Massively inconvenienced by transit-system changes – Hell of a way to sell transit to a customer!

“It used to be something called public transit … then for reasons you’re too young to understand, they did away with the public.” The following letter, printed in today’sAi??Ai??Vancouver SunAi??Ai??(Sept.2) clearly illustrates Translink’s failure to address the wants of transit customers. The politically inspired RAV/Canada Line needed a magic 100,000 passengers a day (about 300,000 […]

THE LLANDUDNO GREAT ORME TRAMWAY – Wales almost forgotten cable car!

Another visit to the U.K. today, to the Great Orme TramwayAi??Ai??or cable car/funicular, whichAi??Ai??travels on-street for part of its journey and is located in Llandudno Wales The GreatAi??Ai??Orme Tramway isAi??Ai??Great Britain’s only remaining cable operated street tramway and one of only three surviving in the world. Operation of the tramway differs from the famous and […]

A Great Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth from the SkyTrain lobby – The ignored SkyTrain Subsidy

In 1993, the GVRD (now Metro) and Transport 2021, publishedAi??Ai??the study, “The Cost of Transporting People in the BC Lower Mainland” and for the first time the annual SkyTrain subsidy was mentioned. In 1991, SkyTrain was subsidized to the tune of$157.6 million, more than half of the total subsidyAi??Ai??paid forAi??Ai??public transit in the Lower Mainland. […]

From the Seattle Times, October 2002 – Vancouver’s SkyTrain: model for the monorail?

There has always been a close relationship between Vancouver’s and Seattle’s city planners and the now aborted monorail scheme seems to have been abetted by this relationship. Not mentioned of course is that despite about $8 billion now invested in our SlyTrain/RAV metro’s, TransLink’s mode share has stalled at about 11% for the almost the […]

From Tramways & Urban Transit – Denver receives first new FasTracks LRVs

Denver light rail system Ai??Ai??is one of America’s great success stories, so successful that the cityAi??Ai??has large expansion plans for their LRT system with over 195 miles of new lines to be built in the coming years.Ai??Ai??Denver’sAi??Ai??Ai??Ai??light rail system was the only public or privateAi??Ai??transitAi??Ai??operation that was runningAi??Ai??during the great blizzard and only ceased operationsAi??Ai??because […]

VA?Ai??hicule Automatique LA?Ai??ger or VAL – SkyTrain’s real competition!

SkyTrainAi??Ai??is not in a class of its own, despite first being marketed as ICTS or Intermediate Capacity Transit System, which was more a marketing nameAi??Ai??not a transitAi??Ai??mode. SkyTrainAi??Ai??is a light-metro andAi??Ai??though SkyTrainAi??Ai??initially competed against light rail,Ai??Ai??it was soon found that SkyTrain could only compete againstAi??Ai??other light-metros that were being marketed for the modal niche. Only […]

A press Release from the Light Rail Transit Association – Rail for the Valley asks: What is more ‘Green’, a multi lane highway or the interurban?

Ai??Ai??Zweisystem includes this news release from Tram Forward & the LRTA because our provincial and federal politicians are taking the same path,Ai??Ai??pretending they are ‘Green‘ by building expensive ‘show-case’ metro systems, but fail to show any real interest in funding affordable and sustainable light rail in the province and country. In BC it is far […]

The ULTRA LIGHT RAIL concept

A recent comment about Ultra Light Rail deserves an entry in the Rail for the Valley Blog. Though I do believe that ULT is not applicable for the 90 km. Valley Interurban, where larger vehicles are needed, Ultra light rail could have applications in specific niche areas in Metro VancouverAi??Ai??such as a downtown Vancouver to […]

The apportioned fare – what is it? Will TransLink do it?

In London England, if one wishes to travel from ones residenceAi??Ai??near Morden Road in South London to the City of London Airport in the East end, one would have to travel in three travel zones, taking a CroydonAi??Ai??Tram Link Tram to Wimbledon;Ai??Ai??transferring to a ‘Southwest Trains’ to Waterloo Station;Ai??Ai??transferring again to the Jubilee Tube; and […]

Volk’s Electric Railway, the oldest operating electric railway in the world.

Today, a history lesson on electric railways. The Volk’s Electric Railway (VER) is the oldest operating electric railway in the world (the world’s first electric railway, in Lichterfelde from 1881, no longer operates). It’s a narrow gauge railway that runs along a length of the seafront of the English seaside resort of Brighton, built by […]