The Seattle Monorail debate – The Blog’s Most Viewed Post

The Rail For The Valley’s most viewed blog post is “SeattleA?ai??i??ai???s monorail versus LRT debate A?ai??i??ai??? Same story, differentAi??Ai??players!”,Ai??Ai?? http://railforthevalley.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/seattles-monrail-versus-lrt-debate-same-story-different-players/Ai??Ai?? which at first glance is a little puzzling, but when one understands the massive public debate over the proposed Seattle monorail, it is not surprising at all that there is still much interest South of […]

From the Vancouver Province – Canada Line to lose millions each year despite strong ridership – Another TransLink Bambozzle

From the “Tip of the Iceberg Department”; the RAV/Canada Line is going to cost TransLink money but until theAi??Ai??BC Auditor General has a go at TransLink, SkyTrain and RAV, the public will never know the true costs of the new subway or of TransLink’s metro operation. The $14 million to $21 million shortfall mentioned is […]

Tram on Tires – Guided Light Transit (GLT), the ultimate BRT

Guided Light Transit or GLT is a hybrid bus/tram system, where rubber tired vehicles are guided by a single rail and the TransLohr GLT falls into this category. It has been long realized that for a bus to obtain higher performances to compete against LRT, it must be guided. The Achilles heel of BRT in […]

CargoTram – Taking Commercial Trucks Off the Road. Is TransLink planning for the future? Can TransLink plan for the future?

What local transit planners have not done in the Vancouver regionAi??Ai??is take into account the versatility of modern light rail with their strategic planning and always plan for LRT as a poorman’s SkyTrain. In many cities, trams pull small trailers to carry bicycles or specialized cars toAi??Ai??carry rubbish from refuse bins along the line, adding […]

The propaganda campaign for the UBC subway has begun. Here comes the Campbell Line!

OnAi??Ai??September 8, theAi??Ai??first day of regular commuting, after the summer break,Ai??Ai??in the region, the Vancouver Sun had a “Canada Line” Live chat where a poll question pops up “Should SkyTrain continue to UBC” and not surprisingly 59% have voted, “Yes get on with it”. Here we have the the firstAi??Ai??push ofAi??Ai??a massiveAi??Ai??propaganda campaign to win […]

The Dreseden Schwebebahn – A monrail funicular

Of course, let us not forget Germany’s other Schwebeban (hanging railway), Dresden’s unique monorail funicular. Though not a true rapid transit system, the historic funicular does predate the Wuppertal Schwebeban by a few years and is worthy of a look. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezsn4D_mKyA]

The Wuppertal Schwebebahn – Let’s take a ride!

There has been a lot of interest shown in the RFV blog about the Wuppertal Schwebebahn so I have included this video to give the full flavour of this historic monorail transit system. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfE8SKK-ms4]

Elevated or at-grade; let’s look at both!

A post to RFV’s blog moaned that; “you always show ugly pictures of elevated transit rather than the wonderful job Richmond did on #3 Road or sections of the Central Valley Greenway……………”, well let’s compare elevated transit with at-grade/on-street light rail. or It seems that the vast majority of transit planners would rather be associate […]

From the Seattle Times, October 2002 – Vancouver’s SkyTrain: model for the monorail?

There has always been a close relationship between Vancouver’s and Seattle’s city planners and the now aborted monorail scheme seems to have been abetted by this relationship. Not mentioned of course is that despite about $8 billion now invested in our SlyTrain/RAV metro’s, TransLink’s mode share has stalled at about 11% for the almost the […]

Lartigue monorail, a very early gadgetbahnen – A history lesson for TransLink

The Listowel & Ballybunion Railway, a steam operated Lartigue monorail, ran from 1880 -1928 and is another good example that proprietary railways, even though they may operate in revenue service on one or two lines, fail to become a successful transit mode and are seldom copied. Intriguing yes, practical no, but for fun let’s have […]