Smoke And Mirrors for The North Shore

Smoke and mirrors. Classic political bait and switch; bait the public into thinking that the province is really doing something, but in reality, doing nothing. The key is funding and of course funding is never mentioned. Without having each option showing cost, means the study is next to useless as people don’t have real information. […]

The Realities of Subway Mania In Lotus Land

  The realities of subway mania. Vancouver politicians live in “The Land of the Loyus Eaters”, when it comes to transit. In Greek mythology the lotus-eaters, were a race of people living on an island dominated by the Lotus tree. The lotus fruits and flowers were the primary food of the island and were a […]

We Are Back

  Memo to all Rail for the Valley is back! We have resolved our technical issues and now back on course bringing needed comment on metro Vancouver’s controversial transit scene.

Is The SkyTrain Lobby, Really The Auto Lobby In Disguise?

I have always wondered about the true intentions of the stout supporters of the SkyTrain light metro system and TransLink. Despite overwhelming evidence that the proprietary Movia Automatic Light Metro (MALM) system is dated and extremely expensive to operate, they champion the museum piece with invented issues like delaying cars at intersections or even worse, […]

The Grand Betrayal of the Fraser Valley

Coming back from a quickie holiday at Harrison Hot Springs, a few thoughts came to mind on my drive there and back. Traveling from South of the Fraser, one is certainly  aware of the mass of new housing being built and with scarce public transit or no transit at all, the only way for people […]

Adios Bombardier. Adios Movia Automatic Light Metro (SkyTrain)?

As predicted, Alstom is now buying Bombardier Transportation for CAD $10 billion. The question, which may worry Translink and the hapless Mayor’s Council on Transit is: “Will Alstom keep MALM (SkyTrain) production or abandon the proprietary light metro altogether? Will Alstom keep already expensive replacement parts available or discontinue production altogether?” I reached out for […]

Subway Costs – Is History Repeating Itself In Vancouver?

Again, words from a professional in the Canadian transit and transportation industry and it is a must read. Not all is what it seems, financially. Haveacow is a professional and uses the avatar because Canada is a small market and most transit schemes are political in nature and politicians can never be wrong and having […]

Life With SNC Lavalin

SNC Lavalin own engineering patents for the MALM (erroneously called SkyTrain) system used on the Expo and Millennium lines. SNC Lavalin leads the consortium operating the Canada line. The BC Liberal government inspired Canada Line (faux) P-3 saw SNC Lavalin, bidding against SNC Lavalin. On May 27th, 2009, after four years of litigation, BC Supreme […]

Canada Line Hype and Hoopla

One wonders why all the hype and hoopla is about with the new cars for the Canada Line? The recently delivered cars are standard ROTEM electrical multiple units, used by several transit systems, unlike the proprietary Movia Automatic Light Metro cars, used on the Expo and Millennium Lines. Also, very explicit is that there are […]

Track Issues

Really, TransLink’s “TransLink Speak” is getting tiresome. “Medical emergency” means another poor soul has committed suicide by throwing ones self in front of a train. “Track issues“, translates into a host of problems, but in TransLink’s lexicon, it generally means we don’t care and any excuse is a good excuse. What was the track issue? […]