Towards financially sustainable mass transit systems

 The following was posted to the Light Rail Transit Association's blog and will be well worth a read!   Professor David Levinson http://tinyurl.com/3rl2o68 Human Transit: http://tinyurl.com/3ghdevt response http://tinyurl.com/3f2pfr4 The Transport Politic: http://tinyurl.com/3dj9kp2 response http://tinyurl.com/3zqqqz6 2nd Ave. Sagas: http://tinyurl.com/3stumfs response http://tinyurl.com/3c2gagx Streetsblog.net: http://tinyurl.com/3lfaaxw Enviro Boys: http://tinyurl.com/3b7ltb9 Pedestrian Observations http://tinyurl.com/3d949f6  

Vancouver city staff reject NPAA?ai??i??ai???s streetcar network proposal – Vancouver bureaucrats still want the valley taxpayer to pay for a Broadway subway!

Not surprising that Vancouver’s bureaucrats have rejected a proposed Vancouver streetcar; why build a cheap streetcar when you can sucker Fraser Valley politicians to fund a $4 billion SkyTrain subway under Broadway. Oh no, you say: Anton’s proposed streetcar has nothing to do about the Broadway rapid transit project. Well, sorry to say, it does, because city […]

Vancouver mayoralty candidate Susan Anton serious about streetcars!

Interesting and welcome news from Vancouver where right leaning mayoralty candidate, Susan Anton, is endorsing streetcars for Vancouver. Vancouver’sAi??current streetcar planning is extremely amateur, and what can one expect from a city, whose engineering departments have been so anti LRT! I do not think a private consortium will step forward to fund the current inept […]

Streetcars out for the North Shore, in for Vancouver!

Interesting local news about implementing a modern streetcar line in the greater Vancouver region. Modern trams are not as expensive as one would think as the following shows, but if TransLink is involved, the cost of a new tram/streetcar would be at almost ten times more! On October 11, 2006 he Spanish town of Véléz […]

Interesting letter in the Vancouver Sun – Is the proposed two cent a litre gas tax to fund SkyTrain renewals?

The Vancouver Sun, Like the old Soviet "Pravda" of old, is interesting for what it prints and for what it doesn't print. The Sun has been a long supporter of SkyTrain and the paper and its editorial board has gone so far as to play fast and loose with the truth about light rail. Anyone who […]

The Depeartment of Transport in the UK releases a positive report about LRT.

Modern LRT in Strassburg France, operating on a lawned (grassed) reserved rights-of-ways Just released, a positive report from the Department for Transport for light rail in the UK. http://www.dft.gov.uk/publications/green-light-for-light-rail Report: Green light for light rail (PDF – 561 KB)

As reality hits, the taxpayer will get hit harder!

Well, lots of news about SkyTrain and how it's getting older and whole lot of money must be spent to refurbish the metro system. Well, hasn't TransLink planned for this or do they just think that the taxpayer will shell out more money to keep the aging behemoth running. All transit systems age and transit […]

SkyTrain craps out again…………………

It is annoying, not only to commuters, but those who support other transit modes, that the SkyTrain Lobby continue this silly nonsense that it trundles back and forth with nary a problem. In just the past few weeks, the SkyTrain system has stalled due to many problems. TransLink wants desperately to build more SkyTrain and […]

News item in the Georgia Straight – Light rail, not more SkyTrain, is answer to TransLinkA?ai??i??ai???s cash crunch

Well the Georgia Straight is not afraid to print contrary opinions about our regional transit scene, unlike our mainstream media. It is worth to link to the original story and read the comments, all the usual suspects, spewing their nonsense in a vain attempt to "repeat a lie often enough, it becomes fact". Some are […]

A lightrail and streetcar primer.

The silly season has begun in the Vancouver region, with TransLink desperately trying to persuade regional mayors to levy more taxes to mainly pay for the Evergreen SkyTrain light-metro line. The following is a quick primer on streetcars, LRT and SkyTrain for use at upcoming transit dog and pony shows. Question: What is the difference […]