Gridlock Is Endemic In Vancouver and Will Be For Years To Come

Nothing new here. As the provincial government keeps building new highways and bridges, car use will increase, simple. As the provincial government, the City of Vancouver, TransLink, and Metro Vancouver, keep planning for and building hugely expensive mini-metro’s like SkyTrain and the Canada Line, for strictly political prestige and not as a convenient transit mode, […]

Urban rail news in brief – April 2014

From the “Railway Gazette”, urban news for April 2014 Tokyo Metro has signed a technical assistance memorandum of understanding with Hanoi Metropolitan Railway Management Board. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has announced R$3Ai??8bn of public transport investment. The projects include tramways in the city of Natal and state of ParaAi??ba. China Railway Group has been awarded […]

Liz James asks important questions

Liz James, who writes opinion pieces for the North Shore News, asks some ‘striking’ questions of the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation, the question is; “are they willing to answer?“ The answer is no, as the regional mayors are afraid of a referendum and the reason is simple, they are afraid of a “none of […]

Zwei Told Ya So…………Despite massive investment in public transit, most Metro Vancouver residents favour commuting by car

In the 21st century, public transit is seen as a product and if the product is good, people will use it. In Metro Vancouver, public transit is seen as an experiment of sorts, combining extremely dated transit operation, land development and social welfare into a hodge-podge local transit philosophy which, despite a now over $8 […]

Has TransLink Ignored SkyTrain Safety by Refusing to Install Sliding Doors at Stations?

The VAL automatic metro in Lille, France has sliding doors at stations to prevent suicides as mandated by EEC rules for automatic metro systems. This begs the question; “Has TransLink ignored this important safety feature to reduce costs for the SkyTrain and Canada line mini-metro systems?” The sad answer is that TransLink finds it cheaper […]

TransLink, The City of Vancouver, and the SkyTrain Lobby Practice Lysenkoism

The SkyTrain Lobby Is Watching You! Lysenkoism: describes the manipulation or distortion of the scientific process as a way to reach a predetermined conclusion as dictated by an ideological bias, often related to social or political objectives. IgnoringAi?? the fact that the proprietary SkyTrain mini-metro system has been rejected by transit planners around the world […]

Is There Already An Agreement to Build A SkyTrain Subway Under Broadway?

It seems Bombardier Inc. had designed a new Advanced Rapid Transit car for each new ART system builtAi??in Vancouver, New York, and Kuala Lumpor having different designed cars. Now the Evergreen line is getting a new and improved ARTAi??Mk. 3 car. Though Vancouver and Kuala Lumpur ART cars look similar, the KL cars are taller […]

Merry Christmas!

A very merry Christmas to all from Rail for the Valley!

After Over $8 billion Invested in SkyTrain, Vancouver Is The Most Congested City In Canada

No surprises here, Metro Vancouver has suffered from over 30 years of dreadful transportation planning, highlighted by meddling by the former Social Credit and NDP provincial governments and the meddling continues todayAi??with the provincial Liberal government. From Zwei’s perspective, the regional taxpayer has invested well over $8 billion on an extremely dated transit system and […]

It is interesting how TransLink has used this cunning method of manipulating analysis to justify SkyTrain in corridor after corridor, and has thus succeeded in keeping its proprietary rail system expanding.

The Great transit philosopher’s stone, the Evergreen Line saga continues and it is once again time for Rail for the Valley how suspect TransLink’s business case for the (N)Evergreen Line was. In, 2008 Gerald Fox, a well known American transit and transportation expert shredded TransLink’s Evergreen Line business case and found it grossly biased in […]