A Very Close Call – The Public Needs An Inquiry

Poor maintenance can be traced to TransLink’s dire financial ills. Sadly the mandarins running TransLink do not seem to be acquainted with the nuances of maintaining the railway and the SkyTrain light-metro system is a railway. Track switches are an integral part of the railway and must be constantly maintained, yet TransLink seems to have […]

Free Transit, Is Not Free

A re-post from 2016. An interesting read for those who want free transit, but remember, free transit comes at a price.   The Tallinn experiment: what happens when a city makes public transport free? Since Estonia’s capital started providing free public transport for residents in 2013, it claims to have turned a €20m a year […]

Very Light Rail for Victoria?

On CHEK News this afternoon was a rather long piece on Ultra light rail for Victoria and Zwei sees a problem. What was being pitched was an Ultra Light Rail system and not the Very light rail system, being proposed for Coventry, though using photos of Coventry’s Very Light Rail proposal. When a promoter of […]

Gold Plated Union Contract For A Gold Plated Transit System

Hmmm – election coming and a fear of of another transit strike, well what can a government do? Give transit workers a “gold plated” union contract. TransLink, despite claims otherwise, is run by the premier’s office. All major TransLink decisions must have the approval by the Premier of British Columbia and this union contract is […]

Carbon Emissions Are Lower for Rail – UK Study.

Interesting study from the UK comparing rail travel to plane travel. As Canadian politicians and bureaucracies are basically anti-rail, if they wish to be honest about global Warming and climate Change, this pampered group of plutocrats must have a serious discussion about passenger rail in this country, including the elimination of short haul flights. Carbon […]

Eby And The NDP Have Missed The Train

It seems Premier Eby and the NDP have been left behind at the station with this. With two railway projects that would have set BC as a leader in “Green” transportation, Premier Eby and the NDP continue to promote Greenhouse gas projects with new highway and tunnel construction: in other words, good old “rubber and […]

Stanley Park Train Fiasco – The Truth Is Not Out There

A C.P. Huntington Train, made by Chance Rides, being shipped to a customer.   The Stanley Park miniature railway fiasco demonstrates the mindset of Vancouver politicians including incompetence, hubris and dishonesty. The fact of the matter is that the Vancouver Parks Board wanted rid of the train and they let it rot until it failed […]

The Staggering cost of Subway Construction – A repost from 2019

A re-post from 2019. It seems several TransLink and City of Vancouver bureaucrats are tying the spin that subways are cheaper in the long run. Of course, they do not give firm numbers on anything! Some transit blogs seem to think that building a subway is easy peasy , costing only a little more than […]

Can A City Fall In Love With A Tram?

    Can Vancouver fall in love with trams?

User Freindliness In Berlin

In Metro Vancouver, again and again, one hears calls for the light metro system to operate 24/7. It cannot, or put in another way, it can but it would increase maintenance costs considerably and TransLink is near broke. The reason is quite simple, automatic or driverless operation. Simply, the light metro system need preventative maintenance […]