A Pre Election Band Aid

When the provincial government spends in excess of $16 billion to extend the somewhat obsolete Movia Automatic Light Metro (a.k.a. SkyTrain) system a mere 21.7 km, the regional transit system as a whole suffers. The federal government is partly at fault for this growing financial debacle by compelling the provincial government to continue building with […]

The Westerwald Railway Another German Regional Railway

The Westerwald Railway of the district of Altenkirchen GmbH (WEBA, Westerwaldbahn GmbH) is a regional railway infrastructure (EIU) and a railway company (EVU) owned by the district of Altenkirchen (Westerwald) in Rhineland-Palatinate. The company operates the and Betzdorf–Daaden railway lines, the latter as line RB97 in local passenger rail transport. Here it transports approx. 365,000 […]

Time To Rethink SkyTrain Premier Eby

With a looming trade war with the USA, it is time to rethink the BC Governments exclusive planning, centred around the proprietary SkyTrain light metro system. Yes, I know the NDP government ministers call SkyTrain a world class system, but it is the only world class system I know of that no one wants to […]

The Geneva Model

The problem in Canada, is that transit is built to win elections and not move people. Transit projects become “gold-plated”, ponderous and not user-friendly. In Canada the transit customer is all but ignored. In Switzerland transit is built to meet the needs of the transit customer and the transit customer approval is needed at all […]

Off The Rails – Part 2

I have issues with all of these projects as most have wandered from being light rail and instead become a light-metro. Part of the 19km Eglinton Crosstown LRT is in a 6 km subway and the costs of subway construction is huge. Though the line does operate as classic LRT on portions of line a […]

Off The Rails Part 1

The following is from the Globe and Mail and attempts to address costly issues building rail transit in Canada. I think three issues are paramount. First major transit projects in Canada are built to win elections and tend to be gold plated, with little consideration about actually providing a user-friendly transit service. Second, there is […]

Is a real Tramway (Read: Light Rail) Coming to Canada?

A Bordeaux tram on a lawned and hedged R-o-W.

Eby’s Reality Check On Transit

From what I can read, Eby is playing footsie with the Broadway subway to UBC. Farnsworth, who is now minister in charge of transit is doing penance for his complete screw-up of the Surrey RCMP/police fiasco, which many in the NDP blame their poor showing in the recent election. Subways are expensive, both to build […]

Notes From The Past

The preceding graph is from the late 1980’s and adjusted for 2024 Canadian dollars: San Diego: $10.25 million/km Portland: $20.25 million/km Nantes: $25.15 million/km Calgary: $30.26 million/km VAL: $56.7 million/km SkyTrain: $66.82 million/km. Please note, the current 16 km Expo Line extension to Langley is now costing in excess of $375 million/km or put another […]

Thoughts For 2025

If You Build a Better Mousetrap the World Will Beat a Path to Your Door. TransLink would like the public to think that our transit system is world class and spends a lot of money on ‘spin-doctors’ to convince the taxpayer of this. Sadly, the centerpiece of TransLink’s transit empire is the now obsolete and […]