April First Comes Early In Vancouver

I just do not know whether to laugh or cry at this one. Business in Vancouver (who’s co-founder is one Peter Ladner, noted Vancouver politician) has printed the puff piece of puff pieces, regarding TransLink. In Zwei’s timid way and not wanting to get TransLink’s higher purposes persons in a tissy, I have made a […]

Transit Problems Across The Pond

The metro Vancouver region is not alone with financial problems with public transit. Buses are very expensive to operate and U.K. planners and politicians have been very reluctant to fund modern trams which have proven to mitigate the high cost of public transport. Like Metro Vancouver, the transit authorities are finding it very difficult to […]

Broadway Subway Planning Under Way!

ai???If you tell a Broadway subway lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The Broadway subway lie can be maintained only for such time as TransLink, the Board of Trade, the City of Vancouver and the NDP can shield the people from the political, economic and/or negative transit […]

A Light (Rail) In The Piazza

A very welcomed editorial in the Delta Optimist. Slowly, ever slowly, people are beginning to realize that modern LRT is just not a transit mode, but a transit philosophy! Here lies the difference between LRT and SkyTrain; as SkyTrain or light metro is designed to give fast service between transit hubs forcing transit customers to […]

Beijing’s Subway Needs Fare Hikes

An interesting item from China, Beijing’s metro system, despite being one of the world’s busiest, is having funding problems and fares are escalating. Beijing metro price hike ‘squeezing poor’ 7 January 2015 Despite it being one of the biggest and busiest in the world, the Beijing metro is making huge losses and the government is […]

The Broadway Subway, No Value For Money

Despite a growing number of supporters, such as the business community, the City of Vancouver; most of the regional mayors, the provincial NDP and their combined sundry of shills clamouringAi?? for a SkyTrain Broadway subway, many serious questions remain unanswered. The following op-ed commentary published by The Toronto Star questions whether the concept of building […]

Conundrum! A No Means Yes!

A “YES” vote in the upcoming TransLink referendum will probably increase the cost per revenue passenger as the transit system seems to have a hard time attracting new ridership, especially the motorist from the car! Conundrum! I am not going to make this blog, home central for a “No” vote in the upcoming TransLink referendum, […]

Some New Year’s Reading – Eric Chris’s Six Facts About Hub to Hub Transport

Eric Chris is an Australian professional engineer with a masterai??i??s degree in chemical engineering and has been living in Vancouver near UBC on the 99 B-Line route for the last 16 years.Ai?? He works in the hydrocarbon industry as a design engineer for his entire career.Ai?? His masterai??i??s thesis was on real time air dispersion […]

Merry Christmas

A very merry Christmas from Rail for the Valley! A South Shore Interurban in the snow in Michigan City. Thirty-two years later, the South Shore Interurban still trundles the route daily.

After Intense Pressure From the Provincial Government……………..

The following is part of an article, The direction of TTC planning in the 1980’s, by Philip Webb, which appeared in the December 1983 edition of Modern Tramway and Light Rail Transit. By 1983, the UDTC knew that the ICTS/ALRT system could not offer the capacity as advertised. The ICTS/ALRT proprietary transit system did not […]