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 […]

Expo Line Extension To Langley Bafflegab. Has The Cost Risen To $5 Billion?

The Daily Hive has become TransLink’s official mouthpiece and sadly the Daily Hive, knows very little about transit and even less about SkyTrain light metro. * It is my belief that this article, in part, is in response to this letter to the editor which appeared in the Langley Advance Times. The article below is […]

The Broadway suybway Will Sterilize Buisness – Redux

On the local TV last night, small businesses along the Broadway construction zone are seeing huge drop in sales and a big increase in debt, due to closure of sidewalks. Shades of the Canada Line debacle on Cambie 15 years ago! BC’s Transportation Minister Ian Flemming, trundled out the old tried and true comment from […]

The Caisse Du Depot Bails From REM East

Montreal’s politicians listen to the public far more about transit than Metro Vancouver’s politico’s. The public were growing very disenchanted having an elevated railway go through Montreal’s downtown and maybe would take such disenchantment to the next civic election. Well, the civic government has pulled the carpet from under the Caisse and in response, they […]

Electric BRT vehicle catches fire in Paris

An electric RATP bus caught fire this morning in Paris. An electric RATP bus, traveling on line 71, caught fire this Friday morning around 8 a.m., near the Bibliothèque-François-Mitterrand stop, in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. This is the third fire of this type of bus in the Île-de-France in the space of a month A frightening […]

The $400 million Per Killometre SkyTrain To Newton – Really?

Zwei has a simple question: Where is the funding? With the cost of the Expo Line extension to Langley, exceeding the last estimate of $3.95 billion; the Broadway subway completion to UBC now exceeding $5 billion; and of course that pesky $3 billion rehab to the Expo and millennium Lines that TransLink refuses to acknowledge […]

Reality Check: Has TransLink Again Mislead The Public?

It is hard to surprise ole Zwei these days, but the following has somewhat astounded me. Expo and Millennium Upgrade Program The Expo and Millennium Line are the region’s Rail Rapid Transit Lines that connect key locations across Metro Vancouver. The Expo Line opened in 1985 and was the region’s first rail rapid transit line. […]

Quebec city Tram Will Be A Reality

It will be interesting in Quebec, comparing Montreal’s  REM light-metro to Quebec city’s European style tram. Quebec City Tramway details The Quebec City $4 billion tramway project will involve the construction of tunnel sections and 36 stations, five of which will be underground. The proposal includes incorporating an integrated system of tramways, electric tram bus […]