Hume: The suburbs ask: Whereai??i??s the subway? In Metro Vancouver, the ‘burbs ask: Where is SkyTrain?

Like the Vancouver Metro Region, everyone wants SkyTrain, but there is no money to pay for it. Trouble is, no one has explained this to civic and provincial politicians, who continue to promise multi billion dollar SkyTrain extensions. In the Fraser Valley mayor Watts of Surrey does get it, with her support for LRT construction, […]

Words of Wisdom

The following comment comes from the LRTA’s chat room and I believe has much relevance here. I have slightly abridged the item as the first part was mainly about British Politics and with the spider web of BC politics to contend with, I thought it best not to reprint it. Is the proposal Clegg is […]

Toronto Elected a Ford, But Instead got An Edsel

Toronto mayor, Rob Ford, is an American tea-bag clone or clown (depending if one voted for him or not) who had big transit ideas. No more streetcars, no LRT, but miles and milesAi??(sorry kilometres and kilometres) of new subway construction. Well, financial reality has hit with a big bang and with Mayor Ford’s unwanted help […]

Transit News From Eastern Canada

An Artist’s rendering of the Laval aerial tramway Well, TransLink isn’t the only transit authority toying with the idea of an aerial tramway…. http://lavalnews.ca/article/Laval-PSC-leader-calls-aerial-tram-gimmick-192307 …….and I do believe an aerial tramway is a gimmick. Aerial tramways may prove to provide a transportationAi??solution for a unique transit problem, but they may cause more problems than they […]

A Tram Runs Through It!

IAi??couldn’t resist. In Freiburg Germany, trams co-exist with bicycles and buildings, without the doom and gloom and general transportation chaos predicted by the SkyTrain (a.k.a. metro) lobby. So sad when on this side of the pond, many regional politicians equate modern LRT as an anachronism from years gone by and not as a viable and […]

Light Rail and Streetcar Construction

The following is a series of photos showing tram construction in the French city of Tours. http://www.lineoz.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17564&p=345099#p345099 The French city of Tours (population 137,000) tram project is a transit is closely related to modern light rail with most of its route located in aAi??reserved rights-of-way. Work on the new tramway started in 2010, with completion […]

TramTrain Through Town and Country

Here we have a Karlsruhe ‘streetcar’ operating as a Elzug or local passenger train on its way to Heilbronn. Two video’s that show that the “density question” doesn’t exist with TramTrain and that TramTrain is both user friendly and non-user friendly. TramTrain through the Black Forest and in a deep snow, something to think about […]

Road Pricing Coming To Surrey?

It seems that local bureaucrats are trying to persuade regional politicians to agree to a road-pricing or road toll scheme, to both ensure their incomes and pensions by increasing the transit and planning bureaucracies – OOPS, I meant to sayAi??increase funds for transit. For road pricing or road tolls to work, the region needs a […]

The Ottawa Light Rail Tunnel Questioned

At least someone in the media in Ottawa gets it; building transit tunnels does very little, except reduce the scope of a transit system. Unless a transit line ridership exceeds about 15,000 persons per hour per direction, only then should a tunnel/subway be considered. It is to be remembered that the city of Karlsruhe Germany […]

SkyTrain “Stutters” – Craps Out Again

I only thought people stutter, but evidently not as TransLink claims "stuttering" has caused SkyTrain to shutdown periodically. Metro Vancouver hit by windstorm; SkyTrain, West Coast Express, ferries all facing disruptions  Vancouver Sun November 22, 2011 6:19 AM   VANCOUVER – The heavy rain and fierce windstorm that struck Metro Vancouver overnight is wreaking havoc with […]