From The Centre For Transportation Excellence – The Anti-Public Transit Crowd

The following from the CFTE is interesting, as the following names pop up North of the 49th once in a while. Strangely, many in the SkyTrain lobby think that these people support SkyTrain because they attack modern Light Rail in the United States, but of course, they don’t build SkyTrain in the U.S. do they. […]

On-street Light Rail – Streetcars & Trams – How would it look?

The following are streetscapes and street cross sections of modern LRT (streetcars or trams) operating on-street and will help many to visualize how a modern tram would look on a typical city street in Vancouver, Langley, Abbotsford and even Chilliwack. The above picture shows a pure streetcar setting with cars and trams sharing a common […]

From the Surrey Leader – Exposing The SkyTrain Urban Myth

The following letter to the Surrey Leader certainly shreds the SkyTrain Urban Myth that it is faster and has more capacity than light rail. What the SkyTrain lobby and mainstream media forget, that both modes are railways (SkyTrain is an unconventional railway) and adhere to the same operating principals. SkyTrain’s reputation has been created by […]

Please consider joining the Light Rail Transit Association

It’s that time again, membership renewal requests are in the mail or in one’s email box.Ai??Ai??Zwei is renewing his annual subscription to the Light Rail Transit Association and would like you to consider joining the Light Rail Transit Association. There are three good reasons for joining the LRTA: 1) The LRTA membership includes an annual […]

LRT versus BUSES – Why Portland chose light rail – from the LRTA

The following article written by Gerald Fox,Ai??Ai??former TriMet Rail Corridor Manager, is well worth a read as it gives good insight why Portland opted for modern light rail. http://www.lrta.info/tramforward/TAUT-Oct09-LRTvBus.pdfAi??Ai?? Gerald Fox, one must remember is the same chap, who in the early 90’s, published a study, “A comparison of Automated Guided Transit (AGT) and Light […]

From the Seattle Times – $26 million sought to buy land for portion of Eastside rail corridor

This transit story from the Seattle Times illustrates the land value for a soon to be abandoned rail lines, which with the current railway land deal, amounts toAi??Ai??slightly over $1 million a mile or about $0.6 million/km. A local example would be the Arbutus Corridor, which using the same formula as used in Seattle, would […]

News From the Light Rail Transit Association – Los Angeles light rail expands

Los Angeles light rail expands : After a ceremony held on 14 November, the 9.6-km Gold light rail line extension from Union Station to East Los Angeles (Atlantic Boulevard) opened to the public with a free fares offer on 15 November. 50 000 passengers turned up to try the new service, which links with the […]

Post number 300 and many more to come.

This post marks the 300th posting on the Rail for the Valley Blog and congratulations to (now) Dr. John Buker for all his efforts with the valley rail project. When John asked me to post for the RFV blog, I don’t think he expected such a “stormy petrel“. I have tried hardAi??Ai??to keep the blog […]

The Seattle Monorail debate – The Blog’s Most Viewed Post

The Rail For The Valley’s most viewed blog post is “SeattleA?ai??i??ai???s monorail versus LRT debate A?ai??i??ai??? Same story, differentAi??Ai??players!”,Ai??Ai?? http://railforthevalley.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/seattles-monrail-versus-lrt-debate-same-story-different-players/Ai??Ai?? which at first glance is a little puzzling, but when one understands the massive public debate over the proposed Seattle monorail, it is not surprising at all that there is still much interest South of […]

From the Gaurdian UK – Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure, says whistleblower

Some sobering news from the U.K. If the article is true, then Campbell’s gamble on Gateway and the new Port Mann Bridge will be a colossal mistake; again the same is true of the RAV/Canada Line and the yet to be built Evergreen SkyTrain Line, which are far too expensive to expand to meet demand. […]