Incompatible Transit – A Taxpayer’s Nightmare

I thought this would be an interesting article as we have in Vancouver two incompatible light metro systems, the Canada Line and the Expo and Millennium Lines. The Canada Line uses ROTEM built EMU’s, standard railway fare and can be used on most standard gauge electric railways. The Expo and Millennium lines use the proprietary, […]

As Preddicted, Major Switch Replacement Begins.

Mr. Cow has been bang on with his predictions of the growing cost of SkyTrain light metro expansion and the following news item certainly shows the ongoing expensive problems TransLink faces. Replacing two switches should take a weekend at most, but these are new high-speed switches, which needs a lot of engineering done to the […]

Flexibility To Fight Climate Change

Flexibility is the key in today’s transit planning. More and more, freight that used to be carried on railways, then switched to heavily subsidized trucks on heavily subsidized highways, is now goring back to the railways. Ignoring Global Warming and climate change is a fools game, played by civic, provincial and federal politicians to the […]

Old Noise Issues Plague SkyTrain

This problem has been around a long time, small wheels means more revolutions and more wear of the track’ correlated rails; and a strict regimen of rail grinding and preventative maintenance of the steerable axle trucks. This costs a lot of money and TransLink has never been good with maintenance issues. TransLink is near broke […]

World’s Greatest Public Transit Systems

From Shanghai to Stockholm, these are the world’s greatest public transportation systems – as voted by the people who use them every day 1. Berlin – Metro pop. – 6.1 mil. [Trams] (Metro) 2. Prague – Metro pop. – 2.7 mil. [Trams] (Metro) 3. Tokyo – Metro pop. – 40.7 mil. [Trams] (subway) 4. Copenhagen […]

Why TransLink Can’t Be Honest? A Repost From March 2017

Six years later, not much has changed. Thales has signed a $1.47 billion contract for re-signalling the Expo and Millennium Lines but with capacity only increasing by 2,500 pphpd to 17,500 pphph for the Expo Line and for an astonishing increased maximum capacity of only 7,500 pphpd for the Millennium Line. A maximum capacity of […]

User-Friendly Is Not In TransLink’s Lexicon

TransLink has a problem, overall decline ridership on its transit system and resent assaults and a murder on the bus and light-metro system is not helping transit customer confidence. TransLink must adjust accordingly and is by cutting bus service. There have been cutbacks to 50 bus routes in Vancouver, North Shore, Burnaby, New Westminster, Richmond […]

Carbon Tax Follies

The Carbon Tax flim-flam in BC and Canada gets exposed by Norm Farrell’s excellent In-Sights blog. Zwei has always thought the Carbon Tax was mere politcal theater as all Carbon Tax revue is deposited in “general revenue”, spent at the government’s whim. With a compliant mainstream media, the Carbon Tax scam continues unabated, being nothing […]

If Only BC Ministry Of Transportation And Infrastructure Had a Brain

If only………………. Instead of spending $11 billion, to build a mere 21.7 km of the now obsolete MALM light metro, the government could have spent less than half that amount by building and operating hydrogen powered trains on the former BC Electric interurban route from Vancouver to Chilliwack and from Victoria to Courtney on the […]

Businesses Close Along the Broadway Subway Route – What the Public is Not Told

If anyone believes that the government did not know that subway construction was going to negatively impact businesses along its route, I have shares in the Lions Gate Bridge to sell you. Both the provincial government and the City of Vancouver have selective amnesia with subway construction as the ills associated with the Canada Line […]