What Fools We Mortal Be – Regional Mayors Support Road Tolling

I see many civic politicians are gambling with theirAi??political futuresAi??with taxpayer’s hubrisAi??by supportingAi??road tolling. Are they mad? Evidently so, as they all seem to have collective amnesia over the HST fiasco, which saw the humiliation of just reelected Premier Gordon Campbell beingAi??chased from office. It seems tax and spend transit policies are the order of […]

Road tolls coming – welcome to tax and spend TransLink

Road tolls, the clarion call of tax and spend bureaucrats and politicians. What the boys and girls wanting road tolls or road pricing is more taxpayers money to waste on nextAi??to useless SkyTrain expansion, new posh offices, and ever higher salaries; better public transit is just an excuse, but not in the cards. For road […]

TransLink Menace to Society in Metro Vancouver

Eric Chris takes on TransLink! The following is a copy of a “letter to the editor“, that a Mr. Eric Chris sent to the Vancouver ProvinceAi??newspaper. Well researched, Chris exposes theAi??TransLink’s current charade with its involvement with regional transit. As well, he has determined the real cost of the Canada Line mini-metro, which according toAi??Chris’s […]

Toronto LRT latest

From Ai??TTCriders, a public transit advocacy group that gives transit riders a voice Why Silence Gary Webster? http://www.ttcriders.ca/ For the second time in less than a month, 5 TTC Commissioners are trying to silence TTC staff from doing their jobs: giving expert opinions on transit expansion that contradicts the Mayorai??i??s calls for subways. This time, […]

Atlanta & Cincinnati Streetcars

http://designinghealthycommunities.org/atlanta-getting-new-streetcar-line/ U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and local officials have kickedAi??off construction of a new 2.6-mile streetcar line that will run through the heart of Atlantaai??i??s business, tourism, and convention corridor, bringing jobs and new development to the city and reflecting President Obamaai??i??s blueprint for an America thatai??i??s built to last. […]

In Toronto, a Major Victory for Light Rail

It was an $8.4 billion question that had simmered all year, but finally boiled over this week at Toronto City Hall during a no-holds-barred debate that may well determine the future of city’s transit expansion.* http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/02/toronto-major-victory-light-rail/1202/ For years, Toronto struggled to modernize and expand its transit system, which now carries about 500 million riders annually, […]

TransLink and the Canada Line – The real story

The following was emailed to me last night and contains some explosive comments about TransLink and the RAV/Canada Line. Rand Chatterjee is one of the very few people who took the time to research the cost of the RAV/Canada Line and he clearly understands the nuances of the P-3 contract and the negative impact on […]

Review of Light Rail/Tramway costs

A Federal Parliamentry Review of Light Rail/Tramway/Transit costs must be carried out!Ai?? Both Fang & Zwei have posted articles in the past weeks on the high costs of Canadian LightAi??Rail, Tramway & Transit schemes. Vancouver, TorontoAi??and Waterloo. Design, Utility relocation, Financing vehicles (ie P3) Project management, Construction management, Land purchase and now theAi??concern that Ai??Canadian […]

Whatai??i??s the Best Way To Get Users To Embrace Mass Transit?

Make it pleasant? Or make it efficient? An article in Slate magazine http://www.slate.com/articles/life/transport/2012/01/jarrett_walker_s_human_transit_are_we_thinking_about_urban_planning_all_wrong_.html Make it pleasant? Or make it efficient? by Tom Vanderbilt A few months ago, at an urban mobility conference in Frankfurt, the British consultant Charles Leadbeater presented a sort of x-y matrix for thinking about how to manage and design cities. The […]

North American light rail systems

Modern LRT is reasonably cheap to build, when compared with metro type systems, but in NorthAi??America transit planners have done the impossible, they have planned LRT to be more expensive than a metro to build.Ai?? Such stupidity should be stopped at once! From the Globe and Mail. This maybe of some interest, but the cost […]