A trip down memory lane

The shape of things that never were; a model of an articulated UTDC ALRT vehicle. An advert for ALRT, circa 1983. Sadly for Diane Edgecomb, the Detroit ICTS has been nothing more than a curiosity, which quickly earned the name the “Mugger Mover”. Notice that the gap between the two MK.1’s have been ‘photo shopped’ […]

Oh, what fools we mortals be

In charge of our of our Metro band, Moonbeam is here at hand, With a higher PST, mistook by me, While pleading for a congestion fee. Shall we their fond referendum see? Lord, what fools these mortals be! Apologies to the bard! The regional mayors who support a $0.5% increase to fund TransLink have shown […]

Incresing Transit Capacity By Reducing Transit Stops – A New Stragety For Broadway

The following table from Bus or Light Rail – Making The Right Choice, shows that in Germany, the distance between bus stops is far greater than that of the City of Vancouver. On Broadway, from Granville Street to Alma, on average there is a bus stop every 260 metres, making bus stops very much closer […]

What is Translink Afraid Of?

I can see with the TransLink referendum, that the SkyTrain lobby is claiming all sorts of misleading information about SkyTrain; a SkyTrain subway and SkyTrain fiances. The following is from the GVRD’s 1993 The cost of Transporting People in the British Columbia Lower Mainland. Please note that the annual subsidy for one SkyTrain line was […]

The GVRD’s 1978 LRT/Rail/Road Bridge – A Bridge Too Practical

In 1978, the GVRD were poised to install a three leg light rail system on the region and to cross the Fraser river a new bridge would have to be built. Demonstrating the forward thinking of the era, GVRD planners conceived a multi-use bridge for ‘rapid transit’; the mainline railways; a cycle path; and when […]

Capacity and speed of transit vehicles in the city

In the past few weeks, the merchants of misinformation have been busy spreading their anti tram rhetoric in a vain attempt to justify a Broadway subway. Unfortunately the mainstream media have repeated the same misinformation without any independent research done. The following charts come from Bus or Light Rail Making the Right Choice, Second Edition, […]

TransLink Incompetence Continues – Again Another Fail

Incompetence, thy name is TransLink. Suffice to say, if this happened in Europe and passengers were trapped in a bus for two hours because of a downed trolley line, management would have been fired the next day. All (except for Vancouver maybe) transit services that operate trolley buses or trams have a “crash crew” on […]

Let The fools Rush In, The Regional Maryors 0.5% Transit Sales Tax

After a considerable time of wailing and gnashing of teeth, the regional mayors have come up with a question for the upcoming TransLink referendum. What the mayors did not do was to try to understand why TransLink is hemorrhaging money and will continue to do so even if the referendum passes. It’s all tax and […]

Referendum Angst

It will all about the TransLink Referendum in the coming months and regional mayors who haven’t a clue about modern public transit will try to force another tax upon the beleaguered taxpayer to fund questionable transit projects, that will do little to alleviate congestion and gridlock in the lower mainland. The following is a reminder […]

The Tours Tramway

The newly opened tours tramway, classic French design. Tours:Ai?? Population:Ai?? City 136,000; Metro Area 400,000 Distance:Ai?? 150 miles southwest of Paris, 1A? hours System Length:Ai?? 14.5 kilometres No. Lines:Ai?? 1 No. Stations:Ai?? 29 Year Opened:Ai?? 2013 Rolling Stock:Ai?? 21 Citadis 402 Passengers: 45,000 a day Cost: ai??i??369.1 million Euros (2009) CAD $518.595 (20014) An Artist […]