Lies, Damned Lies and the Vancouver Sun

So, Calgary’s Nenshi backs Gregor Robertson’s Broadway subway plans. Well not exactly, he supports better urban transit funding and all Mr. Nenshi said was “So I imagine there is a scramble right now in Ottawa precisely to figure out how to fund Vancouver’s next Skytrain expansion.” How the Vancouver sun can construe this as support […]

All Quiet on the Transit Front?

With civic elections only weeks away, there has been a lull with transit issues and stories. The city of Vancouver, which considers itself the centre of the universe, provides us with some mirth as the elections draw near. The left leaning C.O.P.E. political party is proposing that all Vancouver residents should have universal transit for […]

Roads & Rails = Dumb & Dumber

In BC, we are backward. In fact, we are not just backward, we are literally stone age when it comes to transit planning. Two stories; in Nevada the Boulder rail extension is part of the cost of a new highway and that the CNR sold Georgetown-Kitchener, Ont., rail line to Metrolinx for GO Transit commuter […]

Is Vision Vancouver’s Subway Fantasy Putting City Taxpayer’s At Risk?

Courtesy Light Rail Now Micheal Geller has an interesting item in the Vancouver Courier which indicates that Vancouver taxpayers maybe on the hook for a minimum of $500 million for demanding a SkyTrain subway under Broadway. Predictably, Geller still follows the local line about transit and growth, while ignoring the fact that transit use mainly […]

The World’s Busiest Metro Systems And Then There Is Broadway

The world’s busiest metro’s, mostly operating in subways, in an ascending order. By comparison, the 68.6 km. SkyTrain mini-metro system carries a mere 361,500 passenger a day and TransLink’s ridership numbers are guesstimates with actual ridership about 10% to 15% lower. BC’s population is now just over 4.61 million and all the below metro systems, […]

Public Meeting Re: The Arbutus Corridor

The Arbutus Corridor: A Way Forward? You might think that thereai??i??s no solution to the conflict over the Arbutus rail corridor. Canadian Pacific Rail wants $100 million for its right-of-way. The City of Vancouver has offered $20m. Neighbourhood gardens, longstanding although trespassing, have been ripped up just before harvestai??i?? and electionai??i?? time. Trains, moving or […]

Speaking of the Arbutus Corridor…………..

A Marpole bound interurban crosses 41st. Please note trolleybus and the overhead. ……. why TransLink will never support LRT on the Arbutus and why the City of Vancouver wants the ‘Arbutus” for a glorified bike lane. Evergreen Line is said to cost no more than $1.4 billion for just over 11 km of line and […]

The Small Minded Anti LRT Conspiracy

A certain Randall O’Toole, a conspicuous member of the Cato Institute hates LRT and streetcars. A favourite of the roads lobby he is also the darling of the United States rising Libertarian and Tea Party. Much of what O’Toole writes about come from the theory that public anything is bad and individualism reigns. The problem […]

Send in the clowns – Urban Land Instituteai??i??s Governorai??i??s Advisory Panel

Really, one tires of this nonsense that Broadway needs a subway. If the truth were to be told, the Vancouver city fathers want a subway under Broadway because they feel it would make Vancouver a “world class city” and the current political party in power want to reward its developer friends with windfall profits up-zoning […]

In Search of the Light Rail Renaissance

A little history. On April 22, 1978, the city of Edmonton heraldedAi?? a new era of what we now call light rail transit, with the opening of its first 6.9 km, LRT line. Using the now venerable Siemens U-2 vehicle, which was designed for the Frankfurt U-Bahn metro system. Edmonton’s new LRT line set the […]