TransLink BS Baffles Brains

I guess Mass Transit was hard up for a story and I would have given this story a miss, being a technical paper. Except, the last paragraph is a first class example of bureaucratic baffle gab, so typical of TransLink and well worth someone’s six figured salary! “Building on our extensive 30-plus-year experience, starting from […]

Montreal’s REM Debacle

Today, building light metro is a grift simply because for about the same amount of money one could build a heavy rail metro with four times the capacity or build a lot more light rail, with, you guessed it, having more capacity! Toronto’s Transit commission’s Accelerated Rapid Transit Study (ARTS) found that the then new […]

Two-year Burrard SkyTrain UpGrade Cancelled

Who says TransLink is not hurting financially? And what about that pesky $3 billion Expo/Millennium Line midlife rehab? The canceled rehab and upgrade of the Burrard Station maybe the beginning of new fiscal realities post Covid. The former transit customers who used transit pre Covid are not coming back, meaning they are not buying tickets, […]

A New Low For Reporting In The BC Media

Zwei gets a lot of Emails and this caught my attention. Slow-pitched questions and the continued referring that the tunnel is a mistake, the entire show seemed like an infomercial for the BC Liberals. Why all the angst for the tunnel and why do the Liberals still want a bridge? The answer probably is that […]

Trams To be Fitted With Head-up Displays

What is good for the car is also good for the tram! The modern tram is one of the safest transit modes today and with active “heads-up” displays, makes the tram or streetcar much safer. A head-up display, or heads-up display,also known as a HUD, is any transparent display that presents data without requiring users […]

Too Expensive – AirTrain (SkyTrain) Is Scrapped

What is now called Movia Automatic Light Metro is known as Airtrain in New York. AirTrain JFK, is a 13 km elevated, ART system built by Bombardier serving John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK Airport) in New York City. The system consists of three lines and ten stations within the New York City borough of […]

A Slow Train to The Future

Something that is badly needed in BC and Canada, regional railways. Local pundits have called for faster and faster rail transit, with some even advocating for high speed rail (HST) for the Fraser Valley as the only way to get people out of their cars. Today, with gas topping $2.00 a litre is another way […]

Six operators award joint contract for up to 504 tram-trains

This is big news and certainly shows the European confidence in TramTrain. The cost per car is somewhat steep (CAD $9.85 million) but it includes 16 years (and up to 32 years) of maintenance. This means the operators would be saved the cost of a mid life rehab! Also this highlights the advantages of group […]

The Battery Hybrid Diesel

  The battery-diesel hybrid, seems a far better bet for regional railways than hydrogen fuel cell electric trains. With battery-electric trains, the trains can operate on diesel in the country and on electric in urban areas. Also important, battery-diesel hybrid  trains do not need expense of hydrogen fuel as the cost to make hydrogen is […]

Montreal Light Metro Ills. Updated!

The current transit problem in Montreal is REM light metro problem. REM is more of a financial tool for Quebec’s Caisse de Depot, who have gained much experience with Vancouver’s P-3 Canada Line light-metro, than a user-friendly transit system for Montreal. Let us remember that the Canada Line, has only 40 metre long station platforms […]