Des Sain-Bel to Lyon TramTrain

The West Lyon tram-train is a French light rail network, whose ticketing is integrated into the TER Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes service, connecting the center of the metropolis of Lyon to the west of the city The service was partially inaugurated from Lyon-Saint-Paul to Sain-Bel on September 22 and from Tassin to Brignais including the Tassin shunt, Saturday, […]

TramTrain – Success Ignored

The birth of what we call TramTrain or a streetcar that can operate on the mainline railways, came about after much research and public consultation, to provide the the city of Karlsruhe and region with a ‘user-friendly’ public transit system. In the 1980’s cities with trams or streetcars were seeing a steady decline in patronage […]

TramTrain – Gaining Momentum

Most people do not know what a TramTrain is. The concept is simple and in earlier times it was called the “interurban”. TramTrain is a modern streetcar or tram, so configured that it can operate on the railway mainline, thus very affordably servicing distant destinations, otherwise far too expensive for an independent tram/LRT line. First […]

TransLink’s Fear Of The Future And “The Interurban”

First posted by zweisystem on Tuesday, July 7, 2020 Updated. As the clamour continues by Vancouver politicians for the federal government to fund the now $8 billion Broadway subway to UBC, TransLink stays largely mute and for good reason, they know in today’s politcal climate, the feds won’t be anteing up. As politcans recklessly promise […]

A Slow Train to The Future

What is is badly needed in BC and Canada is regional railways. Local pundits have called for faster and faster rail transit, with some even advocating for high speed rail (HST) for the Fraser Valley as the only way to get people out of their cars. The current cost for the Expo Line extension to […]

Listen To The Experts

Currently the full program to extend the Expo and Millennium Lines a mere 21.7 km will now cost in excess of $16 billion. The now, estimated cost to complete the Broadway subway to UBC is now past $8 billion. Yet the provincial government had be carried kicking and screaming to find a few million of […]

Memo to the M.O.T. – Time to Reread The Leewood Study – Updated

First posted by on Saturday, May 2, 2020 Now fifteen years old, the Leewood Study, done by Leewood Projects (UK), to assess the viability of reinstating a passenger rail service from downtown Vancouver to Chilliwack via the former BC Electric R.R. route, is worth a revisit. Leewood Study The Leewood Study brought a fresh set […]

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

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. Is it not time for politicians have another look at the Leewood/Rail for the Valley Study?

Tram Trains for Romania!

The flexibility of the modern tram to operate on mainline railways is now being exploited in Romania. This means affordable, quality public transport can be extended to service customers, who would otherwise be excluded from transportation planning. Until our politcans and public clearly understand that building subways and elevated transit is not how to increase […]

The 2024 Provincial Election And Transit

How will the 2024 provincial election impact transit? Hard to answer but, the current major “rapid transit” (Expo and Millennium Lines) projects are seeing a funding shortfall of around $4 billion and it is hard to see the new Parliament in Victoria approving funding, for what is now largely seen a “prestige” transit projects. Oh, […]