A Broadway subway: Do the numbers add up?

An interesting read from Toronto. Two items of interest: Contrary to North American thought, 14,000 persons per hour per direction is not near the upper limit of modern LRT. In 2014, the upper limit for LRT is about 25,000 pphpd. Unfortunately, Toronto’s transit gurus still live in the land of non articulated cars. “An old […]

The Penny Dreadful – The Transit Referendum Saga

The ongoing saga of the Mayor’s Council, TransLink, the Province, and the referendum reads like a ‘Penny Dreadful’. The province has no money, the metro mayors have no money, yet the metro mayors have approved a hugely expensive Vancouver centric rapid transit plan focused on a $2 to $3 billion truncated extension of the Millennium […]

Metro Vancouver Sleepwalks Into a Financial and Transportation Disaster.

There is so much wrong with this announcement that it boggles the mind, but it is suffice to say, this plan will not go anywhere. Let’s look at the basics of this announcement. A SkyTrain subway to Arbutus has nothing to do about transit ridership, it has everything to do about property development and ensuring […]

Gridlock Is Endemic In Vancouver and Will Be For Years To Come

Nothing new here. As the provincial government keeps building new highways and bridges, car use will increase, simple. As the provincial government, the City of Vancouver, TransLink, and Metro Vancouver, keep planning for and building hugely expensive mini-metro’s like SkyTrain and the Canada Line, for strictly political prestige and not as a convenient transit mode, […]

What Could Have Been – Should Have Been – Updated

One of the hardest transit plans to find in the Vancouver Metro Region is the 1978 Rapid Transit Preliminary Design, by the then GVRD. The reason why it is hard to find is that most of the copies were shredded and/or similarly destroyed on orders by the provincial government when they forced the SkyTrain mini-metro […]

TransLink’s ridership down and has a surplus

All the hype and hoopla about transit funding, reality has struck TransLink in the face like a banana cream pie; ridership has decline, yet there is a surplus or profit. Oh there are lots of excuses like fewer people working weekdays or there has been a decrease in employment in metro Vancouver and even with […]

For Donna – Part 2 – Debunking the SkyTrain myth. Rail for the Valley answers the UBC SkyTrain Lobby!

A repost from 2009! What has changed from 2009 is that the cost of a Broadway to UBC subway (full build) would be over $4 billion. Cut and cover subway construction will be used because the Susan Heyes court case has now set the precedent that TransLink can build a cut-and cover subway without paying […]

Dead Parrot Sketch Part 2

In all my years advocating for better transit in the Vancouver metro region, I have never heard an excuse for not building with LRT, that is as silly as this. “An European style lawned tram rights-of-way will kill birds.” How low will the SkyTrain lobby stoop to? Don’t believe me? A story in the Tyee […]

Broadway on the Radio

On News 1130 today. Light rail advocate argues against Broadway subway option. A Broadway subway is all about subsidizing Vision(less) backers and supporters, who have invested heavily assembling lands at potential subway stations, not about moving people efficiently or affordably. Light rail advocate argues against Broadway subway option The mayor of Vancouver thinks an underground […]

Who says LRT or streetcars can’t operate at close headways!

There is a reoccurring theme from the SkyTrain trolls at TransLink and the city of Vancouver that LRT can’t operate at close headway’s and one can hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth when they are corrected. “Lies”, they scream in unison, at every correction. It is extremely funny and extremely sad at the same […]