Sobering Thoughts

The future may not be as transit friendly as many would have wished. The preceding chart should send chills down TransLink’s collective spine. Metro Vancouver’s transit system is based on the “Spoke and hub” theory of transit practice where major “transit hubs” are connected by light-metro and fed by a network of bus routes (spokes). […]

Happy New Years, Or Is It?

Transit news in the Vancouver metro region in 2015 was dominated by the TransLink plebiscite and despite over $12 million dollars spent to bolster the ‘YES” side the vote was decidedly against giving TransLink any more tax money. What is even more tragic is that the politicians, bureaucrats and academics who supported the “YES” side […]

TramTrain’s In The UK – Good News For Rail for the Valley

This news item from the UK, is good news for those who advocate for TramTrain operation in Canada. Why? The Sheffield TramTrains have gone through a rigorous safety program of testing overseen by the UK’s Office of Rail and Road formerly her Majesty’s Railway Inspectorate, a body that is highly respected around the world. Sheffield’s […]

If It Is Not Stock, Don’t buy It!

Our friend Haveacow is a Canadian Transportation Engineer and when he says something, we should be listening. * Zwei is not an engineer, but under the tutelage of the late Des Turner (Des was a chemical engineer who worked at Shell Oil, who took early retirement and went back to university and earned a master’s […]

A Letter to the Prime Minister – Transit Issues in Metro Vancouver

Sent November 9, 2015 Dear Prime Minister Trudeau; Congratulations on your recent electoral success and now a fresh wind sweeps across Canada. I have been an advocate for better public transit in the Metro Vancouver region for over 30 years. I have seen three major rapid transit projects built during this time and can honestly […]

The 1986 LRTA Study: Bus ai??i?? LRT ai??i?? Metro Comparison

I thought I would again reprint this post from May 20, 2010 as it may clear up some major misconceptions about LRT capacity, since many in Metro Vancouver are very confused about modern light rail. There is an ongoing debate today that LRTAi??can only carry a limited number of riders and that the magic number […]

In Toronto Developers Want Light Rail and Not A Subway!

Something new. In Toronto, developers want light rail and not an expensive subway to replace their life expired SkyTrain Line, the Scarborough R/T. What should be of interest is that the ridership on the proposed LRT/subway route, is more than the proposed SkyTrain subway under Broadway. Maybe Vision(less) Vancouver would rethink their grand Broadway subway […]

Vancouver Blunders Ahead With Its Vanity Project.

Well, Vision(less) Vancouver is blundering ahead with its much cherished $3 billion subway under Broadway and our feckless politicians South of the Fraser remaining willfully blind to this billions of dollars boondoggle. One would think they would be more in tuned with the costs of this massive project. Surrey has been bought off with its […]

Portland’s Streetcar, Connecting The Entire Community

This speaks for itself. I must remind the unconvinced that going from 4,000 users a day to 15,000 users a day (in TransLink’s convoluted lexicon, this equates to over 30,000 boarding’s a day), which is a big deal in the U.S.A. So here is a thought, instead of a $3 billion subway to Arbutus, with […]

Annual Tram/LRT Statistics

The following are the annual tram/LRT ridership statistics courtesy of the Eurotrams group. In contradiction to what many local politicians; bureaucrats and academics would have us believe, modern LRT and or tram can carry large numbers of transit customers and do in annual revenue service. Let us forget the many “man-of-straw arguments” against LRT by […]