Chilliwack passenger rail supporters: Volunteers, donations needed!

Attention Chilliwack supporters of passenger rail… Rail For the Valley plans to be a major presence at Chilliwack's Party in the Park this summer, and we need volunteers. Party in the Park  http://www.downtownchilliwack.com/page.php?id=55   Friday evenings in July and August, at Central Community Park (corner of Victoria and Young) beginning THIS FRIDAY.   Through our Society, we […]

Will They Or Won’t They – The (N)Evergreen Line Debate and The 40,000 Person Question

 Like a good soap opera, the Evergreen Line debate goes on.   Again, a BC premier has appointed a Minister of Transportation who hasn't an inkling about modern public transportation, metro, and light rail, with the obvious reason of being held to the mercy of his bureaucrats.   There is more BS about SkyTrain and […]

News Flash – SkyTrain down again

Here we go again. SkyTrain, as with all other automatic metros, has an Achilles heel – they stop working and more frequently as the metro ages. This is not a problem for light rail, as it is designed to operate when there are minor glitches. But there is another problem with TransLink and its SkyTrain "transit backbone" […]

Copenhagen to get light-rail network by 2020: transport ministry

LRT in Copenhagen One welcomes the announcement that Copenhagen will have its first tram/LRT line built by 2020.  In several transit oriented blogs, much has been made that the Danish capital, Copenhagen, opted to have a driverless metro, instead of light rail. Automatic metro is the way of the future, was the clarion call by many […]

By coincidence

Strange thing that, on the same day the RftV blog exposed certain connections with the TransLink board and Simon Fraser University, the TransLink Board pulled the plug of the Univercity cheap transit passes. One wonders if the same treatment will happen to the SFU aerial tramway as well? TransLink pulls plug on UniverCity cut-rate pass […]

The Nevergreen Line saga continues

Mayor Trasolini adds his two cents worth in the Evergreen line debate. Nowhere in the letter does he admit that SkyTrain is just too expensive to build and/or that the SkyTrain light-metro system is a dated transit mode, made obsolete by much cheaper and just as effective light rail. Until regional and provincial politicians actually […]

Cutting edge to the cutter’s torch.

What happens to old transportation technology? It becomes less valuable than scrap! The Birmingham airport MAGLEV was cutting edge transportation technology in 1984 (two years before the SkyTrain Expo Line opened) but by 1995 was scrapped as obsolete. This is reminiscent of another cutting edge transportation technology more than a century ago, the atmospheric railway. […]

Metro mayors pitch ideas to keep Evergreen Line from going off the rails

Looks like the regional mayors are trying to save face with the delay in building the Evergreen Line. How about just saying no. Regional mayors should tell the Minister of Transportation and TransLink this: "If your government compels TransLink to plan and build with the proprietary SkyTrain light-metro system, then your government should pay the […]

Translink and the Interurban

As most of you know, the latest transit proposals from Translink have once again neglected the Interurban. Something had to be said. Here is my Letter to the Editor,  now published in the Surrey Leader and other local papers. Interurban gets rough ride from TransLink Published: June 16, 2011 12:00 PM  Updated: June 16, 2011 12:23 PM […]

SFU Gondola Update – Ah, the real story emerges

It seems there is interesting political connections with SFU and TransLink, with the gondola project. TransLink Board member, Howard Nemtin, President, Nemtin Consultants Ltd., is also a member of the The SFU Community Corporation board. Could it be that the Trust’s real estate development arm, UniverCity will use the gondola as a sales tool for […]