples in the barrel, it is time to throw it all out. From Business in Vancouver…… TransLink should […]

In Toronto Developers Want Light Rail and Not A Subway!

Something new. In Toronto, developers want light rail and not an expensive subway to replace their life expired SkyTrain Line, the Scarborough R/T. What should be of interest is that the ridership on the proposed LRT/subway route, is more than the proposed SkyTrain subway under Broadway. Maybe Vision(less) Vancouver would rethink their grand Broadway subway […]

The Real Evergreen Line Story

The Evergreen Line, with only seven stations will do very little for local residents, who will find the car the only practical means of transportation. The Evergreen Line is the unfinished portion of the old Broadway-Lougheed rapid transit project, but to true BC standards, all transit lines must have a media savvy name and the […]

Vancouver Blunders Ahead With Its Vanity Project.

Well, Vision(less) Vancouver is blundering ahead with its much cherished $3 billion subway under Broadway and our feckless politicians South of the Fraser remaining willfully blind to this billions of dollars boondoggle. One would think they would be more in tuned with the costs of this massive project. Surrey has been bought off with its […]

Mr. Haveacow – The Ridership Question

Christopher MacKechnie Transit Expert is a transit planner and lawyer and writes for the About.Com website as their go to guy on public transport. The About Public Transport.Com site answers some basic questions and issues in transit operation and planning in an easily understood accessible way. Most of his articles, are pretty basic and are […]

SkyTrain Gadgetbahnen Goes Ka-Put……Agian!

From our photo file: It would be a cold walk on the guideway tonight. The aging SkyTrain shows once again shows the pitfalls of building with a proprietary light metro and TransLink’s ‘hub to hub’ transit planning. There is no redundancy, no plan B, except for buses that are promised but never come, and the […]

In The International News

Some interesting news items from abroad.   An interesting Australia Government paper on long term trends in public transport. Some interesting comments have been made by an Australian observer: It can be clearly seen that the Sydney tramways were the all-time record-holding giant of any Australian public transport system and never bettered since by any […]

Bombardier Inc. Gets Quebec Financing

Bombardier Inc. has had some recent finance problems with their aerospace division and is using its rail division as collateral so to speak. They better make money nowAi??because if they don’t perform the CDPQ will own 42.5 % after 5 years. What does it mean for us on the West coast? Definitely more pressure to […]

Portland’s Streetcar, Connecting The Entire Community

This speaks for itself. I must remind the unconvinced that going from 4,000 users a day to 15,000 users a day (in TransLink’s convoluted lexicon, this equates to over 30,000 boarding’s a day), which is a big deal in the U.S.A. So here is a thought, instead of a $3 billion subway to Arbutus, with […]