Really Mr. Zabel, You Can Do Better Than That
Really, Mr. Zabel, you can do better than this.
Switch motors do burn occasionally , but with the SkyTrain light metro system, when a switch motor burns out, the system goes down. When a switch motor burns out on a light rail line, the system does not go down and service is maintained. SkyTrain’s all too frequent switch motor problem points to lack of maintenance and not system age.
What TransLink’s spin doctor is trying to convey is that it is not the SkyTrain mini-metro that is at fault, rather it is age. Sorry sir, there are plenty of older rapid transit systems in operation that don not “pack it in” when a switch motor fails, especially when they are properly maintained.
Zwei is very cynical indeed and I think that the all too common service disruptions on SkyTrain due to system failures are contrived by Translink management to give the impression that huge sums of monies must be invested in SkyTrain to maintain service. Is TransLinkAi?? trying to convince the commuting public that new taxes are needed to keep the system functioning?
UPDATES: Problem fixed, Skytrain service back to normal
VANCOUVER/CKNW (AM980)7/9/2013
Another brutal morning for those riding the Skytrain Expo line.
A switch problem halted service between Edmonds and 29th Station.
Translink’s Derek Zabel says old age is a factor in the latest shutdown.
“The Expo Line is getting older….it was build in 1986, so we’re doing regular maintainenceAi??to make sure we keep these situations at minimum”UPDATE: Translink announced shortly before one pm the problem had been fixed and service restored.
Zwei, a quick idea. You spend a lot of time and energy on articles about specific breakdowns on the Skytrain system. Why not have this as a permanent sub category on the blog or your main website this way you could constantly track and group together common reoccuring problems and themes. It would probably have a lot more impact than the periodic reporting you have been doing. Looking over some your articles in the past I have noticed a small number of common themes that could be used to group together your articles. I would also suggest a sub category on the new Interurban line in operation now and another for the latest LRT equipment and it’s capabilities. If you look at Skytrain for Surrey site you see his ideas grouped around common themes. This is easier for lay people or new people to your blog to understand the issues at hand and it will show off more of the effort as well as the experience you have built up. Also it is easier for the so called power people and less time consuming for them while they are try to understand your group’s point of view. Many of your current categories are meaningless for people who are new to your website and blog. A group of Skytrain breakdowns articles and their growing number in large print beside the tittle, will cause enough wonder in casual observers that you have indeed been following and building up evidence over a long period. Over time you will be able to show people a history of your comments and how much debate each section (issue) raised. Just a suggestion.
What started out as a blog about Rail for the Valley and the interurban project has morphed into the local politic about transit and Metro Vancouver’s reliance on ICTS/ALRT/ALM/ART (SkyTrain).
The SkyTrain Lobby has opined that the SkyTrain never breaks down (well almost never) and I decided to report on the ‘reported’ breakdowns. What has astounded me is the number of times the damned thing has gone ka-put in the last 6 weeks and I have been told it is about one quarter of the times SkyTrain has suffered major problems.
Daryl Cruz and the SkyTrain for Surrey is a different matter. Mr. Cruz is a high-school student (unless he has graduated this year) and is a surrogate for the SkyTrain Lobby. Though he pretends he is a professional, he is not and i know he has upset several people with his pretend “I am a professional” modus operandai.
You are correct, the blog does need several categories such as SkyTrain, LRT, News and I will apply to the web master (definitely not me) to see what magic he can perform to make it happen.
Ideally, I would like to see some honesty from the SkyTrain Lobby, but as usual, there is little and the anti-LRT rhetoric that is being repeated in the media is astounding (the CoV Engineering Dept. has privately told an acquaintance of mine that LRT can’t climb hills, the very same hills that the old streetcars could climb)! I wish the mainstream media would actually do some reporting on transit matters and not just print Translink news releases as if they were news, if they did that, RftV could get back on track and promote the “Return of the Interurban”.
@Haveacow, it is an excellent idea to create categories with a common theme. It could possibly also be grouped geographically – Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa… in Canada. Many of the contributors appear to be from these cities.
For example, Vancouver sky train might include a sub-category which includes professional and published reports (Shirocca 2012, UBC 2009…) with factual information by independent bodies that aren’t publishing TransLink sponsored propaganda from SFU and UBC economics professors obtaining funding from TransLink.
On July 9th, only the CBC (major media) mentioned the latest sky train melt down and quickly removed the notice of it after the comments started to get nasty. TransLink has too much political influence here and moves quickly to censor any reports which might make it look bad.
If you would like suggestions I would do it this way. Your latest article and maybe the past 3 or 4 regardless of any category visible on you main page but no more. The rest get grouped into categories that are across the top bar below a main tittle.
Advatntages of LRT, Sky Train and it’s Problems, Translink issues and why we our own area transit agency, Our Solution, What Other Cities are doing, Our group and Mission Statement, Media
Across the bottom another bar secondary issues…
Infrastructure Issues, Vancouver area Traffic, Picture Gallery, Guest articles and comments, Transit 101, Link to your group’s site, Link to other LRT and Transit sites, Site policies and things. Put counters on all your boxes it shows off your point.
The order is not important and you can change the titles if you want this is to just give you a general idea. However, the subgroups on the top must be central to your issue. You can cheat a little and reload earlier blog articles so your counters are not at real low numbers. Sky Train doesn’t breakdown does it, well here are x number of past articles that prove my point.
The Media button is a special link for the media where you sum up your points and give just the important stuff (Just the facts mister!) Put important and I stress, only the important articles to give context to your arguments. In this section it is crtical that you do not have anything where you rant, that turns off the media in a big way. This is a section where they can get quick things that sum up your argument. Make sure there are lots of pictures that prove your point directly! A planning professor who did our first year studio course said it best. A good picture maybe worth a thousand words a great simple one is worth 10,000 lines (that’s lines of print).
Between the the two bars will be your a series of impotant pictures that deal with the site content. Below this is your latest blog articles (no more than 5). Clean crisp and simple (idiot simple) with clear basic choice boxes and as I was told, no extra clutter. We live in a visual society, basic tittles are always best. As much as it kills sometimes a tittle page that is too wordy is deadly for a site today. Like it or not, thats why the little High School Boy’s website (Sky Train for Surrey) is so good, it’s simple, gets to the point clearly and does not preach (whine) too much.
Just a suggestion, got to go.
We are working on it and your suggestions are much appreciated.
Here we go again so soon:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/07/17/bc-skytrain-delays.html
These guys at TransLink are inept amateurs making too much money for what they know and do. How many more breakdowns will there be before TransLink is dissolved? Hundreds, thousands… this is going to keep happening for another 18 months because the dimwits at TransLink don’t understand that you really can’t upgrade the Expo Line while operating it.
To refurbish the Expo Line, It has to be shut down to do it right and someone is eventually going to get killed to spur an investigation. No investigation required; these monkeys are stringing everyone along for as long as they can.
Do us all a favour, cancel the retarded Evergreen Line requiring the upgrades to the Expo Line and build a separate tram line at one-third the cost, instead. Let the Expo Line operate at its present capacity and mothball it when the sky trains start to fly off the rails.