Transportation Planning – A North American view

An interesting extract from a commentary comparing currentAi??North AmericanAi??practice with European `In Vancouver, over a decade ago at the grand opening of the heritage streetcar project, a chap from Bombardier singled me out. What he said after a few niceties, astounded me. To paraphrase, he claimed that: Vancouver’s SkyTrain greatly retarded sales of Bombardier built […]

Toronto Meet Your New Ride

New Toronto Streetcars http://lrv.ttc.ca/Ai?? is the website from the TTC on the new streetcars. The Toronto Transportation Societyai??i??s December newsletter has some interesting thoughts on the vehicle as well as photos of the half mock-up. The first 80 cars will have both pole and pantograph with the remainingAi?? (109 or 116 depending on the order) […]

Light Rail runs in inclement weather

Trams and Streetcars "Stuttering & Crapping out" not a chance brother! As in the winter of 2010/2011 when Light Rail & Trams continued to run across Europe as well as in Calgary, despite heavy snow falls, when Skytrain ground to an ignominious halt, likewise recent floods in Europe & Australia haven't stopped the Trams! Montpellier, France […]

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 […]

A Tale of Two Letters

The SkyTrain lobby has entered the Surrey political arena with the all so predictable misinformation that is so common with the "metro lobby". Sadly much of their anti-LRT rhetoric is thirty years out of date.   Light rail system may be the wrong choice Published: October 31, 2011 1:00 PM I have a few important points […]

The SkyTrain/LRT debate – 20 Years Too Late!

On Sunday, November 13, will be a civic election debate in the Fleetwood Library in Surrey (BC) on the topic SkyTrain versus LRT, the sad fact is, the SkyTrain versus LRT debate has been dealt with over twenty years ago and light rail won! That local political wannabees are still trying to turn SkyTrain lead into […]

The Novice’s Guide to “Rail” Transit Or…………

…………..cutting through the BS about light rail, SkyTrain and BRT. The following is a guide plus definitions about “rail” transit for the November civic elections. ALM: Automatic Light metro, the fourthAi??marketing name given for the SkyTrain family of light-metros, when Lavalin briefly ownedAi??SkyTrain before gong bankrupt. ALRT (1): Advanced Light Rail Transit, the secondAi??marketing name […]

Occupy TransLink and rid ourselves of the SkyTrain cult!

TransLink and SkyTrain in the news again. I find it strange that the mainstream media has failed to tackle the ‘SkyTrain’ question and continue to blather on about the benefits of SkyTrain, when the rest of the world have found none! The 34 year old proprietary SkyTrainAi??light-metro system has created it own operating philosophy in […]

The Ultimate BRT

Here we have the next generation of rapid bus. I understand Translink is sending stakeholders (first class) to see the new BRT in Action. Rumour has that the first trials will take place the first day of April, 2012. The following is a preview of the new  BRT. BRT Vision I think I'll take a tram […]

Contrasting Canadian News Posts

Freedom takes Flexity to the North American tram market http://www.railwaygazette.com/index.php?id=44&no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=14068&cHash=3eea2ae186 NORTH AMERICA: Bombardier Transportation President & CEO AndrAi?? Navarri launched the ai???Flexity Freedomai??i?? as the company’s tram platform for North America at APTA Expo 2011 in New Orleans on October 4. The 100% low-floor car is a parallel development to the Flexity 2, launched in […]