If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.A?ai??i??A?

The title quote by Joseph Goebbels, famed Nazi propagandist, aptly describes the SkyTrain lobby’s and BC Transit/TransLink’s thirty year long propaganda campaign to sell SkyTrain and discredit modern light rail. The many pro-SkyTrain blog sites that offer little in fact, but much unfounded rhetoric. All the bumf spewed hides one singular fact; that SkyTrain has […]

The little railway that could – From the Globe and Mail

Food for though; has anyone ever thought of buying the old interurban railway? Would the current owner consider selling? Patrick White Darlingford, Man. A?ai??i??ai??? From Wednesday’s Globe and Mail Last updated on Wednesday, Jul. 01, 2009 02:56AM EDT The jangle of crossing bells never sounded so sweet. They echoed across the town green in Darlingford, […]

A 2007 Presentation on Valley Rail – by the Light Rail Committee

First, before any discussion about rail transit, including Light Rail Transit, we must define LRT and other transit modes. The following is a brief descriptions of various transit modes advocated as solutions for transit in the region. Commuter rail: Locomotive hauled rail coaches or diesel or electric multiple unit trains, catering specifically to peak hour […]

What is the Cost of Building a Subway Line? Are Vancouver’s subway plans realistic?

Ai??Ai?? I found this item on the excellent ‘ The Toronto LRT Information Page’ http://lrt.daxack.ca/Ai??Ai?? What is the Cost of Building a Subway Line? Underground: $200 million to $250 million per kilometre At grade: $150 million to $200 million per kilometre …plus the cost of vehicles. Since Toronto has recent examples of constructed and proposed […]

Debunking the SkyTrain myth part 4 – The curse of the gadgetbahnen

Ai??Ai?? Ai??Ai?? Gadgetbahn (also gadgetbahnen) is a pejorative term used by some transit professionals to describe what they view as infeasible or unnecessary transportation concepts. It is a compounding of gadget, meaning “device that has a useful specific purpose and function. Gadgets tend to be more unusual or cleverly designed than normal technology,” and the […]

Cost estimate for light rail doubled over five years – WATERLOO REGION- Ontario

It is very hard to make comments on this bit of news because ‘we’ are not there, but it does seem that eitherAi??Ai??local planners have been negligent in their cost estimates or, as I suspect, city engineers have downloaded unneeded infrastructure charges onto the proposed LRT scheme. Certainly inflation has not been 100%Ai??Ai?? in five […]

There is a good reason why the propaganda system works the way it does. It recognizes that the public will not support the actual policies. Therefore it is important to prevent any knowledge or understanding of them.A?ai??i??A?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has promised to give $350 million for the beleaguered and ill planned Evergreen SkyTrain Line,Ai??Ai??which must bring joy to the hearts of the SkyTrain lobby and Bombardier Inc. The SkyTrain/metro lobby is waking up to the fact that Fraser Valley residents wantAi??Ai??light-rail and they want it sooner rather than later. For […]

The Valley Interurban – As Shovel Ready as One Can Get!

In today’s lexicon of government deficit spending, ‘shovel ready’ has become the clichA?Ai?? of choice for politicians to fund their pet mega-projects. Evergreen Line, Gateway are all said to be shovel ready, yet much planning and design work must take place before the shovels are actually in the ground. The Valley Interurban project is almost […]

Tales of Transit studies past – You’d be amazed at the hundreds of politicians manipulated over the last 30 years!

Since SkyTrain was forced onto the region, transit planning has been skewed to fit the expensive proprietary light-metro. Most recently, noted American transit specialist, Gerald Fox, found the business case for the Evergreen SkyTrain LineAi??Ai??had, “several instances where the analysis had made assumptions that were inaccurate, or had been manipulated to make the case for […]

Why it is important that SkyTrain not be built on the Evergreen Line

A letter in todays Vancouver Sun ~ SkyTrain extension not an astute investment Vancouver Sun January 8, 2009 The case for SkyTrain’s $1.4-billion Evergreen Line is terribly weak. Despite the hype and hoopla from local politicians, this version of a public-private partnership is more like a Ponzi scheme than an astute investment. David Gillen, director […]