Video – A German Regional Railway

A trip to Bad Berleburg.

Here We Go Again!

Again last week, a local politician repeated the old trope, that Broadway was the busiest transit corridor in not only Canada, but North America. Again Zwei counters the statement with facts. Oh yes, a little birdie told me that TransLink is not running the full schedule of buses in the peak hours due to driver […]

Oops! Not all Is Well With TransLink’s MK.5’s Cars

Oh dear, someone forgot their measuring tape. TransLink is spending a lot of time spinning the delivery of the new (or not so new) Mk.5 cars. Could it be that TransLink wants to hide the fact that the so called new cars are none other than old Innovia 300, 4-car stock, with an added saloon, […]

Listen To The Experts

Currently the full program to extend the Expo and Millennium Lines a mere 21.7 km will now cost in excess of $16 billion. The now, estimated cost to complete the Broadway subway to UBC is now past $8 billion. Yet the provincial government had be carried kicking and screaming to find a few million of […]

Bi-Articulated Buses – A Solution or More Headaches?

Bi or double articulated buses have created a demand for such buses to operate in Vancouver. I believe this would be a big mistake because from what I know about bi articulated buses, they are a niche transport system, designed to solve niche transit problems. What I do know is that they are maintenance intensive […]

A Question Of Capacity – Reprinted from the Light Rail Transit Association

This is a repost from the Light Rail Transit Association (LRTA), because again politcans in metro Vancouver do not have a clue about “capacity” as evidenced in the local media. Please copy or Email this to your local civic, provincial and federal politcans. A QUESTION OF CAPACITY THE CAPACITIES of different modes of transport are […]

The Modern Tramway – What TransLink and Metro Mayors Do Not Want You To Know.

Several recent posts in local transit oriented blogs have denounced the modern tram as some sort of throwback in planning. Really? Public Transport is about a user friendly service that provides a quality product for the customer. In over 450 cities around the world (not including strictly Light Rail Operations), the modern tram is the […]

The NDP Are paving Paradise And Turning It Into A Parking Lot – An Updated Repost from 2021

First posted by zweisystem on Thursday, April 8, 2021 Updated. Reinstating passenger services on regional railways, it is what government should be doing, to deal with traffic congestion and pollution, but they are not, as government would rather spend money on prestigious “rapid transit” monuments to cut for photo-ops at election time. The E&N, the […]

And Over To You Mr. Cow – TransLink’s fiscal Realities

First posted by zweisystem on Wednesday, March 2, 2022 One of the RftV’s many friends, Haveacow is a Canadian transportation specialist. He uses the Avatar Haveacow because in the arcane world of Canadian and American public transportation, speaking the truth may find you out of a job. An American transportation Engineer who has helped Zwei […]

The Ever Line SkyTrain Revisited – The Legacy

A repost. First posted by zweisystem on Friday, March 27, 2020 With all the hype and hoopla about the new SkyTrain 5-car train-sets being delivered and the media oo-ing and aw-ing about the system, I thought retelling a little history was in order. One just has to shake ones head! Except for brief mentions of […]