When SkyTrain Grows Old

Age is an expensive journey for older transit systems, especially older proprietary transit systems and the MK.1 cars operating on the SkyTrain network are indeed showing their age. The majority of Mk.1 cars are now over 34 years old and are in dire need of major maintenance and/or refurbishment. This is why TransLink is ordering […]

I am Shocked, Shocked!

  I am shocked, shocked, that SNC Lavalin hold the Engineering patents for the proprietary Movia metro (SkyTrain)!   Let’s not kid ourselves—Justin Trudeau has been the MP for SNC-Lavalin for a very long time by Charlie Smith on March 9th, 2019 at 8:20 AM In 2016, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (with then B.C. premier […]

A Grim Reminder For The Expo Line

A grim reminder indeed! Thanks to the Ford’s in 2010, the SRT remains in place instead of the planned LRT conversion that was supposed to up and running either late last year or this year. It would not only cover the exiting line, but the 1980 plan extension to Melven Town Centre. Then got to […]

The $11 billion Solution!

It seems our politicians and political wannabees are living in a financial ennui. The massive costs of our current transit planning are being ignored, with the rah, rah rant of the various rapid transit promoters glossing over the real costs of their various pet projects. Our so called experts ignore the costs and it is […]

Delusion Drives SkyTrain Planning South of the Fraser

The old fogies of politics are now driving the change from LRT to SkyTrain in Surrey. The same old lies. The same old deceit. The same old ignorance is now gaining control of regional transit south of the Fraser, as it has done in the rest of Metro Vancouver. The SkyTrain Lobby doesn’t care about […]

SkyTrain Costs That TransLink Do No Want The Taxpayer To Know

Many people who advocate for more SkyTrain extensions in the metro region, do not understand the costs associated with automatic train control or ATC, necessary for driverless operation. The cost of resignalling just one subway line in Toronto is said to cost CAD $562 million. TransLink’s problem is that to increase capacity on the Innovia […]

$580 Million Per Kilometre

Something TransLink and the Mayors Council on Transit likes to keep hidden. The cost of subway construction in Toronto is pegged at $580 million per km. By comparison, the cost for LRT (not in BC mind) is pegged at $35 million to $50 million per km. We can build 10 or more km of LRT […]

All Quiet On The Eastern Front

  Zwei has a habit of making people mad and the list is long. So, in an effort to even more people mad, I will recall a conversation I had a week or so back with a former NDP politician. The former NDP politician wishes to remain anonymous as the person does not want to […]

Madness

Good old Zwei has been blogging on local transit issues for the past 10 years, I can say that both recently announced “rail” transit projects are both hugely expensive, will not ease congestion and will fail to achieve their objective, except giving the excuse for land development adjacent to the routes. As advised by real […]

How a New Transit System Could Hobble Montreal, As It Hobbled Vancouver

Light-metro, the great philosopher’s stone for urban transportation in the 1970’s has turned out to be nothing more than a wet squib. BC’s provincial politicians have continually forced light-metro onto metro Vancouver, forcing bus riders by the tens of thousands to make transfers to pretend there is high ridership. Light-metro was so expensive that a […]