Reality Check On High Speed Rail

To build or not to build, that is the question. Now Zwei is no expert on high speed rail or HST, but from what I have read and what I have been told by people who have planned and built with HST elsewhere is “is there a demand for such a servcie?“ Is there enough […]

SkyTrain – The Multi Billion Dollar Voter Bribe

Originally posted in 2016, ten years and an estimated $16 billion later, the true costs of building SkyTrain does not resonate with our local politcans. I will add comments and give 2026 dollar figures where necessary. The graph is from Ontario’s MetroLinx, and our SkyTrain light metro system, falls in the “subway” category of 50 […]

SkyTrain To Rootin Tootin Newton? It Must Be Election Time

It is the silly season folks and the NDP and Conservatives have made promises to build more SkyTrain and why not, as politcal promises are easily made but much harder to keep. The first question I will ask is the cost? Based on the Langley extension, around $3.2 billion, not including cars, signalling, added electrical […]

Buddy, Can You Spare $25 Billion…………

It has been brought to Zwei’s attention than another group is wanting to build more SkyTrain, this time calling itself Crosstown SkyTrain , a 38km light-metro line from Downtown Vancouver to Surrey. Well, that sounds good doesn’t it, how about the cost? A bare minimum cost for an elevated SkyTrain would be $19 billion, based […]

Lysenkoism – TransLink’s Doctrine

The SkyTrain Lobby Is Watching You! Transit is about moving people, not building high rise condos and towers! Really, not in Vancouver, where the SkyTrain light metro system is designed to shape land use, ensuring big profits for politcal friends and insiders. Ignoring the fact that the proprietary SkyTrain mini-metro system has been rejected by […]

Battery Trains For “Rail for the Valley”?

Battery trains have been around a long time. In New Zealand, a battery-electric Edison railcar with a range of 160 km (99 mi) operated from 1926 to 1934 on the 34 km (21 mi) long Little River Branch line. The Drumm nickel-zinc battery was used on four 2-car sets between 1932 and 1949 on the […]

A Comparrison Of Operating Costs – Revisited

First posted in 2013. If one took the ‘Way-back’ machine to the late 1980’s, the argument that SkyTrain was cheaper to operate than LRT would show the massive propaganda campaign to give the public a positive view of the proprietary ALRT light-metro. This is because it was forced upon the region by the Social Credit […]

How This Small City Built Light Rail For Cheap

The ION’s capital cost was about $818 million in 2017 (1.06 billion in 2026 dollars) for 19 km of greenfields construction or $43 million/km to build ($56 million/km in 2026 dollars), complete. Compare this with the Expo Line extension now costing over $400 million/km to build not including signalling, cars and much more.

Say What?

What the (expletive deleted) is TransLink trying to say? I will take an educated guess that Translink is either replacing the reaction fourth rail or replacing the third rail for electrical pick up. The strange thing is, the same trains operate on the Expo and Millennium Lines already. Or, are they replacing the switches to […]

From September 2010 – The Groundbreaking Leewood Study – Updated

The Leewood Study – Costs Updated To 2026 RftV cost for a Vancouver to Rosedale regional railway $5.4 billion cheaper than the 16 km Expo Line extension to Langley. Re-posted and updated on Saturday, September 19, 2020 Re-released and update July 2, 2026 On September 20, 2010, Rail for the Valley unreleased the groundbreaking Leewood […]