BS Line To Nowhere Or The Big Dig Part 2

Oh, the BS Line, Vancouver’s great vanity project. All world class cities must have a subway, according to the “booster class” who just love mega projects. Last cost estimate for the BS Line is around $3.5 billion, not including cars. Looks like the powers that be are already planning to reduce the scope of the […]

90 Years And Counting

Well, it has taken almost 90 years for transit planners in North America to realize that by giving a streetcar a dedicated lane it becomes light rail. European transit planners clearly understood by the 1930’s that by giving a streetcar a dedicated route, its performance almost matched that of a much more expensive metro or […]

Chilliwack Is On Board

Finally! It seems the good burghers of Chilliwack see the benefits of a rail servcie connecting Vancouver to Chilliwack. A basic Vancouver to Chilliwack DMU servcie can be had for as little as $750 million and a more elaborate service using hydrogen powered trains or electric servcie, with several trips per direction each hour would […]

When Will The lesson Be Learned?

When will the lesson be learned? In today’s world, the lowest bid is not always the best bid, rather it is the lowest bid that will make profit for the company bidding. Thus the lowest bid does not produce the best product. Like the Canada Line with its many problems, SNC Lavalin, which heads the […]

We Were Warned By Experts!

We were warned by the experts of the day to avoid the proprietary ALRT transit system, otherwise known as SkyTrain; we were warned by the best! No one listened and today, we continue to spend up to ten times more to build with a dated proprietary light metro that no one else in the world […]

Lies, Damned Lies, and SkyTrain

  Ah, the great SkyTrain debate is once again upon us and a Fox News style niche newspaper, the Daily Hive, has decided that SkyTrain is its best friend! No doubt TransLink is happy, while it is desperately trying to hide the fact that Movia metro is a proprietary railway. Sorry chums it is. The […]

The Mayors Council’s Tunnel Vision

It is hard to believe, that group of hapless politicians have just signed a death warrant for transit in the region. The Mayors Council on Transit just gave the OK to build a SkyTrain subway to UBC, which means the rest of the region can kiss goodbye to any sort of credible transit planning for […]

TransLink CEO, Kevin Desmond Must Resign!

The sheer incompetence of TransLink was on show yesterday with a SkyTrain melt down. The Canada Line is former Liberal brainchild Premier, Gordon Campbell’s, attempt to have a P3 transit project. Well the result is a capacity constipated transit line that is not compatible with the rest of the SkyTrain system, with the operating consortium […]

Am I the Last Voice against SkyTrain to UBC?

Professor Patrick Condon vents about the Broadway SkyTrain subway. The question is; “Who is listening?”   Am I the Last Voice against SkyTrain to UBC? It will drive unaffordable condos in Vancouver. Which drives me nuts.   By Patrick Condon | TheTyee.ca Patrick Condon is the James Taylor chair in Landscape and Livable Environments at the University […]

The McElhanney Study is a political document masquerading as a technical one

“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.” Gerald Fox, 2008 Malcolm Johnston, 2019 Please deliver to Mayor and Council. My name is Malcolm Johnston and I have been involved in Metro […]