Trams Having Limited Capacity On Broadway? – SURELY NOT!

A repost from May 2019. With the the City of  Vancouver and TransLink continued telling big porkies about LRT, the following is enlightening! Leipzig Tram The ongoing planning charade currently being played out by the cities of Vancouver & Surrey, and TransLink with the proposed Broadway SkyTrain subway, is being fueled by professional misconduct, by […]

HST Madness!

When boys and girls play trains, especially high speed trains (HST) it is best they read a book on the subject before they embarrass themselves. Obviously, the “academics and urban planners, who believe such an infrastructure investment” have not read a book on the subject and are completely ignorant of the massive construction needed for […]

Should We Convert The Canada Line to Light Rail?

Updated for 2020  With Covid-19, this becomes more important than ever. Right now we have a Hobson’s choice for regional rail transit, extend the Millennium and Expo Lines and continue using the proprietary Movia Automatic Light Metro or nothing. This must change and change soon, or the hugely expensive SkyTrain light metro system will become […]

Flying a Trial Balloon

Trial balloon: A tentative measure taken or statement made to see how a new policy will be received. As the Daily Hive seems to be the official organ of TransLink, it comes as no surprise that a trial balloon is floated regarding an elevated SkyTrain to UBC. The first problem is that Vancouver City Council, […]

Oh Where, Oh Where Has Our Customers Gone………………..

TransLink must soon face a very unpleasant truth, Metro Vancouver’s transit system is crap; it is strictly a commuters transit system, with, except for the core of City of Vancouver, there is little off-peak usage. The transit system is designed to feed the light-metro system and because of this, TransLink, as BC Transit before. has […]

Are You A Transit Expert? 15 Questions.

Here are ten questions to test the knowledge of political candidates about LRT & public transit in May’s provincial election. Passing grade is 70%. What is light rail transit? What Makes a tram or Streetcar Light Rail What is a metro? What is capacity?  What grade maximum is now industry standard for light rail? What […]

From September 2010 – The Groundbreaking Leewood Study

On September 20, 2010, Rail for the Valley unreleased the groundbreaking Leewood Study regarding the reinstatement of a passenger service using the former BC Electric, now Southern Railway of BC route. Why Groundbreaking? The Leewood Study was the first and only independent study done on passenger rail for the Fraser Valley, without political or bureaucratic […]

Transit lessons unlearned – A repost from Jan. 2009

First posted in 2009. More than a decade later, these lessons have still not been learned. It is sheer negligence on the part of TransLink, the Mayor’s Council on Transit, and the Ministry of Transportation, that they remain ignorant of what was commonly known elsewhere, not just a decade or so ago, rather three decades […]

Is TGV Coming To The North Shore?

Yesterday’s NDP pre election telly-op on local television stations of the standard TransLink fare of having five options for rapid transit to the North Shore showed some very strange animations. Instead of animations of SkyTrain trundling through tunnels, it showed TGV style trains instead. One wonders if the NDP are going to have surprise announcement […]

An Election Is Coming. The NDP Follows The Old Script.

As with all Metro Vancouver transit projects, they are good for three or four election cycles. The NDP are just using their tired playbook from the 90’s, nothing more and, shock and disbelief, Parliamentary Secretary for TransLink, Browinn Ma is the do nothing MLA for North Vancouver Lonsdale. Need I say more. “Our government is […]