OK Premier Eby, Why not TramTrain?

Posted by zweisystem on Saturday, October 10, 2026 ·

In Germany, TramTrain operates on mainline railways with mixed passenger and freight service, with little problem.

It has now been 16 years since Rail for the Valley commissioned the Leewood Study on reestablishing a passenger rail service from Vancouver to Chilliwack and all the public got was invented excuses from all levels of government.

Light rail doesn’t work; no one will take it, too circuitous a route; etc., were the excuses of TransLink’s gold plated bureaucracy, most politicians and armchair experts.

Yet, TramTrain has become a powerful tool in affordably bringing rail transit to areas otherwise underserved by public transport.

What is TramTrain?

TramTrain is part of the light rail family that modern streetcars have the ability to operate as a streetcar or tram on-street track;  as light rail transit on a reserved or dedicated rights-of-way; and on mainline railways.

First used in Karlsrhue, Germany, since 1992, TramTrain, due to its low cost, has become an essential tool in providing the all important “seamless journey” that has proven to attract the motorist from the car.

A TramTrain in the city of Chemitz.

Consider the following:

• TransLink is spending well over the advertised cost of $6 billion to extend the SkyTrain light-metro 16 km.
• The total cost to extend both the Expo and Millennium Lines is now well over $18 billion. The government only gives ‘guideway’ costs, which the federal government is paying 40% all other costs are paid for by the province (Us)!
• The French city of Caen opened a 16 km tramway in 2019 for CAD $472million. in 2026 dollars.
• The region could spend under two billion to provide a 130 km.,  thrice hourly Marpole to Chilliwack TramTrain service, which would connect Vancouver directly to Cloverdale, Langley, Abbotsford, Sardis and Chilliwack.

To put this another way, the region could spend under $2 billion to build both LRT and a TramTrain that would provide a direct from Chilliwack to Marpole service, which in the future could be affordably extended to Richmond and downtown Vancouver!

Sadly, the concept building affordable transit in not in the NDP’s, lexicon as SkyTrain is built to win votes, win elections, not to affordably move people.

Telling the truth about SkyTrain is a revolutionary act in BC!