Really? TransLink Tries To Spin The Evergreen Line

In the real world, modern trams or LRT lines are not considered unless traffic flows are 2,000 pphpd or more. Light-metro’s like SkyTrain, on the other hand, need traffic flows of at least 10,000 pphpd, to justify construction. Now, TransLink is trying to spin that a meager 30,000 boarding’s a day is good news. It’s […]

Light Rail Denial And TransLink

There seems to be a general naivete about Light Rail or LRT in the media, due in part to TransLink’s war on LRT, with their well advertised preference for light-metro. Today, except for “niche transit” solutions, public transport is divided into three modes, bus, tram, and metro; with each mode built to economically deal with […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Memo to Metro Mayors: Forget Road Pricing, build With LRT!

As Vancouver’s metro mayor’s dig themselves further into a financial morass, with the proposed now $3.2 billion Broadway subway to Arbutus and the now over $100/km Surrey LRT, which will demand more and more punitive regional taxation, why instead don’t we plan for affordable European style LRT? The trouble is, our regional mayors think they […]

SkyTrain – What TransLink Is Not Telling Us

This reply from Haveacow who is an Engineer, to an earlier post and I think worthy of a post on its own. He is familiar with SkyTrain and worked on the Ottawa LRT and inn other words he knows his stuff. Despite the ‘huff and puff’ from high paid TransLink spokes people about how the […]

Fare Gates – Not As Advertised

TransLink’s fare-gates and Compass Card system was forced upon TransLink, not to reduce fare evasion, which was well within industry norms, but to ensure then Premier Campbell’s good friend, Ken Dobell, work as aAi?? lobbyist for Cubit Industries who make the fare gates. Lobbyists must be successful with their lobby of government or no one […]