Merry Christmas

A very Merry Christmas from Rail for the Valley   A German Schmalspurbahn Christmas Train

Clarks’s $3.5 Billion Vanity Project – A Gift To Surrey Docks

No, the George Massey Tunnel replacement bridge is not going to reduce congestion or bring faster commute times, the real reason for this bridge has nothing to do about transit or gridlock, it is all about LNG, Alberta Oil, and Montana coal. The folks who own Fraser Surrey Docks want T1 Supertankers sized tankers for […]

TramTrain’s In The UK – Good News For Rail for the Valley

This news item from the UK, is good news for those who advocate for TramTrain operation in Canada. Why? The Sheffield TramTrains have gone through a rigorous safety program of testing overseen by the UK’s Office of Rail and Road formerly her Majesty’s Railway Inspectorate, a body that is highly respected around the world. Sheffield’s […]

The Seamless (No Transfer) Journey

From a 2010 post, edited for today. It has been long known with transit operators that the seamless or no transfer journey is the ‘ticket’ to attract customers to public transit as it is well understood that one could lose upwards of 70% of ridership per transfer, even inter modal. On older tramways and streetcar […]

In Toronto Developers Want Light Rail and Not A Subway!

Something new. In Toronto, developers want light rail and not an expensive subway to replace their life expired SkyTrain Line, the Scarborough R/T. What should be of interest is that the ridership on the proposed LRT/subway route, is more than the proposed SkyTrain subway under Broadway. Maybe Vision(less) Vancouver would rethink their grand Broadway subway […]

The Real Evergreen Line Story

The Evergreen Line, with only seven stations will do very little for local residents, who will find the car the only practical means of transportation. The Evergreen Line is the unfinished portion of the old Broadway-Lougheed rapid transit project, but to true BC standards, all transit lines must have a media savvy name and the […]

Vancouver Blunders Ahead With Its Vanity Project.

Well, Vision(less) Vancouver is blundering ahead with its much cherished $3 billion subway under Broadway and our feckless politicians South of the Fraser remaining willfully blind to this billions of dollars boondoggle. One would think they would be more in tuned with the costs of this massive project. Surrey has been bought off with its […]

Mr. Haveacow – The Ridership Question

Christopher MacKechnie Transit Expert is a transit planner and lawyer and writes for the About.Com website as their go to guy on public transport. The About Public Transport.Com site answers some basic questions and issues in transit operation and planning in an easily understood accessible way. Most of his articles, are pretty basic and are […]

Portland’s Streetcar, Connecting The Entire Community

This speaks for itself. I must remind the unconvinced that going from 4,000 users a day to 15,000 users a day (in TransLink’s convoluted lexicon, this equates to over 30,000 boarding’s a day), which is a big deal in the U.S.A. So here is a thought, instead of a $3 billion subway to Arbutus, with […]

Calgary Transit launches 4-car C-Train service; capacity to increase by 33%

Calgary Transit launches 4-car C-Train service; capacity to increase by 33% http://globalnews.ca/news/2337414/calgary-transit-launches-4-car-ctrain-service-capacity-to-increase-by-33/ Today, Calgary’s C-Train is carrying over 333,000 passengers a day and is the most heavily used new build LRT system in North America. No wonder the SkyTrain lobby hate the C-Train so much! Also worth noting that modern LRV’s being delivered to Calgary, […]