The SkyTrain Dream Collapsing

So, despite the hype and hoopla of SkyTrain being a driver for increased density, it is now being seen as the harbinger of urban sprawl as affordable housing is demolished and in its place unaffordable condos in towers are built. As rents exceed income and combined incomes of families (one now needs an income of […]

Caen Opens Its New 16km, $373 Million Tram/LRT System

The new 16.2 km tramway in Caen, France has opened after a nineteen month build. Granted the new tramway has used the the previous trouble prone, 15.7 km,  TVR rubber tire guided bus line, which opened in 20o2 and abandoned in 2017. The Euro €260 million (CAD $373 million) tramway opened six weeks earlier than […]

Streets Paved With Gold – Transit Planning is Driven By Politics

Footnotes: The author,  Adrienne Tanner,  was city editor at the Sun, a newspaper that prevented any real reporting of our regional transit issues and took orders from back east to report “SkyTrain” in a positive light. As well, there was little investigative reporting on SNC-Lavalin’s B.C. operations. Detroit’s ALRT system officially called a People Mover […]

Trams At The Heart Of The 21st Century Metropolis

With nearly 600 tram and light rail systems in operation around the world, this is hardly surprising. With Vancouver being the odd-ball city, insisting that the light-metro is the way to go, taxpayers have to have extremely deep pockets, to pay for the politicians  foolish financial excesses. During an era of record investment in urban […]

Less Transit For More Money – The Canadain Way

Here we go again. The combined naivete of regional mayors about regional transportation and the abandonment of their fiduciary duty protecting the taxpayer from ill advised “prestige projects” such as the Broadway subway and the Expo Line extension in Surrey, is just simply breathtaking! * Both the ill conceived Broadway subway and the now equally […]

No, It Does Not Make Sense

It is as I predicted, the people in the Fraser Valley are awakening to the realities of TransLink, poor transit and high taxes. Politicians have such poor memories of the 2015 plebiscite. For too long TransLink has done what the City of Vancouver’s wants, continuing the city’s perverse desire to have a gold plated, Edsel […]

A Stark Choice

The stark choice for the Fraser Valley. Does one want to spend $1.6 billion for seven or eight kilometres of a now obsolete light metro metro system, ending in  Fleetwood, with vague promises of future funding to go to Langley or a Vancouver to Chilliwack, via North Delta, Cloverdale, Abbotsford, Sardis and Chilliwack regional rail […]

Tax, tax, tax – SkyTrain Needs New And Higher Taxes

From the very beginning, building the SkyTrain network demanded new and higher taxes. As the SkyTrain light-metro network is automatic, it must be grade seperated and grade separation is costly. It is the Achilles heel of light-metro as construction is so costly, compared to other modes, that extending the initial line into areas of low […]

Mr. Cow Pegs It. Expo Line Extension Will Cost $3.2 billion

I am continually amazed that an area like the lower mainland of BC, an area that claims to be so high tech, yet can’t get its head around the simplicity of a regional rail line using already available track. Yet, will spend billions and you guys will be spending billions ($2.9-$3.2 Billion by current estimates) […]

A Message From The South Fraser Community Rail Society

TransLink is up to its old games of deception and fabrication, by repeating lies so often that the public believe them. Who is not afraid to bell the TransLink Cat? As a reminder, the South Fraser Community Rail Society is not Rail for the Valley, but we are striving for one goal, to reinstate a […]