Streetcars and LRT, A Quick Primer
First published in the RftV blog in 2011, it is still pertinent today. Updated to August 2014. The silly season continues in the Vancouver region, with TransLink desperately trying to persuade regional mayors to levy more taxes to mainly pay for the Evergreen SkyTrain light-metro line and a SkyTrain subway under Broadway. The following is […]
Speaking of the Arbutus Corridor…………..
A Marpole bound interurban crosses 41st. Please note trolleybus and the overhead. ……. why TransLink will never support LRT on the Arbutus and why the City of Vancouver wants the ‘Arbutus” for a glorified bike lane. Evergreen Line is said to cost no more than $1.4 billion for just over 11 km of line and […]
Lotus Land In Shock with the CPR Reactivating The Arbutus Corridor
The Arbutus corridor Interurban near 37th The Arbutus corridor debate continues and Zwei has a made a few observations. Has anyone in the media ask Molsons if they want to once again use the railway for both delivery and export? Has anyone in the the media reported that the CPR has paid taxes since the […]
Stupid is, as stupid does – TransLink – The faregate fiasco!
This article from Toronto contains some very interesting information. “………$8 million to hire 100 fare inspectors……..” …………and TransLink is spending at least $171 million on fare gates, with annual operating costs of $15 million to deter less than $5 million in fare evasion annually! http://railforthevalley.wordpress.com/2010/04/06/the-fare-evasion-fiasco-why-spend-171-million-to-save-4-38-million-annually/ By the way, there is no proof that fare gates […]
If you thought using a toll road was costly, try building one
From down under. As we are finding out with the $1.3 billion South Fraser Perimeter Road (which is both poorly designed and built) road projects tend to be as expensive or more, than comparable rail projects. If you thought using a toll road was costly, try building one The Sydney Morning Herald Melbourneai??i??s giant East […]
It Ain’t Rocket Science Folks
Really, do the math. TransLink has 170 full time attendants (part time attendants unknown); TransLink operates 57 trains during peak hours; how hard is it to schedule an attendant to be on a train at all times? Why doesn’t TransLink force management types to be on the trains, and act as attendants as well? Unless […]
Zwei Told Ya so!
Sorry folks, I mean the SkyTrain Lobby, Zwei told ya so, SkyTrain should have attendants on board every train……………….. From the Georgia Straight. SkyTrain disruptions like the July 17 and 21 outages have happened in the past. Indeed, a report addressed this issue 21 years ago. Thatai??i??s why Ron Stromberg, who was the one who […]
The Small Minded Anti LRT Conspiracy
A certain Randall O’Toole, a conspicuous member of the Cato Institute hates LRT and streetcars. A favourite of the roads lobby he is also the darling of the United States rising Libertarian and Tea Party. Much of what O’Toole writes about come from the theory that public anything is bad and individualism reigns. The problem […]
SkyTrain Whitewash Continues
TransLink can’t help it. It is inbred in them. Honesty is just not in their lexicon. They hire a SkyTrain type, at $1,200 a day to do a review of the two recent embarrassing shutdowns. It is like the police investigating itself. What should be a truly independent review, will be another SkyTrain “whitewash”, with […]
TransLinkai??i??s seven ai???deadly sinsai??i??
The reverberations of TransLink’s double SkyTrain fiasco continues to echo in Metro Vancouver. I think transit customers can understand system wide shutdowns, but when the captain and crew leave the passengers to fend for themselves, then very pointed questions will be asked. Jordan Bateman has become a serious thorn in the side of regional bureaucrats, […]
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