The North Shore’s “Hobson’s Choice”

From: Rail for the Valley For the past 17 years, Rail for the Valley has advocated for the “return of the interurban” on the former Vancouver to Chilliwack BC Electric interurban line that still connects Vancouver to Chilliwack, via Surrey/Cloverdale; Langley; Abbotsford and Vedder/Sardis. Rail for the Valley, due to the soundness of the plan, […]

Listen To The Experts

Mr. Havacow is, what I call, a transit expert. He has worked in the field for decades and has a wealth of knowledge on all forms of transit. Cutting through the hype and hoopla of politcal and bureaucratic promises, claims, and what can be best called, propaganda, Mr.Cow calls it as it is. Why is […]

Is TGV Coming To The North Shore?

Yesterday’s NDP pre election telly-op on local television stations of the standard TransLink fare of having five options for rapid transit to the North Shore showed some very strange animations. Instead of animations of SkyTrain trundling through tunnels, it showed TGV style trains instead. One wonders if the NDP are going to have surprise announcement […]

Disappearing Act

The following Google screenshot was made on Wednesday, August 9, 2020, at 7:50 AM. All major crossings in metro Vancouver show little or no congestion. Pre Covir-19, there would be bright red at the tunnel, Oak Street, Knight Street, Alex Fraser, Patullo, Iron workers, and the Lions Gate bridges. In “normal” times, major congestion would […]

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 […]

Reality Is A ……………………….

There is another reason why transit may not return to pre Covid-19 levels any time soon; a reason that TransLink would never admit to: the service provided by TransLink is deemed third rate by customers. User friendliness is the number one reason people use transit and includes ease ticketing, lack of transfers, and the general […]

TransLink Collides With A Financial Iceberg.

  Covid-19 has sent a chilling economic message to TransLink; “can it afford the proposed $4.6 billion, 12.8 km extensions to the light-metro system?” TransLink, through taxes, must ante up a sizable amount of cash to pay it’s share of the projects, but if TransLink’s income collapses and cannot pay, what then? The aftermath for […]

Reality Hits TransLink Square In The Face

As Zwei has pointed out, the new Covid-19 reality has hit TransLink square in their hypocritical face. With cap in hand, TransLink went to provincial and federal governments for more handouts but it seems they have had enough and TransLink had to shed employees and unproductive bus routes. From Radio 1130: TransLink announces layoffs, other […]

Smoke And Mirrors for The North Shore

Smoke and mirrors. Classic political bait and switch; bait the public into thinking that the province is really doing something, but in reality, doing nothing. The key is funding and of course funding is never mentioned. Without having each option showing cost, means the study is next to useless as people don’t have real information. […]

Mott MacDonald To Study Major New Bridge For Vancouver

Interesting news indeed and maybe the proposed bridge will supplant a new tunnel across the Fraser by a few more years. From the Global Construction Review.   News Mott MacDonald to study major new bridge for Vancouver 7 October 2019 | By GCR Staff UK-headquartered engineering consultant Mott MacDonald has been picked to study the […]