Finch Ave. West LRT is a go!

Finch Ave. West LRT is a go! With thanks from Mr. Haveacow! In the latest of a flurry of transit infrastructure announcements before and since last weekai??i??s launch of Ontarioai??i??s 2015 budget, the government of Ontario says itai??i??s finally going to start building a light rail transit line along Finch Avenue West. At a media […]

More TramTrains For Karlsruhe

Karlsruhe, Germany, the birthplace of the TramTrain concept, goes from success to success. For twenty-two years, TramTrain have been operating in the Karlsruhe region with no major accidents, track sharing with both the city tram systems and mainline railways, providing affordable tram services to regions which otherwise would not been able to afford a quality […]

The Perils of Proprietary Railways

The Sydney Australia monorail was another expensive and short lived line. Now torn down, Sydney is now investing in light rail. The pitfalls of buying into a proprietary railway are many; for what was once “high tech” and “state of the art”, soon becomes yesterday’s tech and obsolete. Owners of proprietary railways, like to sell […]

Brampton, Mississauga to get new 23-km light-rail line

Another new LRT for Canada! Using both reserved rights-of-ways and mixed traffic, the Hurontario LRT is a classic 21st century light rail operation. Brampton, Mississauga to get new 23-km light-rail line At 26 stops, 23-kilometre line will run from GO stations in Brampton and Mississauga CBC News Posted: Apr 21, 2015 The Ontario government is […]

How to build light rail in our cities without emptying the public purse

An interesting read and quite pertinent to our transit situation in the lower mainland. Both the BRT and SkyTrain Lobby’s have so perverted the concept of modern light rail, to support their own projects, that the concept of affordable LRT has all but disappeared from the TransLink lexicon. The following quote; “……….while cities with rubber-wheeled […]

BRT- “just like light rail only cheaper” – NOT!

For Bus Rapid Transit, to be real BRT is must either have its own road or busway or it must be guided, using an exclusive guideway. Express buses, which operate in mixed traffic, with autos and commercial vehicles suffer the same issues as streetcars only slightly worse. Streetcars are cheaper to operate. In the UK, […]

Adios SkyTrain? Bombardier is selling off its rail division.

What would happen if the region continues to plan for SkyTrain, yet there is no SkyTrain? If a potential buyer for Bombardier’s rail division already has on the market it’s own proprietary railway or railways, they would probably discontinue SkyTrain which has not had a sale in over a decade and with one SkyTrain line […]

Light Rail questioned by Langley Township planner – Yesterday’s planning at work!

The same old cliched arguments about modern light rail have surfaced in Langley Township. What old Zwei finds so tiresome is that the some planners remains so uninformed about SkyTrain light-metro and modern light rail, think both are “rapid transit“. Transit is only as ‘rapid’ as it is designed to be. Sadly, the term “rapid […]

TramTrain for Hungary

From the International Railway Journal. As TransLink and the regional mayors still champion hugely expensive vanity projects for the region, TramTrain makes very good economic sense. A basic, bare-bones hourly service, using diesel light rail vehicles, from Vancouver to Chilliwack, would cost about $750 million. A more intense electric service, with a 20 minute service […]

Less expensive options?

Sounds familiar? One could ask the same for our regional transit planning. HS2: Government has no ‘convincing case’ for A?50bn rail line By Chris Johnston Business reporter The government has no convincing case for spending A?50bn building the HS2 rail link between London and the North, a report by the House of Lords Economic Affairs […]