The Return Of The Branch Line – Can You Say E&N, RftV?

Most railway enthusiasts in the UK treat Beeching as a leper. In fact, Beeching predicted the end of local railways altogether, leaving the UK with just three or four trunk lines, connecting major cities by the 21st century. This is not to argue that rationalization should not have taken place, but to tear up the […]

Bombardier Takes A Disruntled Customer To Court

Bombardier is late delivering new trams to Toronto, so Toronto’s Metrolinx threatened to cancel the contract. The Federal Liberals just gave Bombardier Inc. a $372.5 million loan, so what does Bombardier do? That’s right, sue Metrolinx because Bombardier cannot deliver trams as per contract. Funny, I thought that money was to help Bombardier produce its […]

Even Your Auditor General Seems To Have Done His Sums On The Back Of Envelopes

Let us hearken back to the days of yesteryear and remember Zwei’s take on the AG’s audit of the Evergreen Line was. SkyTrain cheaper than LRT, not a chance unless it was deliberately designed to be so! As one overseas expert succinctly put it; “”Even your Auditor General seems to have done his sums on […]

Canada Line Ka-Put For Evening Rush Again! – CEO Kevin Desmond Must Resign!

Twice in three days, the Canada Line has called it quits during Monday’s evenings rush hour. Snow, again is the culprit, but really, that excuse is wearing thin. By world standards, it isn’t a lot of snow that has fallen (1 cm per hour) and with trains every three to five minutes crossing the bridge […]

ai???Very seriousai??i?? allegations over Scarborough subway debate referred to Ontario’s auditor general

I wonder if the same thing could happen in Metro Vancouver as well? The AG’s office did a review of the Evergreen Line and it was fraught with misinformation and professional misconduct, sadly I doubt they could do an honest review of any transit project in BC. Maybe we should invite Ontario’s AG to do […]

TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond Must Resign – Canada Line Chaos

Snow was predicted in Metro Vancouver 48 hours ago and today, when it snowed TransLink was completely unprepared! Eighteen buses were involved in collisions on Friday, but that is not the story. It is what happened on the Canada Line in Friday’s afternoon rush that demonstrates total incompetence at TransLink and ultimately TransLink’s CEO Kevin […]

Light Rail for Dummies

Quote: “……..scrapping bike lanes to make way for diverted car traffic defeats the purpose of LRT“ Exactly! To reduce congestion, one must reduce road space, but provide an attractive and affordable transit alternative. LRT has proven to be that attractive and affordable alternative, something that TransLink and the Metro mayors have yet to learn. LRT […]

User Freindly Transit Not Welcomed by TransLink

TransLink once had user friendly transit programs such as a “family free ride”, but friends of the government who act for lobbyists offering fare-gates and expensive fare card take priority. In fact most transit authorities around the world have some sort of family program or another, especially on weekends when ridership is at its lowest. […]

TransLink – Extremely User Unfriendly

As Zwei has said before TransLink and its SkyTrain mini-metro system is extremely user unfriendly. The current fare regimen is fraught with complications and contradictions, people make mistakes, yet TransLink seems unable or unwilling to fix it. IT IS A HELL OF A WAY TO RUN A TRANSIT SYSTEM. TransLink may boast of more fares […]

An Election Is Coming – An Election Is Coming.

Yes sir, an election is coming and the government is going to spend $70 million dollars to get your vote. The problem is that the Alex Fraser Bridge sees peak hour congestion in both directions! Obviously Transportation Minister has not bothered to travel the bridge in peak hours as well, he seems to have snoozed […]