Subways Age Badly

Old Zwei has touched this subject many times; Subways age badly and they cost a lot to keep in good condition. Renewal costs are not generally factored in with budget calculations and tend to be a nasty surprise for politicians who were not around when the subway first opened. Yet, despite this, subways are the […]

Evergreen Line Cost Overruns & Broadway Subway Censorship – Business As Usual At TransLink

Hats off to Bob Mackin, for his continued journalistic investigation of TransLink and SkyTrain. The cost overruns on the Evergreen Line were expected as TransLink’s Business Case for ART for the Evergreen Line was as phony asAi?? the proverbial $3.00 bill. Also, it is no surprise that TransLink is censoring its Broadway subway and Surrey […]

Subway Blunders in Europe ai??i?? Can “Old Dog” TransLink Learn From Otherai??i??s Mistakes?

Subway Blunders in Europe ai??i?? Can TransLink Learn From Other’s Mistakes? From a September 2012 post. Unfortunately, many of the links no longer work and have been omitted for brevity. Herr Keller is a German transit specialist from Germany and gives wonderful insight to the pitfalls of building new subways for the sake of building […]

Begging For Cash

As the old adage says; “When beggars knock at the door, rush out the back door and check the chickens”; Premier Clark is off to Ottawa begging for some cash for her two ill-found vanity transit projects, the $3 billion Broadway subway and the $2.3 billion Surrey LRT, that local voters rejected in the past […]

Since When KPMG Become Transit Consultants?

The following news headline from the CBC Cabinet ministers met publicly with KPMG while firm’s tax ‘sham’ under CRA probe may pose some questions, but UBC prof. Patrick Condon would like to remind us all that……..   This is the firm UBC and City of Vancouver entrusted our study of the Broadway subway to. Sheesh. […]

In Toronto – A $3 Billion Subway Carries Fewer Customers Than A Streetcar Line!

Those who promote a Broadway subway had better beware, subways are not the magic elixir in attracting ridership. A Toronto CBC news story giving mayoralty hopeful Doug Ford (brother of the discredited Rob Ford) an “F” for his subway plans contains an interesting item: “The Sheppard subway is a classic example,” said Bedford. “It cost […]

The Moonbeam Line

The Moonbeam Line is an apt name for the for Vancouver Mayor, Gregor Robinson’s pet Broadway subway project, as the subway planning has a foundation of stuff and nonsense. This hokumAi?? that a subway would be of “national significance”, is pure hoopla, from a mayor eager to spend vast sums of other people’s money for […]

Subway cost per mile nearly 9 times higher than for light rail, says study

Recent study results of subway-LRT investment costs posted on the Light Rail Now (LRN) site provide a sobering reality check on the cost issue. http://austinrailnow.wordpress.com/2014/02/15/subway-cost-per-mile-nearly-9-times-higher-than-for-light-rail-says-study/ Projects examined were an assortment of “recent urban rail projects (all from the 2000s), either completed or well under construction and fully budgeted.” The report lists 24 subway and 13 […]

Light Rail Fits in

Light Rail Fits in, that is unless you live in Vancouver where corruption, Canadian Transit Politics and incompetence threatens logic and commonsense Of all the modes of transport electric railways have proven to be the most successful in providing an alternative choice that entices people to leave their cars at home. With light rail it […]

Why Is TransLink’s Price for Light Rail Triple What Other Cities Pay?

Arguments for spending billions on SkyTrain along Broadway rest on oddly high estimates for the alternative: light rail. ByAi??Kathryn Mandell and Patrick M. Condon, Today, TheTyee.ca http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/11/28/TransLink-Light-Rail/ Future interrupted? Why is Vancouver light rail assumed to be three times more expensive than elsewhere? Image source: Steer Davies Gleave.Ai??Ai??Ai?? An extremely expensive decision for taxpayers looms […]