Bombardier’s Blundering Is Alstom’s Gain

Recent problems with Bombardier’s delivery of new trams for Toronto has made Canadian customers look elsewhere. For two long, Ottawa has twisted arms of Canadian transit operators to buy the Canadian Bombardier product, to keep production going, propping up the giant multinational company and garnering votes from Ontario and Quebec. This is not to say […]

If Children Can do It, So Can We!

An interesting article about Hungary’s “Children’s Railway”. Light reading for the weekend. The Rail Line Operated By Children. By Mike MacEacheran, BBC 5 May 2017 With its shelves lined with worn textbooks and corridors plastered with drawings, noisy GyermekvasA?tas Otthon on the western outskirts of Budapest seems like any normal school before the bell rings. […]

UK Developer Must Help pay for Rail Connection

The UK is reopening once abandoned rail lines to cope with congestion and increased population. A UK developer must pay A?13.2m (CAD $23.25m) towards the restoration of the Bere Alston Tavistock railway route before building 750 new homes. This works out to CAD $31,000 per home. When one looks at the massive developments happening in […]

A Novice’s Guide To Transit…………..

ai??i??ai??i??ai??i?? or cutting through the BS about light rail, SkyTrain and BRT. The following is a guide plus definitions about ai???railai??? transit. ALM: Automatic Light metro, the fourthAi??marketing name given for the SkyTrain family of light-metros, when Lavalin briefly ownedAi??SkyTrain before going bankrupt. ALRT (1): Advanced Light Rail Transit, the secondAi??marketing name for SkyTrain. ALRT […]

A letter sent to Surrey Council – LRT in Surrey Part 1.

From the usual suspect, long time LRT and tram advocate Malcolm Johnston. What has been forgotten by most, is the historical context for our light metro system has been lost, due to political, bureaucratic and academic intrigue. The illustrations have been removed for brevity.   Dear Mayor and Council; My name is Malcolm Johnston and […]

The World’s Longest Tram In Budapest

Budapest has been been operating the world’s longest trams for several years but now are taking delivery of even longer trams, the 56 metre CAF Urbos. The former holder of the longest tram, theAi?? 54 metre Siemens Combino Plus. Why run long trams? They are cheaper to operate than coupled sets of trams. These cars […]

TramTrain – It’s Time To Have Another Look At The Leewood Project

While local politicians squabble about expensive transit planning and gouging the taxpayer to pay for multi billion dollar transportation vanity projects, economic and user friendly TramTrain construction and operation continue to increase. Isn’t time for politicians have another look at the Leewood/Rail for the Valley Study?   Stadler selected to supply Szeged tram-trains 19 Apr […]

Are SkyTrain’s MK. 1 Cars Safe?

As the Scarborough ICTS cars and Vancouver’s MK.1 cars are the same, one would surmise there are corrosion problems with Vancouver’s cars, especially in Vancouver with airborne salt from the sea. Does the public have the confidence in TransLink to keep them safe? Scarborough RT vehicles need repairs to avoid ai???catastrophicai??i?? corrosion failures TTC asking […]

German public transport sets new record

No surprise here! After the “locust years” of the 70’s and 80’s, German tramways have reinvented themselves and very successfully too. German tramways have set the standard for modern efficient and cost effective operation. The key for this success? German tramways are very user-friendly! On another note, buses only made slight gains in ridership, when […]

Edmonton LRT – To Be or Not To Be, That is The $220 Million Question

The question Edmonton transit planners are being asked; “Does transit need to be user friendly or auto friendly ?” In Edmonton to be auto friendly means adding at least $220 million to the cost of the project. What this article illustrates is the cost difference between LRT and a light-metro and I think that the […]