A Message To Premier Horgan: A Train Waiting for You At The Station (Updated)

A Message To Mr. Horgan: A Train Waiting for You At The Station First Posted by zweisystem on Thursday, May 25, 2017 Ai??   The election is over and now the province has a NDP/Green coalition government. Rail For The Valley has a message for now Premier Horgan, The Vancouver to Chilliwack TramTrain is waiting […]

Freight Tram Trials in St. Etienne France

The concept of freight trams has been around for a while, in fact the concept is quite old. The success of Dresden’s freight tram was based on moving car components, via container, from one factory to another across the city. In St. Etienne, it’s the concept of moving smaller loads from one central distribution point […]

Mainstream Media Scammed Again On Transit

Zwei knew this was a scam from the start. Well,Ai?? China’s miracle “straddling bus “; the bus that was going to solve urban transit woes with its revolutionary concept, has been deemed a scam! Absolutely no surprise here. What was sad to see and hear, was the number of politicians who got suckered by this. […]

Transportation Gridlock is Endemic in Metro Vancouver

After driving into Vancouver yesterday, it has hit home that despite a now over $10 billion spent on SkyTrain light-metro and the Canada line, congestion is getting worse. After being an advocate for better transportation in the region for now over thirty years, I am still amazed by the “SkyTrain ennui” that prevails in most […]

The French Approach to LRT Versus The American (Canadian) Approach

The following is well worthAi?? read as it compares the French Approach to Modern LRT and the American and Canadian rather dated approach to the transit mode. French v US approach to light rail What we should plan for, instead of playing games with land development. MACRO (regional strategies) * (1) Ressau: (network) Design at […]

Fire on SkyTrain – The $3 Billion Question

As SkyTrain ages, its equipment deteriorates and today, a fire has happened and apparently not caused by a pyrotechnic birds nest. As mentioned many times by Rail for the Valley, about $3 billion needs to be invested in the ART/ALRT SkyTrain lines to both renew the mini-metro system and to increase capacity. As TransLink’s CEO […]

Ontario looks at hydrogen-powered trains

As hydrogen fuel cell technology improves, the application for ‘rail’ transit is close to become a reality. The main problem for hydrogen fuel cell transit is that the cell tends to produce power at a steady rate, but poor in providing power at times of high demand, like accelerating out of stations. This has made […]

Boondoggle In The Making In Montreal

It seems Montreal taxpayers are being taken for a $9 billion Bombardier ride, with the proposed 67 km Montreal light metro project. The proposed Montreal LRT is not LRT at all, rather it is a light-metro, using the Bombardier Innovia body shell, using conventional ‘squirrel cage’ electric motors. Based on the cost of now over […]

Is TransLink Hiding Subway Costs?

I wanted to post this item, not to show problems with London’s proposed BRT, rather that cost of tunneling had been vastly under estimated on the subway portion of this project. An excerpt from the London Free Press. City hallai??i??s consultant, IBI Group, had dropped a bombshell on city officials that day: The tunnelai??i??s construction […]

BC, Building Our Way To Gridlock.

Someone please memo this to the Minister of Transportation; the Premier; the Mayor of Delta and the BC Liberal party. Guest column: Wider roads wonai??i??t solve congestion problem (AP Photo / Jae C. Hong) 6356725 Ai??- See more at: http://www.bendbulletin.com/opinion/lettertotheeditor/5323723-151/guest-column-wider-roads-wont-solve-congestion-problem#sthash.xGCX3git.0vCV9BSw.dpuf Build it, and they will come. In the context of the Legislatureai??i??s transportation plan, this […]