Burning Bus Blues

Before TransLink goes hog wild buying battery buses, there is a slight problem, the tend to catch fire.     Third electric London bus catches fire after two burst into flames earlier this month Firefighters tackled the blaze in a bus garage in Putney An electric bus has caught fire in London, making it the […]

New Skoda Trams

  The Prague tramway network is the largest tram network in the Czech Republic, consisting of 144 km (89 mi) of track, 882 tram vehicles (one of the largest fleets in the world) and 26 daytime routes, 2 historical and 10 night routes with a total route length of 518 km (322 mi). It is […]

The Foynes-Limerick Rail Line

If you want to reduce auto use, you must provide a affordable and user -friendly alternative. The Irish government believes that and is rebuilding a former rail line as a cheaper and more environmentally friendly way to provide affordable and user-friendly transportation. The cost is €104 million (CAD $152 million) for 42 km of reinstated […]

The Big SkyTrain Sell – Eby And The NDP Are Worried

 The Vancouver Sun has always shilled for SkyTrain. They repeat government hype as factual news. What this huge infomercial in the Vancouver sun tells me that Eby and the NDP are extremely worried that their agreement for the flip flop from originally planned LRT to extending the Expo Line 16 km to Langley will not […]

Hyperloop Has Joined The Atmospheric Railway Graveyard Of Broken Dreams

The HyperLoop Lobby, like the Bicycle and SkyTrain lobby’s, was very persistent with their claims, but very short on actual history and lived in a sort of “Tom Swift” fairy tale bubble. Tom Swift is the main character of six series of American juvenile science fiction and adventure novels that emphasize science, invention, and technology. […]

“Even Your Auditor General Seems To Have Done His Sums On The Back Of An Envelope.”

From 2013, updated. I am reposing this from 2013 because I just heard on the radio, the often repeated nonsense, that SkyTrain has a greater capacity than light rail.   The SkyTrain light metro system doesn’t and it never did. From Thales News Release concerning the $1.47 billion signalling upgrade of the Expo and Millennium […]

Norway

Having become somewhat addicted to Driver’s View videos on YouTube I was more than a little surprised at the major engineering required. Norway, population – 5.3 million The Norwegian railway system comprises 4,109 km of 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) (standard gauge) track of which 2,644 km is electrified and 274 km double track. […]

Perils of a Proprietary Railway

Perils of a Proprietary railway. TransLink, the Mayors council on Transit and the provincial NDP have tried to whitewash the fact that the Movia Automatic Light Metro, used on the Expo and Millennium Lines is not a proprietary railway. TransLink has deliberately mislead local politicians that SkyTrain is not a proprietary railway and in the […]

Vanity Project Reality Check – The SFU Gondola

The realities of a gondola going to SFU are beginning to hit home. Simple fact is, there is no need for a gondola to SFU and the project is a “quid pro quo” for Burnaby’s support for Vancouver’s subway project and the now former mayor of Surrey’s flip flop from light rail to MALM. It […]

Number One Highway Constructions Costs Climbing

This bodes ill for the Expo Line extension to Langley. Transportation Minister Rob Fleming attributes the delays to soil and geotechnical issues. These are the same geotechnical issues that the Langley extension also must face. The following quote is also of interest: This is in addition to the previously approved budget of $2.34 billion for […]