Ottawa tries to avoid the Vanvouver T.O.D. disease.

In Vancouver, metro construction is planned andAi??built toAi??subsidize land development, not to provide better transit for customers. In theory it is to greatly increase ridership for the new metro line, in practice some unpleasant things happen,Ai??such asAi??people moving into the new high rise apartments and condos and driving to work because they work where the […]

E & N Blues

Want to kill a Railway? Starve it of funds and let it rust away and this seems the fate of the E & N railway. For a want of a mere $15 million to upgrade the tracks, the provincial government has loudly signaled that it wants to wash its hands of the E&N, especially when […]

Liar, liar, liar……….

It seems the SkyTrain Lobby has started a wee blog to compete with Rail for the Valley, called Surrey needs SkyTrainAi??and true to form, if one supports light rail, one is a liar. It is so sad to see so much time and effort is wasted on what is now an obsolete proprietary transit mode, […]

Hume: The suburbs ask: Whereai??i??s the subway? In Metro Vancouver, the ‘burbs ask: Where is SkyTrain?

Like the Vancouver Metro Region, everyone wants SkyTrain, but there is no money to pay for it. Trouble is, no one has explained this to civic and provincial politicians, who continue to promise multi billion dollar SkyTrain extensions. In the Fraser Valley mayor Watts of Surrey does get it, with her support for LRT construction, […]

A Tram Runs Through It!

IAi??couldn’t resist. In Freiburg Germany, trams co-exist with bicycles and buildings, without the doom and gloom and general transportation chaos predicted by the SkyTrain (a.k.a. metro) lobby. So sad when on this side of the pond, many regional politicians equate modern LRT as an anachronism from years gone by and not as a viable and […]

Light Rail and Streetcar Construction

The following is a series of photos showing tram construction in the French city of Tours. http://www.lineoz.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17564&p=345099#p345099 The French city of Tours (population 137,000) tram project is a transit is closely related to modern light rail with most of its route located in aAi??reserved rights-of-way. Work on the new tramway started in 2010, with completion […]

Road Pricing Coming To Surrey?

It seems that local bureaucrats are trying to persuade regional politicians to agree to a road-pricing or road toll scheme, to both ensure their incomes and pensions by increasing the transit and planning bureaucracies – OOPS, I meant to sayAi??increase funds for transit. For road pricing or road tolls to work, the region needs a […]

Light rail vs. SkyTrain expansion: Surrey transit a hot election issue

Well at least there is some discussion about modern LRT, but the SkyTrain lobby remains mute on one very important issue and that is funding. currently the region can afford only afford to build one metro line a decade, with light rail, we can build up to four light rail lines a decade. If Surrey […]

Could be Granville Street or Broadway

Though this is K Street in Sacramento, it could be Granville Street or Broadway in Vancouver!

Light rail closer to reality for Surrey, Langley – From Newsradio 11:30

Some positive news – well maybe, but we have all heard this before. If TransLink is involved with light rail planning for Surrey, it will fail for sure as TransLink couldn’t even plan for an outhouse, let alone understand its function. TransLink is famous for gold-plating proposed LRT that the cost becomes more than an […]