Tampere, Finland – One Of The Best Modern Systems

The Tampere light rail (Finnish: Tampereen raitiotie), branded as Tampere Tram (Finnish: Tampereen Ratikka), is a public transport system in Tampere, Finland. In November 2016, the Tampere city council approved plans to construct a 330-million-euro (CAD $516 million in 2016 dollars or CAD $660 million in 2025 dollars), 24 km light rail system on the […]

An Independent Audit Of TransLink Needed – NOW!

What TransLink wants, TransLink gets as fiscal responsibility is not in TransLink’s lexicon. Public scrutiny of TransLink is non existent. The Mayor’s Council On Transit invests in Transit to secure future elections and reelections and the public is left with a largely 1950’s bus system, tarted up with a now obsolete 1970’s light-metro system. Positive […]

Škoda ForCity Smart 38T -Trams Get Longer

As the modern tram evolves, companies offer longer trams to cope with ever increasing ridership demands. With a modular design, this easier to do than a complete new design for a tram. It also should be noted that Mannheim’s tram system is metre gauge, thus the kinematic envelope for trams is very constricted and the […]

Time To Rethink SkyTrain Premier Eby

With a looming trade war with the USA, it is time to rethink the BC Governments exclusive planning, centred around the proprietary SkyTrain light metro system. Yes, I know the NDP government ministers call SkyTrain a world class system, but it is the only world class system I know of that no one wants to […]

The Geneva Model

The problem in Canada, is that transit is built to win elections and not move people. Transit projects become “gold-plated”, ponderous and not user-friendly. In Canada the transit customer is all but ignored. In Switzerland transit is built to meet the needs of the transit customer and the transit customer approval is needed at all […]

Is a real Tramway (Read: Light Rail) Coming to Canada?

A Bordeaux tram on a lawned and hedged R-o-W.

Notes From The Past

The preceding graph is from the late 1980’s and adjusted for 2024 Canadian dollars: San Diego: $10.25 million/km Portland: $20.25 million/km Nantes: $25.15 million/km Calgary: $30.26 million/km VAL: $56.7 million/km SkyTrain: $66.82 million/km. Please note, the current 16 km Expo Line extension to Langley is now costing in excess of $375 million/km or put another […]

For Mr. B – Dealing With The Facts

Again, a SkyTrain supporter casts doubt on veracity of statements contained in posts. So, to clarify any doubt, the following comes from a December 1983, article,The Direction of TTC Planning For the 1980’s by Phillip Webb, which appeared in Modern Tramways. This interesting item certainly raised my attention. For further clarification, ICTS was renamed ALRT […]

The Transit Deficit Begins To Bite

Thursday night’s massive traffic accident on Highway 99 was to be expected, as it could not be otherwise. Zwei drives this route twice a week for my cardio-rehab in White Rock and my eyes have been opened wide at the utterly poor driving habits by both car and commercial drivers. Just on Wednesday, I witnesses […]

Articulated Rail Cars – Transit 101

So boys and girls, lesson for today; what is an articulated car? I ask this because a TransLink type said that the new Mk.5 SkyTrain cars are articulated, which they are not. Definition: Articulated cars are rail vehicles which consist of a number of cars which are semi-permanently attached to each other and share common […]