TransLink’s Executives Slurpin’ At The Public Trough

I don’t know why Transportation Minister BlairAi??Leckstrom is so upset aboutAi??TransLink executives getting expensive bonusesAi??as it was his own government thatAi??laid the foundation forAi??TransLink as it is today. The TransLink of old had mediocre public oversight at best with regional mayors, many of whom with little or no knowledge of public transit, running the show. […]

Florida East Coast Industries Announces Ambitious Plan For Private Passenger Rail Service

Informative article and one worth reading. Zwei has always felt that if TramTrain service is to be revived in the Fraser Valley, that the Southern Railway of BC should operate the service and not TransLink. http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/321480/20120329/florida-east-coast-railway-private-passenger-rail.htm Florida East Coast Industries Announces Ambitious Plan For Private Passenger Rail Service By STEPHEN SMITH: Subscribe to Stephen’s RSS […]

B.C. premier orders audit of TransLink. Two important questions

B.C. premier orders audit of TransLink, but will it be the right sort of audit? Will the BC Auditor General do the Audit? Will it be a value for money audit? Two important questions that must be answered before anyAi??credenceAi??is given to Premier Clark’s call for an audit of TransLink. TransLink is auditedAi??on an annual […]

Vehicle registration fee eyed to generate cash for transit services

They just don’t get it. The lower mainland’s regional mayors just haven’t a clue about transit and just keeps the money pumping into the bloated TransLink bureaucracy, which has achieved very little since its inception over a decade ago, except that is, for giving Vancouver the hugely expensive Canada line subway, because Vancouver’s politicians did […]

Kirkland city manager stumps for trail project along old rail line

Interesting news from just South of the border, a city manager actually eying a former disused intact railway for future transit use. Such thinking is so hard to imagine on our side of the 49th, where politicos and bureaucrats, mostly run and hide at the thought of using existing infrastructure. Here is the difference, in […]

How the TTC sullied the reputation of LRT (Part II)

How the TTC sullied the reputation of LRT (PartAi?? II) Ai??March 16,Ai?? 2012 In Part I of my look at howAi?? the TTC has sullied the reputation of LRT, I focused on the TTC’s communicationsAi?? on surface rail, where “LRT” somehow meant “Streetcar Rapid Transit” but “SRT”Ai?? meant “Scarborough… RT”? Plus, while there were 75 […]

How the TTC sullied the reputation of LRT (Part I)

Larry Green, a contributor to the “blog TO” site says Toronto Transit Commission [TTC] tarnished the reputation of light rail, possibly explaining why subways have drawn interest. Below is two parts of this feature story: http://www.blogto.com/city/\ 2012/03/how_the_ttc_sullied_the_reputation_of_lrt_part_i/ “How the TTC sullied the reputation of LRT (Part I) March 15, 2012 Will Toronto’s transit imbroglio never […]

Bogota’s Vaunted Bus Rapid Transit System ai??i?? in Distress

This comes as no surprise as the shine of bus rapid transit is beginning to wane. In South America, the rise of BRT was mainly due to the World Bank’s aversion to fund any type of rail project, but would shovel piles of money off the back of a truck to fund new highway construction. […]

Austin LRT plan criticized … by rail advocates

Light rail advocates not only promote light rail, they also promote good public transport and if a light rail project does not meet the criteria for good public transit, light-rail advocates must criticize the project. What is happening in Austin has happened elsewhere. In Seattle, the light-rail group supporting the then proposed Seattle LRT projects […]

Cleaning a subway – Does TransLink get it?

A London Underground Vacuum train Subways are an expensive proposition, not only are they expensive to build and operate, they are expensive to maintain. A little known fact is that subways needAi??regular cleaning as the dust and debris from daily operation is very corrosive to important signaling installations. The constant piston like action of trains […]