Canucks Don’t Do Light Rapid Transit

  Certainly, Canada doesn’t do urban, interurban & regional rail based LRT, It used to be that the US was the most intransigent, obdurate & reactionary nation in the western world as far as transit, but the past ten years have seen a massive expansion of Light Rail, LRT, Tramways & Streetcar systems in America […]

http://youtu.be/pYj-YE_0jf0

TramTrain – A lesson in Urban, Interurban and regional transportation implementation

Quality integrated public transportation planning & implementation is an eminence which is in short supply in Vancouver, the Fraser Valley And BC as a whole, due in part to the narrow vision of Translink & the BC government. Translink & their advocates, exhibit a worrying arrogance; Vancouver-centric planning Blind determination to continue the expansion of […]

A bad week for Clarkai??i??s fading B.C. Liberals

Another Canadian politico, deep in the doodoo the sad fact is SkyTrain, the Canada Line and now the the Evergreen SkyTrain Line are big contributors to TransLink’s financial woes. building more SkyTrain only exacerbates the situation. by Gary Mason – Globe & Mail It should have been so simple and straightforward ai??i?? a premier announcing […]

LRT plan for Victoria has mayor nervously eyeing bill – From the Vancouver Sun

An interesting item in the Vancouver Sun. It should be noted that BC Transit, who oversaw the Victoria light rail planning, has a vested interest in keeping construction costs for LRT high as BC Transit was also the organization thatAi??oversaw the implementation of the first SkyTrain line in Vancouver and their anti-LRT bias has carried […]

Vancouver considers higher-density housing plans for Cambie Street corridor – Have we given land developers a $2.5 billion subsidy?

From the ‘Well I told you so department’. In Vancouver, expensive subways are built not to move people, but toAi??subsidize land development. Readers of the Rail for the Valley blog know that this announcement was predicted and why there much hype and hoopla in the mainstream media with the recently opened Canada line metro; the […]

The Sunday Supplement Essay

The fall out from Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts State of the City report Tuesday, has raged far & wide in the BC papers and on the blogosphere, not unexpectedly much of the debate has centered on the link between transport or transit, development or land use and city planning, residential unit design or population density. […]

The Emperor has no Clothes and no Transit

Vancouver is at first glance a beautiful city. It is surrounded by sweeping vistas and a dramatic skyline. The climate is moderate butAi??spend some time here and scratch the surface and it becomes far less attractive. It is a city that is divided politically; it is parochial, narrow minded and shallow. The people are characterless, […]

Toronto again! Ford & Gilbert sound-off & more irrelevant comparisons

Toronto owes mayor a thank you on transit Toronto Star.com February 24th http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/943888–toronto-owes-mayor-a-thank-you-on-transit#article Toronto owes Mayor Rob Ford a big thank you for three things. [Most definitely not] The first is for raising timely doubts about the wisdom of proceeding with Transit City. This was the previous council’s expensive one-size-fits-all plan to replace buses on […]

A 2010 retrospective and a happy New Year!

Itai??i??s traditional for the media and bloggers alike to wrap up the retreating year or welcome in the New Year with a retrospective of all that was bad, depressing, frustrating, good, humorous, irritating, scandalous or just plain bizarre in the twelve months that finished on the stroke of midnight on 31st December. Stephen Reesai??i??s blog […]

Have a Happy 2011 Toronto, love from Rob Ford

Rob Ford ready to let transit projects hold in favour of Sheppard subway Globe & Mail December 21st http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/rob-ford-ready-to-let-transit-projects-hold-in-favour-of-sheppard-subway/article1846354/   Mr. Ford has criticized light-rail transit as too similar to the streetcars he believes causes congestion in Toronto’s gridlocked roadways. He scoffed at the idea that monorails or a similar above-grade technology, which in theory […]