Debunking the SkyTrain myth part 5. Thirty years of SkyTrain planning – the years that the Locusts hath eaten!
In the late 1970’s, after much study and with regional consensus, Greater Vancouver’s Regional Authority, the GVRD,Ai??Ai??was on the verge of approving three light rail lines; Vancouver to Whalley (via New Westminster); New Westminster to Lougheed Mall and Vancouver to Richmond. Costing $350 million to $460 million. It wasn’t to be. The then Social Credit […]
The demise of the Evergreen Line – How does this affect the valley interurban?
It seems that TransLink, which is in deep financial trouble, is on the verge of dumping the Evergreen SkyTrain Line. No surprise here as the proposed Evergreen line follows a route with little ridership potential. Despite claims and opinions to the contrary, there is little demand for a SkyTrain metro extension to the Tri-Cities as […]
Light rail – The safest public transit mode!
The following item is from Phoenix’s METRO Rail and addresses the safety issue of light rail. Much is said about the safety of on-street light rail or streetcars safety, especially at intersections, yet statistical analysis shows that a light rail/tram automobile intersection is much safer than an automobile automobile intersection. Accidents will happen and in […]
The high cost of subway construction compared to LRT
Ai??Ai??The following excerpt from the UK House of Commons Select Committee on light rail, 2000, reported the following subway construction costs in 2004 Canadian dollars:Ai??ai??i?? Toulouse metro line B – CAD $161 million/km. Turin metro extension – CAD $196 million/km. Meteor Metro, Paris – CAD $290 million/km. Singapore metro – CAD $420.7 million/km. Jubilee Line […]
TransLink funding crunch has mayors worried about Evergreen – From the Tri-City News
This is not surprising at all, with very little ridership potential and massive costs, it is real challenge to make the Evergreen Line SkyTrain, light-metro line successful! Again, TransLink completely ignores the folly of building hugely expensive metro lines on transit lines with not nearly enough ridership to demand metro service. TransLink is bankrupt, yet […]
Time to Bell TransLink’s Cat
A letter that appeared in several lower mainland weeklies. Editor: TransLink is bankrupt, but as every bureaucracy knows, the taxpayer can be forced to ante up; in Canada, higher taxes cures all ills. TransLink may not know how to plan for affordable transit, but the ‘boys and girls in the ivory towers’ know how to […]
From Seattle – The end of the line, for now: Tukwila is the jewel in the crown of Link – Mike Lindblom – Seattle Times
Though Seattle’s light rail project has more in common with Vancouver’s light-metro system, it does have portions running on city streets. Through the Duwamish River valley, it operates as a light-metro, running on a 8 km. viaduct. As soon as light-rail trains head south out of Seattle, leaving the streets of Rainier Valley, the ride […]
Rail reality grows with Hydro’s revelation – The Vancouver Province.
Ai??Ai??From the Vancouver Province and thanks for Brian Lewis for following this story! Advocates for establishing a light-rail passenger service in the Fraser Valley have found an ally in B.C. Hydro. And, not surprisingly, they’ve also found an opponent in mighty Canadian Pacific Ltd., the railway-based corporation that many have loved to hate throughout its […]
How green is my rapid transit?
By popular demand, another posting on ‘green’ or grassed light rail rights-of-ways. Grassed light rail lines bring a ‘cooling’ green park-like atmosphere to city tram lines. Lawned rights-of-ways are also used on heavier (fast) light-rail lines on suburban routes. Even in dense city centres, a lawned tram line is ascetically appealing. The appealing nature of […]
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 […]
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