Six operators award joint contract for up to 504 tram-trains

This is big news and certainly shows the European confidence in TramTrain. The cost per car is somewhat steep (CAD $9.85 million) but it includes 16 years (and up to 32 years) of maintenance. This means the operators would be saved the cost of a mid life rehab! Also this highlights the advantages of group […]

FROM THE LIGHT RAIL TRANSIT ASSOCIATION – TRAMS ARE SYMBOLS OF CITIES

From the LRTA, the modern tram, workhorse of today’s public transit systems in over 600 cities around the world, yet noticeably missing in Metro Vancouver. Indeed, the modern tram is absent in soulless Vancouver and it is time to change this. Let’s put some soul into Vancouver; let’s plan for trams! For the Fraser Valley […]

Memo

I know it is preaching to the converted, but we must get serious about regional transit. $4.6 billion to build 12.8 km of light metro is not spending money wisely. Spending $4.6 billion to build 12.8 km of light metro is based on dated thinking; dated engineering; dated planning; dated transportation philosophy; as well as […]

Instead of “Heavy” Rail, Let’s Try “Very Light” Rail

Interesting news from the Light Rail Transit Association – Very Light Rail. Very Light Rail is a LRT variant where smaller and lighter vehicles are used on routes that cannot support operation of larger vehicles. The costs for Very Light Rail is something to consider, especially when Vancouver is spending $2.8 billion to build 5.8 […]

We Are Back

  Memo to all Rail for the Valley is back! We have resolved our technical issues and now back on course bringing needed comment on metro Vancouver’s controversial transit scene.

CBC Is Anti Tram – Why Am I Not Surprised At CBC’s “Yellow Journalism”

The CBC has aired, what can only be said, an ill informed program on streetcars. Why am I not surprised, as the CBC folded like a cheap deck chair and started singing hosannas about Montreal’s ill advised REM Light metro. The CBC, cheap shots on streetcars, by someone who hasn’t a clue about the modern […]

This Is Light Rail.

The new Camberra Australia, light rail line. This is classic light rail. Reserved or dedicated, at-grade rights-of-way and easy pedestrian access across the line is the hallmark of LRT. All the benefits of a metro at a fraction of the cost. So, why does the provincial NDP, the City of Vancouver and the Mayor’s Council […]

All Quiet On The Eastern Front

  Zwei has a habit of making people mad and the list is long. So, in an effort to even more people mad, I will recall a conversation I had a week or so back with a former NDP politician. The former NDP politician wishes to remain anonymous as the person does not want to […]

The Reserved Rights-of-Way – The Genesis Of LRT

After listening to an very ill informed person on the radio, pontificating on all the ills of light rail, he made one last grand statement, about ” LRT would always get stuck in traffic”. Of course the person in question was talking about streetcars, or trams that operate on-street in mixed traffic, but that is […]

Game Changer for Regional Rail!

What the FRA does, Transport Canada will soon follow. This news is of great importance to Metro and Victoria’s metro regions, bringing in a transit option that Rail for the Valley has been championing for many years. Proven European technology combined with proven European transit philosophy (which will come with the technology), just may make […]