Easter weekend Tram & Light Rail news – Europe, Australia & the USA

Light rail vehicle unveiled http://www.railwaygazette.com/nc/news/single-view/view/bielefeld-vamos-lrv-unveiled.html 21 April 2011 Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai?? GERMANY: The first of 16 high-floor light rail vehicles for Bielefeld city transport operator MoBiel was presented to a select audience at HeiterBlickai??i??s Leipzig plant on April 14.Ai?? MoBiel placed a ai??i??47m order for the cars with a consortium of Vossloh Kiepe and HeiterBlick on January […]

London’s Post Office Railway, The First Automatic Railway

London's Post Office Railway, also known as Mail Rail, was a narrow-gauge driverless private underground railway in London built by the Post Office with assistance from the Underground Electric Railways Company of London to move mail between sorting offices. Inspired by the Chicago Tunnel Company, it was in operation from 3 December 1927  until 31 […]

The Sunday Supplement Essay

The fall out from Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts State of the City report Tuesday, has raged far & wide in the BC papers and on the blogosphere, not unexpectedly much of the debate has centered on the link between transport or transit, development or land use and city planning, residential unit design or population density. […]

Opening of Reims Light Rail/Tramway system

On April 16th the 11.2 kmAi??Ai?? Light Rail/tramway in the city of Reims, in the French region of Champagne-Ardenne was opened with much publicity. Reims is the twenty secondAi??Ai??of the new generationAi??Ai??of tramways to be opened in France since 1986 http://champagne-ardenne.france3.fr/evenements/Inauguration-tramway-reims/ Ai??Ai?? Details on the following sites: http://www.tramwaydereims.fr/start.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reims_tramway http://www.subways.net/france/reims.html Ai??Ai??

Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts calls for street-level rapid transit in her city

Light rail proponents say it's less expensive than SkyTrain They are cheering Surrey mayor Dianne Watts for her call for street-level rapid transit in her city Dan Burritt Apr 13, 2011 19:24:20 PM  News1130 http://www.news1130.com/news/local/article/212086–light-rail-proponents-say-it-s-less-expensive-than-skytrain SURREY (NEWS1130) – Surrey's plan for street-level rapid transit is welcome news to people who want to bring back street […]

Surrey Mayor Watts ups the TransLink ante – ‘We’re redefining Surrey’

Following on from Zweisai??i?? earlier posting of the Vancouver Sunai??i??s reporting of Mayor Dianne Wattsai??i??s state of city address `Surrey looks to light rail to ease huge growth’ `SkyTrain is too expensive, Mayor Dianne Watts says’ the Surrey Now paperAi?? published the following article on Tuesday: ‘We’re redefining Surrey,’ mayor says at annual State of […]

Tram makers hit curve as markets adjust

Financial Times London Published: April 8 2011 15:43 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/42c826ec-618a-11e0-a315-00144feab49a.html#axzz1JP9NTSro By Robert Wright The segregated track that carries smart Citadis trams alongside the Aegean in Voula on the outskirts of Athens could scarcely form a more marked contrast with the tram line that snakes down the narrow, cobbled streets of the St Gilles district in Brussels. […]

White House Comes Out For Streetcars

Jeff McMahon writes on the Forbes Blog – April 12th http://blogs.forbes.com/jeffmcmahon/2011/04/12/white-house-comes-out-for-streetcars/ President Obama’s clean-energy campaign hopped onto streetcars this morning with a government-made infomercial and testimonial for United Streetcars, a Portland company, published on the White House and Transportation Department blogs. The testimonial promises streetcars will help America “win the future.” It was penned by Transportation Secretary […]

Surrey to push TransLink for light rail, mayor says in state of city address

Welcome to TransLink’s worst nightmare, the mayor of Ai??Surrey (BC, Canada) wants light rail and not SkyTrain for the city. Three decades of deliberate misinformation, misleading studies, and anti-LRT rhetoric is going to come back and haunt TransLink, with this decision. TransLink’s grand economies of the truth about modern light rail, may cause such rancor […]

A Tale of Two Letters

 Mr. Brussac, a long time man of letters from Coquitlam, understands our current public transit malaise. He is well read on the subject and his letters are worth a read when printed. One may not always agree with his opinions, but his knowledge on transit and public transit issues is very good and is correspondence well […]