The Failure To Understand Modern Light Rail = Public Transit Chaos

‘Zwei’ has been taken aback by the viciousness of the SkyTrain Lobby and the great lengths they haveAi??Ai??taken in discrediting the LRT, while at the same time refusing to acknowledge the marketing failure of the proprietary (ICTS/ALRT/ALM/ART ) light-metro system, known in Vancouver as SkyTrain. ‘Zwei’ is also taken aback by abject refusalAi??Ai??by many supposed […]

The 1986 LRTA Study: Bus – LRT – Metro Comparison

The followingAi??Ai??is from the Light Rail Transit Associations hand book Light Rail Transit Today, comparing the operating parameters of bus, light rail, and metro on an unimpeded 8 kilometre route with stations every 450 metres. Using real data based on acceleration, deceleration, dwell time, etc., the study gives real time information for the three transit […]

A Poll That the Main Stream Media Ignored. Can We Expect The Same For Other Non SkyTrain ‘Rail’ Projects?

A very strange thing happenedAi??yesterday with ‘Zwei’. When I was discussing a transit matter with an US transit type about the RAV/Canada line. He told me that TransLink officials claimed that over 80% of Vancouverites supported RAV and if it were not for the high costs of the metro, many more metro type transit systems […]

The Broadway Follies Part 3 A?ai??i??ai??? Questions & Answers about SkyTrain

We continueAi??Ai??with the question and answer format about Broadway’s transit issues, with a focus on SkyTrain. Vancouver is the only city in the world that continues to plan and build solely with automatic (driverless) light-metro and many people would like to know why. First, we must tackle the issue of SkyTrain and answer questions posed […]

Lieutenant GovernorA?ai??i??ai???s Award for Canada Line builder SNC-Lavalin criticized – From the Georgia Straight

An interesting article from the Georgia Straight, shining some light on SNC Lavalin wining the Lieutenant GovernorA?ai??i??ai???s Award for Engineering Excellence. Deserved or not, the comments (on the Georgia Straight Link) are worth reading. Somehow building an economy metro line, that does nothing special and when the taxpayer is kept from finding the real cost, […]

Campbell’s "Reshuffling of The Deck Chairs on TransLink" Can’t Hide The fact That TransLink, is Steering Directly Into a Financial Iceberg!

The provincial government has in effect (to use that old clichA?Ai??) “Rearranged the deck chairs on the Titanic“. Unable and/or unwilling to admit to the real problem with TransLink and regional transit is that building hugely expensive metros on routes that do not have the ridership to sustain them, requiresAi??Ai??large subsidies and those subsidiesAi??Ai??takes moniesAi??Ai??from […]

Two Tram projects planned in northern France. What no VAL?

What is interesting about this announcement is that the new tram projects are planned near Lille France, which operates the VAL automatic mini-metro. The two approved tram or light-rail lines are very close to the City of Lille and the VAL mini-metro system. This poses the question: Why not build with VAL? French cities that […]

Light Rail & Tramways Growth Continues With new Openings in 2010

From May’s issue ofAi??Ai??Tramway’s & Urban Transit comes a list of new LRT openings in 2010, almost one every six weeks. The following is a partial list of new LRT/tram and TramTrain systems. It is interesting to note the increase of TramTrain expansion, both in Europe and in North America. Also, when compared to metro […]

The Broadway Follies – TransLink does the Gong Show

Here we go again, TransLink’s famous planning exercises that in the end will please no one and achieve very little. There is no bold ‘grand plan’ but more of the same, a little BRT here; a little SkyTrain there, with a hint of LRT thrown in to keep the trolley-jolly types happy. With all the […]

Transit Agency Approves Cuts, and More Bad News Looms – From the New York Times

It seems that New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority is in dire fancial straights, just like our TransLink. What should not be forgotten is that even though New York has a vast subway system and massive daily ridership, mainteneace cost for that subway are massive and contributing to their finacial plight. For those preaching a subway […]