TransLink’s Sinking Ship

Zwei has been wondering why all the rah-rah SkyTrain posts on You Tube and it seems the answer is, ridership is collapsing on this gold plated transit system. This is very bad news because falling ridership equates to reduced service and reduced service translates to fewer buses and higher fares. Then there is the now […]

Lies, Damned Lies And The Broadway Subway

Translink, Metro Vancouver, and the provincial NDP, especially Minister of Transportation, Mike Farnsworth, are “flooding the zone”, with the Broadway subway, “nearing completion“, “on time and on budget“, “with change how people commute“, and the goody, “the line will be soon extended“. Why all the hype and hoopla? Like all big ticket items, politcans want […]

Telling The Truth About Transit In Metro Vancouver, Is A Revolutionary Act

The problem with the current transit system is simple, those in charge are doing the same thing over again, expecting different results. Not working! What is needed is a complete rethought how transit service is provided, based on customer needs and not TransLink’s or Victoria’s political needs. TransLink’s ridership has been in decline for almost […]

The Pied Piper of SkyTrain

Evidently, the 16km Expo Line to Langley is in trouble, so who else to defend this hugely expensive project but the folks at SkyTrain for Surrey, otherwise known as FOX Entertainment North. The claims made by SFS are breathtaking and needs serious comment. True to form, the deliberate misinformation by SkyTrain for Surrey is again […]

The MetroTown Express?

I have to ask, why an express bus to MetroTown? It is puzzling that TransLink would waste valuable money on an express bus to, transit wise, nowhere. It’s like the Broadway subway stopping at Arbutus and it just does not make sense. The 99-B “Rapid” (Express Bus) is successful because it largely serves UBC and […]

TransLink for Dummies – Updated

TransLink for Dummies ……….. or cutting through the BS about Local Transit. The following is a guide plus definitions. ALM: Automatic Light metro, the fourth marketing name given for the SkyTrain family of light-metros, when Lavalin briefly owned SkyTrain before going bankrupt. ALRT (1): Advanced Light Rail Transit, the second marketing name after ICTS for […]

A Comparrison Of Operating Costs – Revisited

Posted by zweisystem on Sunday, February 20, 2022 The continued misinformation from the usual sources about SkyTrain being cheap to operate, must be again, refuted. When compared to light rail, SkyTrain has cost much more to operate ad maintain. According to TransLink from information in 2020, the operational costs of both the Expo line extension […]

The Realities of Subway Mania In Lotus Land: A Repost From 2020 – The Song Remains The Same!

First posted by zweisystem on Wednesday, March 4, 2020 This was posted almost six years ago and the realities of subway construction are today, hitting home. The Broadway Subway, the 5.7 km continuation of the the Millennium Line, first pegged to cost $2.7 billion and open in 2024, has now well passed the $3 billion […]

De-spinning The Spin – The Broadway Subway

First published on July 8, 2022 under the title “The $1.47 Billion Solution”, recent comments about the Broadway subway need clarifying. The following quote sums up the capacity issue for the Millennium Line (Broadway subway). When the programme is fully implemented, the Expo Line will be able to accommodate 17,500 passengers per hour per direction, […]

Failure

Failure noun 1. lack of success: “an economic policy that is doomed to failure” 2. the neglect or omission of expected or required action: “their failure to comply with the basic rules” A rather intense phone call has prompted me to post this. The caller irately stated: “SkyTrain is not proprietary” and “Vancouver has the […]