King Street Welcomes Toronto to the 21st Century

Toronto’s King Street experiment, bringing 21st century tram philosophy to Toronto and has opened a great many eyes. What has happened is simple, on portions of King Street, the streetcar has been turned into light rail at very little cost. There is no war on the car, rather priority has been given to transit customers […]

Pssst…..Some One Please Tell TransLink Subways Get Dirty

Zwei was not kidding about the issue of cleaning subway lines. Due to the nature of train action in a subway, the piston like force of air that is in front of every train as it traverses the tunnel, creates a sandblasting effect on the electrics and signalling. Then, the oily dirt and debris coming […]

In BC – The Government Don’t

As our politicians, planners and selected academics, offer more and more studies, in an attempt of achieving nothing, by spending a great amount of time doing studies. The railway fraternity in the UK, don’t study, they do! The Lynton and Barnstaple Railway has reopened after being abandoned and scrapped over 80 years ago. The narrow […]

Toronto Politicians Fear Scarborough Subway Costs

As expected, the costs for the Scarborough subway, the subway that is replacing the Scarborough ICTS Rapid Transit line, is escalating. Toronto’s ICTSAi?? or locally called SRTAi?? is a very close cousin to Vancouver’s ALRT/ART system, which we collectively named SkyTrain. What should interest Metro Vancouver residents is the final cost of the 6.4 km […]

The Driverless Car – Much Ado About Nothing

For those who think the driverless car will usher in the demise if “rail” transit, think again. Quote: “A growing number of metro regions, including the Bay Area, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Atlanta, and Toronto, have now reached the physical point where the car is no longer an effective technology for moving […]

Fake News And The SkyTrain Lobby – Who Are They Really Working For?

Really, can’t the SkyTrain Lobby do any better? The following is so silly and juvenile because it is all hearsay and opinion, not fact. But facts have never bothered the SkyTrain Lobby as they try once again try to fool the public about SkyTrain. They treat everyone like rubes at a country fair. This is […]

Has TransLink Missed The Bus? AGAIN?

The combined arrogance and ineptitude of TransLink just makes one’s head shake. TransLink has just sent out 400,000 invitations for people to do a trip diary, with all sort of silly incentives to get people on board. What will happen is this: 1) People who do not take transit will toss the invitation aside. 2) […]

24 Hour Operation for SkyTrain? Not Going To Happen.

One has to laugh at the armchair experts, who think it’s so simple to offer a 24 hour servcie on the SkyTrain light metro system. The ignorance about the SkyTrain light-metro system operation is endemic. SkyTrain does not magically move people from point A to point B, rather a lot of man-hours are spent ensuring […]

Island Corridor Foundation’s Letter to Minister Claire Trevena

After years of indifference by the Island Corridor Foundation, a new provincial government seems to have brought some life to the Island Corridor Foundation. Now the ICF is a political creature, which was believed by many, to oversee the demise of the E&N Railway on Vancouver island. Enter the NDP and Vancouver Island MLA and […]

Toronto’s King Street – A Template For Broadway?

The European light rail Renaissance in Toronto seems to be successful. Active traffic calming will both improve transit service, while at the same time pull more people to transit, a lesson that TansLink and Vancouver traffic engineers refuses to learn. Putting transit underground, may make local improvements, but the high costs hurts transit operations elsewhere. […]