Metro Vancouver’s Metro Mania

The following article is eerily familiar with TransLink’s continued building of light metro, especially subway construction. In Australia the state of New south Wales is spending AUD $11 billion (CAD $10.1 billion to build 23 km of rail line that will not generate the ridership that would demand such an expenditure, while Metro Vancouver is […]

Regional Mayors Want A new Funding Model, Instead They Need A New Planning Model

It seems our regional mayors have been smoking some good weed because they want $20 billion for transit and playing the old gambit that transit is really a Social Service, a human right. That sort of thinking has gotten us where we are today: a massively expensive transit system that does not attract new ridership, […]

Switzerland’s Newest Tramway – From the Light Rail Transit Association

Interesting news from Switzerland. I have reprinted this story from the LRTA’s February’s issue Light Rail and Urban Transport to illustrate the cost of a modern European style tramway (LRT). The 13.4 km Limmattalbahn cost €607 million or CAD $884 million or about $65 million a kilometre to build! Compare this with $4.6 t0 $5 […]

How Metro Vancouver’s Regional Transit Planning Has continued To Get It Wrong!

Please Deliver to Mayor and Council   From: Rail for the Valley     My name is (name withheld by request)  and I have been involved with transit issues in the lower mainland for four decades. I have been a forty year member of the Light Rail Transit Association and through my long membership, I […]

The Cost of Tunneling

The huge cost of tunneling for subway projects are barely mentioned in the media. €4.4 billion for 6 km of twin bore tunnel and seven stations equals CAD $6.08 billion or CAD $1.o1 billion per km to build. This should give pause for thought to BC and regional politicians that the high cost of subway […]

Observations On A Broken Regional Transit System

The past few month, Zwei has been on the road, throughout the lower mainland attending rugby games (my son plays first div.) and has made a very depressing observation. Despite over $30 billion invested or will be invested in the regional light metro system, traffic is getting worse and congestion, spiced with gridlock is endemic. […]

Listen To The Experts

When Patrick Condon, BSc, MLA,  Professor Chair, Urban Design Faculty of Applied Science School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture says a new transit vision is needed in metro Vancouver, we should listen. We should have listened to the experts in the 1980’s when the then social Credit government forced ALRT onto the regions regional transit […]

The End Of The SkyTrain “Gravy-Train?

Gravy Train: Used to refer to a situation in which someone can make a lot of money for very little effort. Mr. Cow’s comment in the previous post, deserves a post of its own, because it could be a game changer in regional transit planning. Criticizing regional transit planning has been somewhat taboo with the […]

Mississauga and Brampton – The Hurontario LRT

It is an interesting comparison that in Vancouver, 5.7 km of SkyTrain light-metro subway will cost over $3 billion and 16km of new SkyTrain light metro in Surrey and Langley will cost around $5 billion (both projects will actually cost over $11 billion for 21.7 km of new line, including the much needed rehab), while […]

Rural Railways- Time to Invest.

Recommendations to save Japan’s rural railways issued 28 July 2022 JAPAN: A study group formed by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport & Tourism has published its report into whether and to what extent rural railways across the country can be revived. From the Railway Gazette. The following was sent to the usual suspects.   Around […]