News From Portland – Trams and Light Rail

The newly-redesigned Portland Streetcar website is especially informative, and is doing a great job reporting on the week-by-week progress of our forthcoming east side (of the Willamette River) streetcar line. For example, see http://portlandstreetcar.org/node/16 for a video visualization of the new line, and also http://portlandstreetcar.org/node/12 which has a good map and discussion of the current […]

Prefab tram track = fast construction! Friends of the Broadway Light Rail/Streetcar Take Note!

The following article from EccoRussia, gives an account of the installation of 670 metres of prefabricated tram track on the Athens (Greece) light rail/tram in just 10 days or about 67 metres of new tram track a day! At this speed of track laying it would take a mere 14 days to lay one kilometre […]

TramTrain’s Now Invade Australia

What is good for Karlsruhe, Germany and maybe good for the Vancouver/Fraser Valley region, is now seen as good for Newcastle Australia! For a transit mode that is yet 20 years old, the simplicityAi??Ai??andAi??Ai??cost effectiveness of TramTrain is being demonstrate not only in Europe and North America, but now also in Australia. Communities are pressurizing […]

From Bus to Light Rail

From to Light Rail. The following Master’s Degree Project – Ottawa’s Transit Busway to Light Rail by David James, is well worth a read. http://homepages.ucalgary.ca/~dpjames/mdp/david_james-mdp-final.pdf

City & Populations With Light Rail

From David Cockle. Rank City / Urban area Country Population Land area (in sqKm) Density (people per sqKm Ai??Ai?? 100 Warsaw Poland 2,000,000 466 4,300 101 Denver USA 1,985,000 1,292 1,550 102 Cologne/Bonn Germany 1,960,000 816 2,400 103 Hamburg Germany 1,925,000 829 2,300 104 Dubai UAE 1,900,000 712 2,650 105 Pretoria South Africa 1,850,000 673 […]

New highway won’t help tunnel – Then why build a new highway?

Now the truth comes out, the new Gateway highway being built across Delta farm land won’t reduce truck traffic through the tunnel. Mind you we knew this years ago, but the provincial government and transportation minions said “oh no, Gateway would take a lot of trucks off the 99 highway (with implications of reducing truck […]

More U-Tube and light rail web sites

Ai??Ai?? Ai??Ai?? A thank you to David Cockle for providing these very interesting-Tube and websites! Simon Smiler A?ai??i??ai??? Citytransport.info http://citytransport.info/Frame.htm http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=citytransportinfo#g/u Agos Vaga aka Hamster A?ai??i??ai??? Tram-hiker’s Guide to BudapestAi??Ai?? http://www.hampage.hu/kozlekedes/thg2bp/ http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=hamsterhamster2002#g/u

500 Posts – The story so far……………..

Todays post, marks the five hundredth post on the Rail for The Valley blog and today I want to reflect on the main themes that keep out transit debates going. The Canada line Again, anotherAi??Ai??major Canada Line storyAi??Ai??by the Vancouver Province news paper…. http://www.theprovince.com/business/Canada+Line+year+later+Next+stop+construction+controversy/3400752/story.html -and I wonder why the Vancouver Province keeps writing ‘puff’ stories […]

Light Rail Hot Spots

A thank you to David Cockle for providing these links to ‘light rail hot spots’. Phoenix: http://phoenix.metromix.com/bars-and-clubs/roundup/light-rail-hot-spots/813975/content San Jose: http://rent.sheaapartments.com/SheaApartmentscom/bid/10986/Go-Green-with-VTA-in-San-Jose-Find-Park-and-Ride-Stops-Near-Your-San-Jose-Apartments Sacramento: http://www.sacrt.com/rt4teens.stm Seattle http://www.deliciousbaby.com/journal/2010/jan/15/seattles-link-light-rail-kids-part-2/ Sydney: http://www.metrotransport.com.au/index.php/lightrail/home-2.html Krakow: http://www.chillisauce.co.uk/hen/krakow/party-bus/product_2707/ Prague: http://www.praguenet.com/compass/number_3/nightlife.html Amsterdam: http://www.imagenature.com/galleries/amsterdam/amsterdam-night-scene.php Lisbon: http://www.traveleurope.com/blog/en/five-things-not-to-miss-in-lisbon/ Melbourne: http://www.bcl.com.au/melbourne/views/mk020.htm Baltimore (Paris, Nice, Montpellier) http://www.purplelinenow.com/mixed_mode.html Nottingham: http://www.visitnottingham.com/exec/103562/2289/

Come On Now Mainstream Media, Why All The Hype And Hoopla Over The Canada Line?

In the past week, the mainstream media have been singing loud hosannas about the success of the Canada Line, how it is surpassing ridership projections and all is happiness. What the MSM failed toAi??Ai??mention is thatAi??Ai??over 80% of the total trips on the RAV/Canada line have come from about 40,000 or so bus riders who […]