Calgary S200 – The Evolution High Floor Light Rail Vehicle

Calgary’s light rail can be best described as a 1970’s Belgium inspired ‘pre-metro’, using high floor light rail vehicles, using elaborate stations. 90% of the line was built at-grade on dedicated rights-of-ways, with the downtown section seeing operation mixed with buses. The initial cost per kilometre of Calgary’s LRT was less than half of Vancouver’s […]

The Worldai??i??s First Solar Road Is Producing More Energy Than Expected

This is an interesting experiment. More and more, solar power is becoming a realistic option, especially with transit. This is just an experiment, but the potential of using roads to produce power is vast and in twenty years hence; just imagine……………   The Worldai??i??s First Solar Road Is Producing More Energy Than Expected by Katie […]

Solar Powered Trams For Melbourne?

Something to think about, solar powered trams! Renewable energy group bids to turn Melbourne’s trams solar May 18, 2015 Tom Arup Environment editor, The Age Melbourne’s entire tram network could be powered by solarAi??if the state government gaveAi??a bold renewable energy proposal the green light. While the pitchAi??may conjure upAi??images of trams with rooftop panels […]

Study Supports LRT

Someone should tell the SkyTrain Lobby that no one builds with SkyTrain anymore; even the Canada Line isn’t SkyTrain! Modern light rail made SkyTrain and light metro obsolete decades ago, yet no seems to read the news in this part of the world, with many people still championing SkyTrain, a transit system that costs more […]

Understanding the benefits of modern light rail

What is good for New South Wales in Australia, is certainly good for BC. The benefits of building with light rail and I so wish local politicians take the time and read the following. ITLS_presentation_5_May_2015_-_McKibbin_-_Light_Rail[1] The key building with light rail is building it right, serving major transit destinations as well as areas of housing, […]

More TramTrains For Karlsruhe

Karlsruhe, Germany, the birthplace of the TramTrain concept, goes from success to success. For twenty-two years, TramTrain have been operating in the Karlsruhe region with no major accidents, track sharing with both the city tram systems and mainline railways, providing affordable tram services to regions which otherwise would not been able to afford a quality […]

The Perils of Proprietary Railways

The Sydney Australia monorail was another expensive and short lived line. Now torn down, Sydney is now investing in light rail. The pitfalls of buying into a proprietary railway are many; for what was once “high tech” and “state of the art”, soon becomes yesterday’s tech and obsolete. Owners of proprietary railways, like to sell […]

How to build light rail in our cities without emptying the public purse

An interesting read and quite pertinent to our transit situation in the lower mainland. Both the BRT and SkyTrain Lobby’s have so perverted the concept of modern light rail, to support their own projects, that the concept of affordable LRT has all but disappeared from the TransLink lexicon. The following quote; “……….while cities with rubber-wheeled […]

Adios SkyTrain? Bombardier is selling off its rail division.

What would happen if the region continues to plan for SkyTrain, yet there is no SkyTrain? If a potential buyer for Bombardier’s rail division already has on the market it’s own proprietary railway or railways, they would probably discontinue SkyTrain which has not had a sale in over a decade and with one SkyTrain line […]

TramTrain for Hungary

From the International Railway Journal. As TransLink and the regional mayors still champion hugely expensive vanity projects for the region, TramTrain makes very good economic sense. A basic, bare-bones hourly service, using diesel light rail vehicles, from Vancouver to Chilliwack, would cost about $750 million. A more intense electric service, with a 20 minute service […]