Another “Malcolm Letter”, As TransLink Grinds Its Teeth.

The letter in the Surrey Leader says it all………….. Sales tax wonai??i??t resolve transit ills Published: August 28, 2013 The notion that a $0.5-per-cent sales tax increase will solve TransLinkai??i??s financial ills is naive in the extreme; spending more money on unsustainable transit projects will only exacerbate TransLinkai??i??s money woes. TransLink faces many problems, including […]

The TransLink House of Cards

This recent piece in the Surrey Leader make for unpleasant times at the ‘House of TransLink‘. TransLink is broken and all the provincial politicians and all the civic politicians can’t put TransLink back together again. OPINION: Who’s behind the wheel at TransLink By Contributed – Surrey North Delta Leader Published: August 07, 2013 Who is […]

Liz James Sings The TransLink Blues

Liz James is one of the few columnists in the region that has taken the times to research our local transit fiasco and she has well demonstrated that she understands the issue. Unlike the mainstream media, which collectively have not done much research on the issue (some even believe that no builds with LRT anymore!) […]

A Letter In The Vancouver Sun

Ah “Road Pricing”, the next great tax grab by regional politicians and bureaucrats. When, oh when will they learn to make do with much cheaper and just as effective light rail? The sad fact is, if regional politicians do get their wish and road pricing is approved, kiss goodbye to any sane and/or affordable transit […]

Liz James asks important questions

Liz James, who writes opinion pieces for the North Shore News, asks some ‘striking’ questions of the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation, the question is; “are they willing to answer?“ The answer is no, as the regional mayors are afraid of a referendum and the reason is simple, they are afraid of a “none of […]

Zwei Told Ya So…………Despite massive investment in public transit, most Metro Vancouver residents favour commuting by car

In the 21st century, public transit is seen as a product and if the product is good, people will use it. In Metro Vancouver, public transit is seen as an experiment of sorts, combining extremely dated transit operation, land development and social welfare into a hodge-podge local transit philosophy which, despite a now over $8 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Regional Politicos Play Russian Roulette With the Province

The regional cities and municipalities are digging the financial spurs into the province to come up with a new TransLink deal, the problem is, the province may go along with this and let the regional mayors hoist themselves on their own petard and let the regional mayors decide how to pay for major regional transit […]