When Politicans Play Trains

It is the sad, same old story, when politicians play trains with multi billion dollar transit projects, things go south all too quickly. In 2018, then mayoralty candidate, Doug McCallum claimed he was an expert and he could build the Expo Line extension for $1.63 billion. Fast forward to 2022 and the cost for the […]

The Expo Line Land Rush

Like the Millennium Line extension to Arbutus more commonly known as the Broadway subway, the main reason for extending the SkyTrain light metro system is to give politcal friends and insiders, mainly land speculators and land developers the ability of make large profits by assembling land, having council up-zone the land to allow for higher […]

Rural Railways- Time to Invest.

Recommendations to save Japan’s rural railways issued 28 July 2022 JAPAN: A study group formed by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport & Tourism has published its report into whether and to what extent rural railways across the country can be revived. From the Railway Gazette. The following was sent to the usual suspects.   Around […]

Political Documents Masquerading As Technical Documents

In BC, Business Cases are a dime a dozen and are merely politcal documents masquerading as technical ones. It is photo-op silly season and with premier Horgan desperately trying to find a legacy project, the Expo Line extension to Langley is his current baby. NDP leadership hopefuls where also there vying for their 10 second […]

When Politicians Think They Know Better – Watch Out!

When a new transit line is built, months of testing must take place before commissioning the line for public service. This did not happen in Ottawa. Many people do not realize that the Ottawa LRT operation is automatic, just like Vancouver’s light metro system and the new line suffers the same ills that plague Automatic […]

TransLink Does Something Right – Who Knew!

Zwei has been long advocating for bus services dedicated to cyclists on important routes and the new 900 bus from Bridgeport Station to the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal, via the Ladner Loop, certainly fits the bill. Well done! TransLink launches new summer bike bus in Tsawwassen The Bike Bus will follow the existing 620 route, with […]

Australia’s Gold Coast Tram

As the Horgan government seems to be on snooze control, transit issues, except for the E&N (more on that in a future post) which continues to rot away, a look at Australia’s Gold Coast tram is in order. A modern tramway that defies the current dated thinking in BC and metro Vancouver. Stage 1 In […]

And Now – Here Is The Real Story

  With my long association with the LRTA, I have made many contacts with professionals in the transit industry, who have guided me and given me much information on modern public transport. The following questions deserve an answer. Is current regional transit planning viable in the post Covid world? Is the current light-metro only planning […]

Surrey’s Board of Trade Reality Check!

The business types with the Surrey Board of Trade don’t seem quite up to date with the cost of Transit projects in Metro Vancouver. The provincial governments Friday news release (Friday is always used for bad news which is hopefully forgotten by Monday) that the “B.C. government commits $2.4B to transit in Metro Vancouver“, was […]

The E&N Business Case: Getting Cars Off The Road

Well, it is a start. The Business Case for the E&N has been released and the cost provided ($431 million) seems quite cheap, compared to the Expo and Millennium Line extensions, where the cost per km is over $400 million/km (over $500 million/km for the Broadway subway). What has proven to work elsewhere, will work […]