Prendergast’s parting words on Rail for the Valley

A couple weeks ago, it was announced that Translink CEO Tom Prendergast was quitting his position, and accepting a job as president of New York City’s Transit Authority. He had only joined Translink in July 2008, and now he has left! I am guessing he didn’t like what he saw. Prendergast was as positive a […]

From the Seattle Times – $26 million sought to buy land for portion of Eastside rail corridor

This transit story from the Seattle Times illustrates the land value for a soon to be abandoned rail lines, which with the current railway land deal, amounts toAi??Ai??slightly over $1 million a mile or about $0.6 million/km. A local example would be the Arbutus Corridor, which using the same formula as used in Seattle, would […]

Post number 300 and many more to come.

This post marks the 300th posting on the Rail for the Valley Blog and congratulations to (now) Dr. John Buker for all his efforts with the valley rail project. When John asked me to post for the RFV blog, I don’t think he expected such a “stormy petrel“. I have tried hardAi??Ai??to keep the blog […]

To Toll Or Not to Toll – That is The Question

There is a current push to implement Road Pricing or Road Tolls in the region by various levels of government, to help fund public transit. The problem is, Road pricing or tolling will not work unless there is a viable public transit alternative in place. There isn’t and road pricing will fail and those politicians […]

TransLink – what to do?

Jon Ferry has a go at TransLink in today’s Province and proposes that METRO Vancouver run the regional transit system. Sorry Jon, that will just perpetuate the incompetence that we have all grown to hate at TransLink. The problem with TransLink, aside with provincial interference, is an extremely dated transit modal, based on building very […]

The Seattle Monorail debate – The Blog’s Most Viewed Post

The Rail For The Valley’s most viewed blog post is “SeattleA?ai??i??ai???s monorail versus LRT debate A?ai??i??ai??? Same story, differentAi??Ai??players!”,Ai??Ai?? http://railforthevalley.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/seattles-monrail-versus-lrt-debate-same-story-different-players/Ai??Ai?? which at first glance is a little puzzling, but when one understands the massive public debate over the proposed Seattle monorail, it is not surprising at all that there is still much interest South of […]

From the Abbotsford News – TramTrain perfect for Valley LRT

TramTrain perfect for Valley LRT Published: November 10, 2009 The Light Rail Committee has long supported the reinstatement of the Vancouver to Chilliwack interurban service and has long corresponded to transportation experts in Europe and the USA, who also support the return of the interurban. The concept of TramTrain, where specially designed streetcars or diesel […]

From the Gaurdian UK – Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure, says whistleblower

Some sobering news from the U.K. If the article is true, then Campbell’s gamble on Gateway and the new Port Mann Bridge will be a colossal mistake; again the same is true of the RAV/Canada Line and the yet to be built Evergreen SkyTrain Line, which are far too expensive to expand to meet demand. […]

A Fact Sheet From the Light Rapid Transit Forum

It is interesting to note that TransLink has never claimed any modal shift from car to transit and one would well guess thatAi??Ai??TransLink’s bureaucratsAi??Ai??would beAi??Ai??extremely envious of the modal shift numbers published here. A question for Premier Campbell: “Has the RAV/Canada line taken your predicted 200,000 car trips off the road per day?” Has anyone […]

In The U.K. – First Ai??A?1,000 (CAD $1,760.00) rail fare revealed – From The Independant

And the privatization of British Rail, was to bring in a new era of competition and cheaper fares – not! First Ai??A?1,000 (CAD $1,760.00) rail fare revealed By Peter Woodman, Press Association Tuesday, 3 November 2009 The rise in the cost of train tickets has led to the first Ai??A?1,000 rail fare, it was revealed […]