TransLink for Dummies – Updated

TransLink for Dummies ……….. or cutting through the BS about Local Transit. The following is a guide plus definitions. ALM: Automatic Light metro, the fourth marketing name given for the SkyTrain family of light-metros, when Lavalin briefly owned SkyTrain before going bankrupt. ALRT (1): Advanced Light Rail Transit, the second marketing name after ICTS for […]

Des Sain-Bel to Lyon TramTrain

The West Lyon tram-train is a French light rail network, whose ticketing is integrated into the TER Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes service, connecting the center of the metropolis of Lyon to the west of the city The service was partially inaugurated from Lyon-Saint-Paul to Sain-Bel on September 22 and from Tassin to Brignais including the Tassin shunt, Saturday, […]

A Comparrison Of Operating Costs – Revisited

Posted by zweisystem on Sunday, February 20, 2022 The continued misinformation from the usual sources about SkyTrain being cheap to operate, must be again, refuted. When compared to light rail, SkyTrain has cost much more to operate ad maintain. According to TransLink from information in 2020, the operational costs of both the Expo line extension […]

TramTrain – Success Ignored

The birth of what we call TramTrain or a streetcar that can operate on the mainline railways, came about after much research and public consultation, to provide the the city of Karlsruhe and region with a ‘user-friendly’ public transit system. In the 1980’s cities with trams or streetcars were seeing a steady decline in patronage […]

TramTrain – Gaining Momentum

Most people do not know what a TramTrain is. The concept is simple and in earlier times it was called the “interurban”. TramTrain is a modern streetcar or tram, so configured that it can operate on the railway mainline, thus very affordably servicing distant destinations, otherwise far too expensive for an independent tram/LRT line. First […]

The Realities of Subway Mania In Lotus Land: A Repost From 2020 – The Song Remains The Same!

First posted by zweisystem on Wednesday, March 4, 2020 This was posted almost six years ago and the realities of subway construction are today, hitting home. The Broadway Subway, the 5.7 km continuation of the the Millennium Line, first pegged to cost $2.7 billion and open in 2024, has now well passed the $3 billion […]

Failure

Failure noun 1. lack of success: “an economic policy that is doomed to failure” 2. the neglect or omission of expected or required action: “their failure to comply with the basic rules” A rather intense phone call has prompted me to post this. The caller irately stated: “SkyTrain is not proprietary” and “Vancouver has the […]

Slander

The continued debate about the trains that operate on the Expo and Millennium Lines continues. The SkyTrain for Surrey folks have crossed the line on this issue and Rail for the Valley call for a retraction of their recent News Release or face possible legal action. The claim that Rail for the Valley and others […]

A MEMO TO PREMIER EBY

The Honourable David Eby, Premier of BC Dear Premier Eby, The ongoing rift between Canada and the USA will have generational effects and will never go back to normal, as President Trump has forever changed how people behave. Trump and MAGA is a prelude for great change in BC. The ongoing climate change with summer’s […]

Will The Broadway Subway Solve Transit Issues?

In Metro Vancouver, The SkyTrain light metro system has had an interesting issue, no noticeable modal shift from car to train. Yes, the light metro system carries a lot of customers but the vast majority have transferred from bus to light-metro. The bus system has been so designed to feed every bus customer onto the […]