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)

Improving Metro Vancouverai??i??s public transit system

It seems you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, especially ex GVRD types. Mr. Spaeth has, like many other GVRD/Metro Vancouver types, have deluded themselves that transit has taken cars of the road in Vancouver.Ai?? The reason for declining car use is the changing nature of the city, but this has not translated to […]

Death By Toll

Is anyone surprised by this? If you are, you are either residing outside Metro Vancouver or you are living in a bubble, because the taxpayer is maxed out. The BC Liberal regime of Gordon Campbell has off-loaded so many user fees, taxes and other costs on to the backs of taxpayers that he has all […]

Why we build with light rail

The following was Zweisystem’s first offering on the Rail for the Valley blog, posted on December 12, 2008. Five years and some 1,359 posts later, the message has stayed essentially the same; why does the provincial government and TransLink still pursue light metro instead of LRT, especially when light metro has proven inferior in service […]

TransLink’s Fiscal House of Cards

Is TransLink’s financial ‘house of cards‘ ready to collapse? It seems the independent commissioner overseeing TransLink thinks so. Certainly the ‘self proclaimed‘ transit experts are circling TransLink like vultures seem to thinks so, by advocating more onerous taxes on the public with ‘road pricing‘ and even a ‘border toll’. Zwei has not heard of one […]

Professor warns of suburban sprawl, ai???horrificai??i?? congestion.

Zwei has been warning about this for several years, and now, now someone has noticed? I’m sorry, but I just do not see any improvement in our regional transit chaos, until someone has the moral fortitude to put a wooden stake through the heart of SkyTrain. For too long, TransLink has been recycling bus riders […]

Yippee, Vancouver Is Number One!

So? What else is new? The provincial and regional governments have spent over $9 billion on three mini-metro lines that have done nothing to alleviate congestion; it will be dAi??jAi?? vu with the Evergreen Line and TransLinks still wants more taxpayer’s money to do the same thing again, hoping that it will work this time. […]

ZA?rich Suburban Light Rail Line Approved

From the Railway Gazette. The Swiss city of ZA?rich has approved a new suburban 13Ai??4 km tram line, the Limmattalbahn light rail line which would link the ZA?rich suburbs of Altstetten, Dietikon and Killwangen-Spreitenbach. The project is backed by the cantons of ZA?rich and Aargau, which would pay 75% and 25% of the estimated SFr670m […]

Advice Notes For Promoters Who Are Considering Light Rail

Thanks to David Cockle of Leewood Projects for sending the following ‘guidance notes’ for light rail, ultra light rail and more. UK Tram has produced a general Guidance Note and a series of Advice Notes for promoters who are considering a Light rail, Ultra Light Rail or Personal Rapid Transit Scheme.Ai?? These Notes provide promoters […]

Tram looks ahead to avoid collisions

New technology will make trams safer and here is a lesson to be learned. Modern light rail, trams and streetcars are constantly evolving, into a safer and and more convenient transit mode. There is no such evolution with SkyTrain as it is essentially the same mode since 1978, just tarted up every now and again. […]