Good News Everyone – Valley Rail One Legal Step Closer

The following is from our friend Mr. Haveacow, from Ottawa, who is a transportation engineer. Zwei has always stressed that for modern LRTAi?? and TramTrain to operate in BC, the legalities of both must be dealt with. For trams and LRT, the rules of the the road must be addressed, such as who has the […]

Parting Shots From Former TransLink CEO Doug Allen

Really? Sorry Doug, your diatribe has fallen on deaf ears. If TransLink really cared about the customer, like other transit agencies do, TransLink would not be held in such high odor by the taxpayer. TransLink has had over a decade to improve service, but no, all you guys did was to blindly bleat on and […]

Broadways Subway – A Boondoggle In The Making

Subways are very expensive items and only built when there is no other alternative available. SkyTrain ICTS/ALRT/ART, was supposed to mitigate the high cost of subway construction, but it didn’t as it proved to almost as expensive as a heavy-rail metro to build, with the capacity of modern light-rail. The result: No one builds with […]

Broadway Subway Reality Check – Toronto’s 8.6 km Spadina Line Subway Now $3.2 Billion!

For those of you who have been pooh-poohing, Zwei’s cost estimate for the Broadway subway, the following news item from Toronto should send a not too subtle message that subways are very expensive to build and are only built when there is the massive traffic flows that demand long trains and large stations to accommodate […]

Sobering Thoughts

The future may not be as transit friendly as many would have wished. The preceding chart should send chills down TransLink’s collective spine. Metro Vancouver’s transit system is based on the “Spoke and hub” theory of transit practice where major “transit hubs” are connected by light-metro and fed by a network of bus routes (spokes). […]

A Pricey Massey Tunnel Bridge Repacement Wonai??i??t Clear Up Congestion

As the local newspapers try to deal with the proposed Massey Tunnel replacement, Metro News has an interesting article. In reality, the Massey Tunnel, replacement bridge will not alleviate congestion, rather just move it from Delta to Richmond. Now Eric Chris may want to correct Zwie on this, but here is the problem. There are […]

Chemnitz tram-train set for early 2016 launch

Another TramTrain operation opening in Germany, where customer friendly transit is the order of the day. We also have a shovel ready TramTrain plan for Metro Vancouver, the Leewood/Rail for the Valley TramTrain, reinstating the Vancouver to Chilliwack interurban service. All that is missing is the political will and bureaucratic and academic acceptance of the […]

Clarks’s $3.5 Billion Vanity Project – A Gift To Surrey Docks

No, the George Massey Tunnel replacement bridge is not going to reduce congestion or bring faster commute times, the real reason for this bridge has nothing to do about transit or gridlock, it is all about LNG, Alberta Oil, and Montana coal. The folks who own Fraser Surrey Docks want T1 Supertankers sized tankers for […]

The Other SkyTrain Saga

Question: What happens when developers have to pay for expensive subway construction? Answer: They want to build with much cheaper light rail instead. Reality: Subways are great, if someone else pays for them. Lesson: Lost on Vision(less) Vancouver, the provincial Minister for Transportation, the Premier, the NDP, TransLink, and regional mayors. Developers highlight ai???defectai??i?? in […]

Begging For Cash

As the old adage says; “When beggars knock at the door, rush out the back door and check the chickens”; Premier Clark is off to Ottawa begging for some cash for her two ill-found vanity transit projects, the $3 billion Broadway subway and the $2.3 billion Surrey LRT, that local voters rejected in the past […]