All Party Parliamentary Light Rail Group (APPLRG) report – Should we do the same in BC?

Some interesting news from across the pond. Urban transit development in the UK has been hamstrung by a very powerful and vocal ‘Roads Lobby’, within the central government (not unlike the SkyTrain Lobby in Victoria), which has all but stopped light rail development in the UK. In an era of peak oil and global warming, […]

Olympic Line Update: Olympic Line street car resumes service after collision

The Olympic Line is back to full operation after Friday night’s fender bender. IndicationsAi??Ai??are, that the motorist ignored light signals and drove in front of the tram. The Olympic Line is not a new line, rather it is Vancouver’s Historic Streetcar line, which has seen operation along the same route for years. There should be […]

Car Crashes close the Olympic Line and Highway 17.

Ai??Ai?? The inevitable has happened,Ai??Ai??a car crash at a light controlled intersectionAi??Ai??at 11: 30 on Friday night, closed the Olympic Line. From the Vancouver sun: VANCOUVER – An Olympic Line streetcar collided with a vehicle at Moberly Road and Sixth Avenue in False Creek just before 11:30 p.m. Friday night. Police officers and fire trucks […]

For Those Who Wish To Take The Famous Trans Siberian Express – Google Offers a Video Trip

The following is a real time trip on the Trans-Siberian Express. Enjoy! http://www.google.ru/intl/ru/landing/transsib/en.html

FRASER VALLEY FORMS

Preamble: Distance, to paraphrase,Ai??Ai??is Nature’s way of keeping everywhere from being in the same place. Hence we need transportation. While Zweisystem is taking a breather, I’ve been asked for some thoughts. Rail for the Valley takes on a broader meaning if we use “rail” in the sense of “argue vociferously”. I’d like to do a […]

Study reveals travel and transport trends – From the United Kingdom

An interesting study from the UK. From the Independent website Study reveals travel and transport trends By Peter Woodman, Press Association Tuesday, 16 February 2010 The number of motorists with large-engined cars has almost doubled over the last decade, figures showed today. Ai??Ai??The number of licensed vehicles with engine capacity of more than 2,000cc increased […]

Hamilton Looks to Europe for Light Rail Plans – How About Vancouver?

The good Burghers in Hamilton have realized that it isn’t the amount of money you spend on transit, rather how you plan andAi??Ai??build rail transit, that makes it successful. This is a lesson that BC politicians and TransLink fail to acknowledge and continue to plan for expensive light metro. The Canada line is a good […]

Light-rail ‘vision’ elevated track would run along I-405 – From the Seattle Times

It seems the hoary old elevated, tunnel, or at-grade debate continues in Bellevue Washington, which is across the lake from Seattle. The success of LRT is to be able to penetrate into city centres cheaply, on-street, where the transit customer wants to go, which is something that a certain rookie Bellevue councilor doesn’t want to […]

A Tram in the Black Forest

This U-Tube of a Karlsruhe TramTrain, goingAi??Ai??about its businessAi??Ai??in Germany’s Black Forest certainly makes a mockery of the ‘needAi??Ai??for density’ claim by those opposing the Fraser Valley interurban. By utilizing existing railway infrastructure, LRT can penetrate into unpopulated areas very cheaply, thus creating a larger tram network, as well servicing far flung transit destinations. Karlsruhe’s […]

The (AVG) Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft GmbH- Karlsruhe’s longest tramtrain route – S4

The AVG’s longest run is now a 210km (130 mile) S4 service from A?ai??i??hringen through central Karlsruhe to Achern, south-west of Baden-Baden. The TramTrain route uses DB mainlines, regional railway lines and on-street running in various cities. The above map gives the various routes of Karlsruhe’s famous TramTrain network;Ai??Ai??largely in an area of comparable density […]