COLUMN: Surrey had great transit ai??i?? 100 years ago

From the Surrey News leader. The following link is for the Rail for the Valley/Leewood study for the return of the interurban! COLUMN: Surrey had great transit ai??i?? 100 years ago By Frank Bucholtz – Surrey North Delta Leader Published: June 26, 2013 I never thought I would ever see a genuine B.C. Electric Railway […]

TransLink Whinges for More Money

TransLink’s gold-plated transit planning needs funding and the the question is, which politicians are foolish enough to let Translink squander billions more taxpayer’s dollars? A Broadway subway costing $3 billion? Well if the proposed subway goes to UBC, the cost would be more like $4 billion. LRT can’t operate on Broadway? A LRT line on […]

All Roads Lead to Road Pricing

Force TransLink to efficiently and affordably operate the transit system – No. Force the taxpayer to ante up more money through road pricing (another name for a tax) – Yes. The following 1983 quote is from Norman Thompson; CBE, FCA, ACMA, English transit consultant and builder of the (then) world’s busiest subway on the decision […]

TransLink wants $23 billion to expand transit system

From your wildest dreams department: TransLink wants 23 billion dollars over the next three decades to improve transit. Ha, ha, ha; and this from an organization who has been less than honest about transit since their inception. Really boys & girls, do you still want the public to believe that subways will attract more new […]

French Trams Of The Future Could be Surrey’s Too!

I found this Alstom tram of the future quite striking! Designed by Alex Nadal, the tram is a tramtrain, able to operate both on tram (LRT) lines and on the mainline railways.

A New Patullo Bridge Must include A Fraser River Rail Bridge Replacement.

Though, not combined with an auto bridge, the modern railway lift bridge at Dordrecht, Netherlands is a good example of a modern railway lift span. The GVRD in the late 1970’s got it right; the replacement for the Patullo Bridge, must also include a new, multi track rail Fraser River Rail Bridge, replacing the current […]

Cost Canadian for new light rail construction.

Zwei has always challenged the Skytrain lobby that modern LRT was much cheaper to build than Skytrain, yet the SkyTrain Lobby still tries to make the cost new LRT construction in the Vancouver Metro area much more expensive than is should be. This intentional ‘gold-plating‘ of modern light rail by the City of Vancouver and […]

“Even your Auditor General seems to have done his sums on the back of envelopes.”

The above quote came from a European transit expert, when I asked him to comment on BC’s Auditor General’s claim that “SkyTrain and not light rail was the best option because of its greater capacity at similar costai??i??.ai???. I apologize for again questioning the AG’s findings, but the AG’s Department is so far off the […]

Letters to the Editor: Daryl versus Malcolm

Tit for tat department. Last Thursday SkyTrain lobbyist Daryl Dela Cruz had the following letter printed in the Surrey Leader. An elevated metro station, as envisioned by Mr. Dela Cruz. Expensive to build and to maintain which translates into higher operating costs. Light railai??i??s downsides Published: May 15, 2013Re: ai???Letai??i??s not get soaked by poorly […]

A Comparrison Of Operating Costs – SkyTrain & Light Rail

The late Des Turner was meticulous with his research with the SkyTrain light metro system and in 1988, embarrassed the then Social Credit Government to release the real costs of the mini-metro. What is more interesting is comparing the operating costs of the Calgary C-Train light rail and SkyTrain. Thought the operating costs are a […]