Road tolls coming – welcome to tax and spend TransLink

Road tolls, the clarion call of tax and spend bureaucrats and politicians. What the boys and girls wanting road tolls or road pricing is more taxpayers money to waste on nextAi??to useless SkyTrain expansion, new posh offices, and ever higher salaries; better public transit is just an excuse, but not in the cards. For road […]

Toronto LRT latest

From Ai??TTCriders, a public transit advocacy group that gives transit riders a voice Why Silence Gary Webster? http://www.ttcriders.ca/ For the second time in less than a month, 5 TTC Commissioners are trying to silence TTC staff from doing their jobs: giving expert opinions on transit expansion that contradicts the Mayorai??i??s calls for subways. This time, […]

Vancouver’s Streetcar (Tram) Planning – TransLink Boldly Plans For The 1940’s

Recent comments on various transit blogs, by representatives of TransLink only confirm that TransLink does not wish to build with light rail and their current LRT/streetcar/tram planning for Vancouver is woefully dated. It has been mentioned several times in the past month that a 2010 news item from Karlsruhe Germany, that the main tram line […]

Atlanta & Cincinnati Streetcars

http://designinghealthycommunities.org/atlanta-getting-new-streetcar-line/ U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and local officials have kickedAi??off construction of a new 2.6-mile streetcar line that will run through the heart of Atlantaai??i??s business, tourism, and convention corridor, bringing jobs and new development to the city and reflecting President Obamaai??i??s blueprint for an America thatai??i??s built to last. […]

LRT victory in Toronto

Victory in Toronto as Mayor’s all subway plan defeated by council Toronto’s Mayor Ford lost anti-light rail battle “Ford loses council transit battle TTC chair’s proposal revises portions of Transit City plan” http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/02/08/toronto-transit-debate-city-hall.html Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has lost his battle in the City Council to save his all-subway vision for future rail transit. Instead, […]

A day in gridlocked Richmond

Zwei had business to conduct in Richmond yesterday and it was my first time I have driven around the municipality in many years. Yes, ‘Zwei‘ ventures to Landsdown Mall to rescue his wife from TransLink when she works late in Vancouver several times a week, but that is late at night and traffic is light. […]

TransLink and the Canada Line – The real story – Part 2

It even gets better! More from the email I received Monday and what a bombshell! If the following is to believed and I believe very strongly it is true, TransLink is doing a very poor, yet very expensive job in moving transit customers. This why TransLink and the provincial government are deathly afraid of an […]

TransLink and the Canada Line – The real story

The following was emailed to me last night and contains some explosive comments about TransLink and the RAV/Canada Line. Rand Chatterjee is one of the very few people who took the time to research the cost of the RAV/Canada Line and he clearly understands the nuances of the P-3 contract and the negative impact on […]

Review of Light Rail/Tramway costs

A Federal Parliamentry Review of Light Rail/Tramway/Transit costs must be carried out!Ai?? Both Fang & Zwei have posted articles in the past weeks on the high costs of Canadian LightAi??Rail, Tramway & Transit schemes. Vancouver, TorontoAi??and Waterloo. Design, Utility relocation, Financing vehicles (ie P3) Project management, Construction management, Land purchase and now theAi??concern that Ai??Canadian […]

Whatai??i??s the Best Way To Get Users To Embrace Mass Transit?

Make it pleasant? Or make it efficient? An article in Slate magazine http://www.slate.com/articles/life/transport/2012/01/jarrett_walker_s_human_transit_are_we_thinking_about_urban_planning_all_wrong_.html Make it pleasant? Or make it efficient? by Tom Vanderbilt A few months ago, at an urban mobility conference in Frankfurt, the British consultant Charles Leadbeater presented a sort of x-y matrix for thinking about how to manage and design cities. The […]