Trams attract more passengers than buses

The following from Ed Tennyson, who is the foremost transit expert and historian in the USA, is a reply to a news story that Seattle suburban residents like the LRT but do not particularly like buses very much. Buses, for what ever reason, just do not attract much new ridership and BRT, which in most […]

Arbutus Corridor Resurrected?

  It seems the CPR is going to resurrect the Arbutus Line for freight and the wails of “shock and disbelief”, from Vancouver’s creme de la creme are echoing through the halls at city hall. Get real folks, the CPR did not abandon the railway and the city failed to negotiate a transit solution for […]

Who says LRT or streetcars can’t operate at close headways!

There is a reoccurring theme from the SkyTrain trolls at TransLink and the city of Vancouver that LRT can’t operate at close headway’s and one can hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth when they are corrected. “Lies”, they scream in unison, at every correction. It is extremely funny and extremely sad at the same […]

Gregeor Telling Porkies – Again!

Vancouver wants a subway and its mayor will say anything to get the province to pay for one under Broadway. There is an old Hungarian saying; “When the gypsies knock at the door, rush out and protect the chickens.” Updated, the saying should say, “When Gregor preaches a SkyTrain subway under Broadway, say no and […]

Who Killed Public Transportation in Los Angeles?

Why did the streetcars disappear, there many reasons and this news item may shed a little light from 50 to 60 years ago. “Who Killed Public Transportation in Los Angeles? Posted on 03 May 2014 by Craig Fitzgerald With Elon Muskai??i??s Hyperloop making news in Israel, the story of how Los Angelesai??i??s trolley system disintegrated […]

Urban rail news in brief – April 2014

From the “Railway Gazette”, urban news for April 2014 Tokyo Metro has signed a technical assistance memorandum of understanding with Hanoi Metropolitan Railway Management Board. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has announced R$3Ai??8bn of public transport investment. The projects include tramways in the city of Natal and state of ParaAi??ba. China Railway Group has been awarded […]

LRTA – How other countries see light rail and appraise light rail investments?

From from 2009 Article from the March 1999 edition of Tramways & Urban Transit As anyone involved in a British light rail scheme knows, the appraisal system is rigorous and, many feel, fatally flawed, oriented as it is to short term and financial criteria rather than a properly broad social cost-benefit analysis. It is now […]

Complaints Up and Service Down At TransLink

Nothing new here as TransLink fumbles along trying to operate the Transit system. The important question is: “Should we pay more taxes for more of the same?” The problem with Translink is that transit operation is not provided on a sound economic model, rather the hocus-pocus model of SkyTrain and densification. Vancouver is unique in […]

Worlds Longest Trolleybus Line

In Vancouver, we think of trolleybuses as a holdover from the streetcar days; a sort of green transit system used primarily in Vancouver and a few other cities in North America. What was once the replacement for the streetcars, are themselves seeing waning days. Not so in Russia, where trolleybuses are seen as a work […]

Not so reliable, our SkyTrain – Eh?

SkyTrain is on the fritz again. The problem with proprietary transit systems is that they age very poorly.   SkyTrain delayed by communication system disruption Vancouver Sun March 28, 2014 METRO VANCOUVER – TransLink says there are system-wide delays on SkyTrain today following a disruption to the communication system. SkyTrain is running single-track between Broadway […]