Provincial Government Wants On the Towers-and-Skytrain Milk Train

I welcome guest author Lewis N. Villegas. Lewis N. Villegas has over 35 years of experience working as an urban design specialist in Canada and the U.S. He completed revitalization projects in British Columbia, and New Urbanism projects in California, Utah, Oregon and Alaska. In Vancouver he designed Chinatown Square, and provided the Concept Plan […]

Edomonton’s Valley Line Southeast LRT Officially Opens

News from Edmonton. The $1.8 billion and delivered on budget,  Valley Line is a low-floor urban light rail line in Edmonton, Alberta. The 13.1-kilometre (8.1 mi) line runs southeast from downtown at 102 Street stop to Mill Woods Town Centre at Mill Woods stop, and connecting to the Capital and Metro lines at Churchill station […]

Helsinki’s New Jokeri LRT Opens Early And $19 Million Under Budget

Europe’s newest light rail line just opened and our local tax hungry politicians and bureaucrats should take note! Broadway subway – $2.7 billion for 5.7 km. (not including vehicles, electrical/signalling upgrades) Proposed Expo line Extension to Langley – Almost $5 billion for 16 km. (not including vehicles,  electrical/signalling upgrades) Helsinki’s Jokeri Line, including vehicles – […]

10 Questions

I do not have the answers to these questions or rather I may know the answers but with libel and slander laws the way they are, I will not offer an opinion. Why do TransLink and the Mayor’s council on Transit still continue planning for the obsolete Movia Automatic Light Metro system (A.K.A. SkyTrain), when […]

Why Light Rail?

Why Light rail? This question has been asked over and over again by those who only know our MALM (SkyTrain) light-metro system. After 40 years of non stop rah-rah, propaganda by the federal and provincial governments, civic governments and bureaucracies; and the various groups made up of, what I call, the “SkyTrain Lobby”, Light-Rail, locally […]

Zwei Sends A Letter

I will send the following letter to all municipal and provincial politicians in November  and it will be ignored, as usual. This does not surprise me because our current lot don’t want to acknowledge the truth, lest they be embarrassed by past politically inspired decisions. Six figured salaried planners and engineers are merely telling politicians […]

Single Track Operation & Level Crossings – Dutch Style

  Some of the detractors of Rail for the Valley’s TramTrain or light DMU line from Marpole to Chilliwack cite that only one train can operate on the line at one time. With properly placed passing loops, preferably at stations, trains can be safely operated going in both directions on a single line. this due […]

Back To Basics

What is light rail? LRT is a transportation system based on electrically powered light rail vehicles (LRV) that operates on a track in a dedicated right-of-way (meaning separated lanes). It is the operating on dedicated or “reserved rights-of-ways that makes a simple streetcar or tram light rail! many simple streetcar or tram systems have sections […]

20 Minutes Into The Future

This article caught my eye. If the provincial or federal government actually created a program for regional rail systems in the country, they could also carry freight, creating a regional rail system that would not only serve the public, but businesses as well. With autonomous battery  powered rail-cars, we could see “Mixed Trains” in operation […]

How The NDP Paved Paradise and Turned It Into a Parking Lot. A Repost From 2020

This is a repost of a November 2020 blog post. The estimated cost for a 21.7 km extension of the Millennium Line (Broadway subway) and the Expo Line (Surrey – Langley extension) is now past $11 billion. The NDP are setting in motion a highway’s only planning for the future, doubling down on BC’s famous […]