The Emperor has no Clothes and no Transit – A Repost From March 27, 2011

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, […]

The ULI Land Developers Want A Subway – Surprise, Surprise, Surprise

From a group that claimed it would not talk about mode, the the Urban Land Institute, backs a subway and says “avoid light rail”. Zwei knew from the beginning this was nothing more than an elaborate set up to support Vancouver’s demand for a subway and to further support the almost discredited policy of ‘densification […]

SkyTrain ills

Oops, the transit system that never breaks down, according to the SkyTrain lobby was on the fritz again.Ai?? A stuck train caused transit chaos Wednesday afternoon, not a train that has broken down, mind you, a stuck train (glue on the tracks?). Well, trains normally don’t get stuck but when that do in the case […]

Liz James Takes On The TransLink Referendum

The fiery independent columnist Liz James is one of the few scribes that is willing to take on the TransLink behemoth with other than the political correctness that follows the issue. David Cockle, mentioned in Ms. James piece, is the very same David Cockle who did the famous Leewood/Rail for the Valley Study….. ….. and […]

The Land Developers are Coming to Town

The problem it seems is that the Urban Land Institute seems to be more interested in land development more than anything else and certainly do not seem to be transit experts as the news article portrays them to be. On the thorny question of what kind of technology the line should use ai??i?? SkyTrain, light […]

The Dundee Circulator – The Affordable Tram, a Template for Broadway?

The following was sent to us by our friends in the UK. What should be of extreme interest is the low cost for the proposed Dundee tram compared to the sky high costs for light rail from TransLink! The example of the 13.5 km Portland streetcar is of great interest as the costs break down […]

Clarity With Transit and TransLink ….. Ha, Ha, Ha!

The TransLink referendum continues to provide angst with politicians and TransLink and so it should, because both parties really haven’t a clue about public transit. The new Chair of TransLink, Marcella Szel.Ai?? A former Canadian Railway executive and Port Authority director, has absolutely no background in urban transit and seems to have been chosen because, […]

The Novice’s Guide toTransit Updated

or cutting through the BS about light rail, SkyTrain and BRT. The following is a guide plus definitions about transit. ALM: Automatic Light metro, the fourth marketing name given for the SkyTrain family of light-metros, when Lavalin briefly owned SkyTrain before gong bankrupt. ALRT (1): Advanced Light Rail Transit, the second marketing name for SkyTrain. […]

TransLink Referendum Mayhem

Welcome to the BC Liberal world of transit, where transit or should I say transit mega-projects are a means for winning elections, nothing more. The Canada Line is a good example, where ten BC Premier wanted to showcase a transit P-3, but the problem arose that SkyTrain, being a proprietary railway, made near to impossible […]

What $536 Million Will Buy You, Part 2 – A Rail for the Valley TramTrain

The Leewood Study Diesel Hybrid option Stage 1 Phase 1. It is as simple as that. http://www.railforthevalley.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/chilliwacktosurreyinterurbanfinalreportr.pdf – Chilliwack to Scott Road [Diesel/hybrid option] summary capital cost . CAD $491,819,424.00 (CAD $5.02m per km)