BRT to LRT in Ottawa

Until now, Ottawa invested in BRT to move transit customers into the city. This of course to an operationally expensive transit system as employee costs can be as much a 80% of a transit system’s budget. (Ottawa’s bus photo’s courtesy of Mr. Haveacow) With BRT, buses jams were frequent and city streets became congested with […]

TransLink’s Subway Fiscal Time Bomb

The SkyTrain/metro Lobby remain mute on the long term fiscal effects of operating subways, especially on routes that have low ridership, say less than 15,000 pphpd. Building a subway is a very expensive proposition and many factors should be considered before embarking on such a costly investment. The first questionAi??any knowledgeable transit planner must ask […]

Appeal Court upholds Canada Line class-action of Cambie Street merchants – From the Vancouver Sun

It seems in BC, justice from the courts depends on the judge presiding over the case and not the law. From the same court of appeal which rejected former Cambie Street merchant Susan Heyes award for ‘nuisance‘ due to Canada line cut-and-cover construction, now upholds a class-action lawsuit by Cambie Street merchants for nuisance for […]

Susan Heyes

It seems TransLink, in the guise of RAVCo; in the guise of the Canada Line P-3, is the only major subway cut-and-cover projects that did not plan for compensation to affected businesses. In three years of research, Zwei has failed to find a major transit scheme, let alone a cut-and cover subway projects, that didn't […]

Will legal woes derail TransLink?

The merchants along Cambie Street were treated extremely badly by everyone involved with the RAV/Canada metro line subway construction project. Now, with Ms. Heyes winning a $600,000.00 lawsuit against TransLink, the legalAi??Ai??floodgates have been opened for other merchants negatively affected by the RAV/Canada Line cut and cover subway construction to sue TransLink. The sad part […]

West Broadway Business Association calls for light rail

A new group, the West Broadway Business Association, has been formed: The WBBA is a non-profit society representing the local interests of businesses along West Broadway, from Alma to Burrard, and beyond to Cambie. They’re calling for a surface-level light rail or tram system along Broadway instead of the current plan to build a subway: […]