TransLink’s Propaganda Machine In Full Force

Wait for it, TransLink wants more tax revenue to fund their questionable transit planning, so the propaganda campaign has started. We have seen this all before with the Canada Line, higher ridership claims, jammed buses due to lack of service, etc. The question what needs to be asked is; "Are TransLink's ridership claims valid?" With […]

Amtrak to continue running two trains a day into Vancouver.

Common sense at last. Amtrak will continue to rumble Seattle to Vancouver route twice daily   By Susan Gilmore, Seattle TimesAugust 18, 2011     The Amtrak Cascades train from Vancouver to Seattle. Photograph by: Vancouver Sun files, . The second daily Amtrak Cascades train between Seattle and Vancouver, which was scheduled to end in […]

Can’t TransLink Count? Evidently Not.

Interesting stuff this, but really, TransLink just can’t seem to stay on the page, with ridership figures, or any other figuresAi??they release.Ai??The claim of 310,000 passengers a day is really 310,000 boardings a dayAi??and there is no mechanism to count actual passengers or customersAi??on the SkyTrain light metro system. The Canada Line has infrared sensors […]

August Doldrums

With the HST debate behind us and most politicians away for the summer, the transit debate in the region is in summer mode. Posts will be done as local news and issues arise.

Do Buses Actually Ease Gridlock?

So some people think that adding more buses will solve our endemic transit gridlock, yet buses themselves contribute to traffic congestion. There is a strong bus lobby that continually advocates buying more buses, yet when more buses are operated, congestion and gridlock just continues. In Portland, transit official reckon that one tram or LRV, is […]

Non News From TransLink – Canada Line to Operate Two More Trains

What would not be considered a news story elsewhere, the Vancouver Sun makes much hoopla that the Canada Line will operate two extra trains during peak hours as per the operating contract. Adding two more trains will slightly ease congestion but unless Translink operates the bus services to feed the Canada line, the $2.5 million metro […]

The great high-speed rail lie

The great high-speed rail lie Roger Christensen Wednesday, August 3, 2011 In 2008, voters approved a $10 billion bond to begin construction of a bullet train from Los Angeles to San Francisco that would make that trip in less than three hours. So who knew that by 2011 the general consensus would be that the […]

TransLink urged to clarify tax-and-spend plan – Or is it More Smoke And Mirrors

"Vancouver is adopting a non-commercial approach…….I hope they have lots of money."; Norman Thompson, CBE, FCA, ACMA, English transit consultant and builder of the worlds busiest subway, on the BC Government's choice for SkyTrain instead of LRT in 1980.   TransLink's precarious financial position has been long predicted because the region was forced, by the […]

Winds of Change

LRT operating as a streetcar in downtown Portland The Vancouver Sun has always been a barometer on the governments standing on regional rail transit. The paper is famous for its pro SkyTrain stance, printing the usual SkyTrain myths as they were facts, but now, with the current TransLink financial morass, the Sun prints a letter that […]

More Misleading TransLink Numbers – So What Esle is New?

A letter from a Mr. Rob Kwon certainly shreds TransLink’s CEO, Ian Jervis’s claim that the cost per revenue passenger is a$3.98 is based on questionable book keeping. Well so what else is new! The Canada line was supposed to cost a mere $1.3 billion, yet it’s final cost exceeds $2.5 billion. Translink never includes […]