SkyTrain ills

Oops, the transit system that never breaks down, according to the SkyTrain lobby was on the fritz again.Ai?? A stuck train caused transit chaos Wednesday afternoon, not a train that has broken down, mind you, a stuck train (glue on the tracks?). Well, trains normally don’t get stuck but when that do in the case […]

Liz James Takes On The TransLink Referendum

The fiery independent columnist Liz James is one of the few scribes that is willing to take on the TransLink behemoth with other than the political correctness that follows the issue. David Cockle, mentioned in Ms. James piece, is the very same David Cockle who did the famous Leewood/Rail for the Valley Study….. ….. and […]

The Land Developers are Coming to Town

The problem it seems is that the Urban Land Institute seems to be more interested in land development more than anything else and certainly do not seem to be transit experts as the news article portrays them to be. On the thorny question of what kind of technology the line should use ai??i?? SkyTrain, light […]

The Politics of Fear

It seems if all else fails for the TransLink referendum, scare the people to vote for yes for more money. This is called the politics of fear. The harsh facts are that three LRT lines in Surrey and a SkyTrain subway under Broadway will not alleviate traffic congestion in the region! To be successful, transit […]

Clarity With Transit and TransLink ….. Ha, Ha, Ha!

The TransLink referendum continues to provide angst with politicians and TransLink and so it should, because both parties really haven’t a clue about public transit. The new Chair of TransLink, Marcella Szel.Ai?? A former Canadian Railway executive and Port Authority director, has absolutely no background in urban transit and seems to have been chosen because, […]

The Novice’s Guide toTransit Updated

or cutting through the BS about light rail, SkyTrain and BRT. The following is a guide plus definitions about transit. ALM: Automatic Light metro, the fourth marketing name given for the SkyTrain family of light-metros, when Lavalin briefly owned SkyTrain before gong bankrupt. ALRT (1): Advanced Light Rail Transit, the second marketing name for SkyTrain. […]

TransLink Referendum Mayhem

Welcome to the BC Liberal world of transit, where transit or should I say transit mega-projects are a means for winning elections, nothing more. The Canada Line is a good example, where ten BC Premier wanted to showcase a transit P-3, but the problem arose that SkyTrain, being a proprietary railway, made near to impossible […]

Cuiaba, Brazil – new LRT won’t be ready for World Cup

Thank you Mr. Haveacow for pointing out the error of my ways. Well, for the BRT crowd, who continue to claim that Curitiba Brazil was BRT heaven, it must come as a shock that they are building LRT in the city of Cuiaba, Brazil. Remember, the Curitiba BRT was all about the International Monetary Fund […]

The Future through Zwei’s (not so) Crystal ball

The big transit news for 2014 is the BC Liberal transit referendum. What will be the outcome? What will be the question asked for the public to vote on? Presently, I do not think even the Premier herself can answer these questions, as Premier Clark, like several Premiers before her, is a “rubber on asphalt” […]

New Prague streetcars reverse noise pollution

An overlooked benefit of streetcars is the reduction in noise pollution associated with bus and car traffic. In fact, some pedestrians in Prague say the newest streetcars from Skoda are too quiet! Latest streetcars in historic Prague. An article from iDnes, a Czech news portal, describes the experiences of operators of the new 15T streetcarsbuilt […]