The Boarders Railway Reopens After 47 Years! Leewood/RftV Interurban Is a Bargain!

The Beaching era in the UK saw the dismantling and the run down of Britain’s extensive railway network. Though some railway lines deserved to be abandoned, many did not. The Beaching philosophy was that railways were obsolete, with the exceptions of two trunk lines running North/South and one East/West, all other railway lines, except for […]

Bad Planning in Edmonton

The people designing Edmonton’s LRT extension must take first prize for “botching it”, when drivers will have to wait 16 minutes for a tram to cross a series of intersections. Does anyone do any research at all? I know that public transit should supersede auto traffic in revenue operation, but this is far too extreme. […]

The Great Storm of 2015

One of the big concerns of driverless transit systems is that there is no driver or attendant who can foresee danger on the track. Well TransLink found out in the “Great Storm of 2015” that driverless transit system are at peril with mother nature. TransLink put its passengers in danger during the storm and are […]

On Building The Wrong Type of Transit

An interesting item from Toronto; maybe some TransLink types should read this, or even regional, provincial and federal politicians as well. Investing massive sums of money on dubious subway “vanity projects” pretending that that any investment in public transit is good investment, is a fools game. It is time to design consumer oriented transit, transit […]

Chemnitz receives electro-diesel tram-train

Chemnitz, Germany, population, 242,000 is getting new electro-deisel tramtrains for their successful regional tramtrain system. This mans that the TramTrain network can expand along non electrified lines. Chemnitz receives electro-diesel tram-train 21 Aug 2015 GERMANY: The first Vossloh CityLink electro-diesel tram-train for Chemnitz was presented to transport authority Verkehrsverbund Mittelsachsen on August 21. The second […]

Pork Barrel Alert!

Well the TransLink pork barrel continues unabated and the real message this conveys is that the premier only regards TransLink as a dumping ground for Liberal lickspittles. The two appointees have absolutely “0” knowledge about public transit and like good little puppies, will do as they are told. Something like the “Duffy Affair”. Expect no […]

The Fiscal Realities of Subways Surface

Taxpayers in Ontario are slowly awakening up to the fiscal realities of modern subway construction, just as their European counterparts did in the 1970’s and 80’s. Little known on this side of the pond, is that subway construction in Europe has almost bankrupted public transit en mass and by the 1990’s subways were only considered […]

Is Compass Card Really the first Step to Privatization?

Long predicted, TransLink’s buses will all be “one-zone” fares, leaving those who ride the SeaBus and SkyTrain, pay premium fares. Zwei sees this as the road to privatization, where money losing, politically designed and heavily subsidized bus routes (especially the trolleybuses routes) will be operated by Translink, and the mini-metro system and SeaBus will charge […]

Portland Streetcar spurs $4.5 billion in new real estate development

Funny that the city of Vancouver preaches that only a SkyTrain subway will spur investment along Broadway, while at the same time, treats light rail as an economic leper. Well streetcars in Portland, Oregon prove otherwise. Rail News: Passenger Rail Portland Streetcar spurs $4.5 billion in new real estate development, study says Since 1998, the […]

Light Metro Woes in Hawaii

All is not well with Honolulu’s new light metro system. A classic “I told you so” situation has occurred as the fiscal realities of light metro are hitting home very hard. I hope taxpayers have very deep pockets. With proprietary light metro systems, politicians purposely forget that you can also build light rail as a […]