Holiday Greetings! Be Healthy, Be Safe! Rail for the Valley

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A VERY SAFE AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR! From Rail for the Valley   2020 what a year! Trondheim’s Gråkallbanen, is the worlds most northerly tramway in the world and golly gee whiz, it doesn’t need reindeer to enable to operate in the snow!

User-Friendliness – The Key For Ridership

Interesting, that an Alberta University is doing a study about how Covid affects transit use. All we hear from TransLink is yesterday’s ridership records, which were mainly for “subway propaganda” than anything else. TransLink’s ridership claims are based on boarding’s and as boarding’s inflate actual ridership numbers, means ridership assumptions and predictions are inflated and […]

TramTrain For 2021!

Zwei has been a member of the Light Rail Transit Association for over 35 years and with membership comes a subscription to the most excellent magazine Tramways & Urban Transit. The following will be of most interest for those wanting an affordable rail connection from Vancouver to Chilliwack using the existing and former BC Electric […]

And Then There Were Six

Despite the hype and hoopla of regional mayors, five very important facts about our SkyTrain light metro system are glossed over in Metro Vancouver, by metro mayors, bureaucrats and transportation planners: The Expo and Millennium Lines operate a dated proprietary railway, now called Movia Automatic Light Metro. Only seven of these proprietary railways were sold […]

The Zillertalbahn – One of My Favourite Railways.

One of my favourite railways, the Zilleralbahn, which I visited in 1983. There is really nothing to compare this to in BC, though there could be some candidates, if our tourist authorities stop skiing at Whistler and actually craft a product other than winter skiing. Running through a valley in a well to do rural […]

Alstom-Bombardier Deal to Complete in January

This is big news as Bombardier is the sole supplier of the proprietary, linear induction motor powered Movia Automatic Light Metro system used on the Expo and Millennium Lines. Alstom may or may not continue the production of the now stale dated Movia Light Metro and give notice to its customers that they will wind […]

Floundering Public Transit and the Resurrection of the Car.

An interesting read. TransLink, the Mayor’s Council on Transit and the provincial government should take serious note of the following, but they won’t. Riding in their cars, subsidized by generous car allowances and more, politicians remain oblivious to current issues and pretend nothing has happened. For politicians it is “Do as I say, not as […]

More Fuel Cell Train News

More fuel cell train news. The technology is coming, whether we acknowledge it or not. The “Green” challenge is not taxing people out of their cars or airplanes, rather it is providing a reliable and user friendly “Green” transportation alternative. Our politicians have not done that, on the contrary they still opt for “rubber on […]

Hdrogen Fuel Trains Advance!

As the technology for hydrogen fueled trains continues to develop, the technology will become cheaper. Electric trains without the large cost of OHE. Very Green, isn’t it. Not in BC, where the government is OK building with prestigious light-metro and willing to spend $4.6 billion, to build a mere 12.8 km of line. For $4.6 […]

Light Metro Fiasco In Honolulu

Light-metro, a 1970’s solution for a 1950’s transit problems and made obsolete by light rail by the early 90’s. Why oh why do politicians love gadgetbahnen. The total cost of Honolulu’s 20-mile (32 km) rail line and 21 stations is $9.862 billion. If the add-ons approved by the board Friday are included in the final […]