Single Track Operation? More common Than You Think!

  OK folks, the following is a small list of the many European regional railways, operating on single tracks or which route operates on portions of single track. Why am I posting this, you say? Last week I received an angry phone call from a gentleman who claimed had done some work for Metro Vancouver […]

Montreal’s REM Goes Kaput

The problem with automatic (driverless) light metros is that when the system fails, the entire system fails. Regular customers of Vancouver’s SkyTrain light-metro can attest to this. There are many issues that a automatic transit system must deal with, including computer issues and maintenance. Poor maintenance leads to computer issues and maintenance is expensive. Automatic […]

Surprise, Surprise, Rail For The Valley had it right all Along.

TransLink has now admitted that they are $4.7 billion in the hole and Rail for The Valley has told you so, many times in the past. The $11 billion to extend the Expo and Millennium Lines has now landed, like the financial time bomb it is, onto the Mayor’s Council’s lap. RftV has warned for […]

Helsinki’s New Jokeri LRT Opens Early And $19 Million Under Budget

Europe’s newest light rail line just opened and our local tax hungry politicians and bureaucrats should take note! Broadway subway – $2.7 billion for 5.7 km. (not including vehicles, electrical/signalling upgrades) Proposed Expo line Extension to Langley – Almost $5 billion for 16 km. (not including vehicles,  electrical/signalling upgrades) Helsinki’s Jokeri Line, including vehicles – […]

10 Questions

I do not have the answers to these questions or rather I may know the answers but with libel and slander laws the way they are, I will not offer an opinion. Why do TransLink and the Mayor’s council on Transit still continue planning for the obsolete Movia Automatic Light Metro system (A.K.A. SkyTrain), when […]

Why Not TramTrain?

Why not TramTrain? The genesis of this blog was to advocate and support reintroducing a passenger rail service from Vancouver to Chilliwack and after 13 years since the release of the Leewood Study, which created a template for such a service, the need today is greater than it has ever been. As the upper Fraser […]

Vancouver Wants Another Subway!

Vancouver politicians want to pull a fast one on regional taxpayers. What seems to be pure politcal theatre from a city council which has not one clue about public transport nor the financial implications of “rapid transit”, want to plan for another rapid transit line. The ruling Alphabetical Party of Convenience has to be seen […]

Vancouver Parks Board – Pure Unadulterated Incompetence!

What can one say? Incompetence, pure and simple. When this issue arose a year ago, it was mentioned to Zwei that the Parks Board wanted the Stanley Park Train to be gone! A year later, the issue lingers like chicken manure. Well, a bureaucracy cannot be that incompetent or can it? With today’s announcement, it […]

Why Light Rail?

Why Light rail? This question has been asked over and over again by those who only know our MALM (SkyTrain) light-metro system. After 40 years of non stop rah-rah, propaganda by the federal and provincial governments, civic governments and bureaucracies; and the various groups made up of, what I call, the “SkyTrain Lobby”, Light-Rail, locally […]

Zwei Sends A Letter

I will send the following letter to all municipal and provincial politicians in November  and it will be ignored, as usual. This does not surprise me because our current lot don’t want to acknowledge the truth, lest they be embarrassed by past politically inspired decisions. Six figured salaried planners and engineers are merely telling politicians […]