And Then There Were Six – Metrolinx Says AdiA?A?s to SkyTrain

Toronto’sAi??Ai??Metrolinx is saying adiA?A?s to the SkyTrain (ICTS) Scarborough Line and will convert the route to LRT by 2015. In November 2009 Metrolinx, Toronto’s regional transit planning authority has decided to convert the 10 km. Scarborough ICTS (SkyTrain) light metro to LRT by 2015. The Scarborough ICTS/SkyTrain line is suffering the same fate as so […]

Battle looming between Vancouver and other regions over priority of rapid transit – From News 1130 Radio

Ai?? As expected, the Broadway UBC rapid transit project has gained prominence in the past few weeks and the SkyTrain lobby has taken to the blogosphere to spread “SkyTrain Speak.” SkyTrain Speak, is the myth and propaganda created by the SkyTrain lobby to further the causeAi??Ai?? promoting further construction of the obsolete proprietary light metro. […]

Trouble in Paradise – Honolulu’s Troubled Mini-Metro Project

There has been much comment on Honolulu’s elevated rapid transit project and now, asAi??Ai??expected (as with Seattle’s stillborn monorail project)Ai??Ai??financial problems are rearingAi??Ai??their ugly heads. What I find astounding that the estimated cost of the elevated metro is now pegged atAi??Ai??USD $5.3 billion andAi??Ai??is to carry a paltry 100,000 daily passengers by 2030. Shades ofAi??Ai?? […]

Phoenix: Light rail boosts uptown’s economic revival

From the Light Rail Now folks. There has been a lot of nay-saying about the new Phoenix LRT andAi??Ai??unlike our transit planning here, there was a long and full public debate about the project culminating in a winning public vote to proceed. Unlike SkyTrain, the Phoenix LRT, like so many other American LRT lines are […]

From the Georgia Straight – Transportation activists mobilize to thwart South Fraser Perimeter Road and Broadway SkyTrain

Charlie Smith has another good article in the Georgia Straight about transit and transportation in the region and of course the comments are well worth a read. http://straight.com/article-280315/vancouver/transportation-activists-mobilize-thwart-south-fraser-perimeter-road-and-broadway-skytrain Please attend the meetings. The January 16 meeting will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Sundance Banquet Hall (6574 Ladner Trunk Road). It’s served […]

France programs CAD $31.5 billion for urban electric rail transit development

Interesting news from France, where the government is investing at least CAD $31.15 billion in urban transit projects. What should be of interest to Rail for The Valley is that France is also investing TramTrain, which “operation is currently adamantly prohibited in the USA by the Federal Railroad Administration, but it has become widespread in […]

And Just What is Rapid Transit – Has TransLink Already Decided To Build A SkyTrain Subway To UBC?

Ai??Ai?? Bay Area Rapid Transit Over and over againAi??Ai??from media reporters and commentators, politicians and/or academics, we hear the term ‘rapid transit’, but are offered no definition to what rapid transit is. Is rapid transit a metro, rapid bus, light rail,Ai??Ai??or commuter rail?Ai??Ai??ThisAi??Ai??begs the question: “Just what is rapid transit?” Ai??Ai??Wikipedia defines rapid transit as: […]

The hysteria of the anti-LRT lobby – Time to get real!

On other local and US blogs, there is a growing hysteria that once light rail (streetcar or tram) operates on-street, there will be general panic among pedestrians, ultimately throwing themselves under the tram! Shades of the 1820’s railway hysteria, where trains were claimed to cause insanity and sour cows milk! I’m sorry to say, that […]

Why Rail for the Valley must set the agenda in 2010 for light rail in METRO Vancouver.

The region is at a juncture: either proceed with light-metro planning and build the Evergreen Line and extend SkyTrain to Langley by 2030 or abandon current regional transportation planning and start anew, but using LRT instead to service many more destinations in the region. Though TransLink is boasting about its three light-metro lines and continues […]

The Strange Case of the Karlsruhe TramTrain – Streetcar, LRV, or Commuter Train?

Recent posts on the LRTA blog, debated the the present definitions of streetcar/tram and light rail. North Americans tend to define LRT as a light-metro, where as EuropeansAi??Ai??associated LRT as a tram. Now added to the debateAi??Ai??is the tramtrain and the strange case of the Karlsruhe’s new Zweisystem (two system) LRT:Ai??Ai??is itAi??Ai??a tram or a […]