The Battery Hybrid Diesel

  The battery-diesel hybrid, seems a far better bet for regional railways than hydrogen fuel cell electric trains. With battery-electric trains, the trains can operate on diesel in the country and on electric in urban areas. Also important, battery-diesel hybrid  trains do not need expense of hydrogen fuel as the cost to make hydrogen is […]

Rail For The Valley – We Told You So Dept.

Rail for the Valley told you so months ago! The 16 km Expo Line extension to Langley is now a provincial project. This is what happens when a TransLink project becomes over one billion dollars short of funding. This is what happens when the premier of the province makes construction a politcal promise. This is […]

Is Ottawa Getting a Tramway?

Traffic calming major streets and having a tramway or streetcar operate on the route is standard practice in Europe, so why not here? Politics aside, a modern tramway in Ottawa would, I believe, catch on with other major Canadian cities for providing an affordable quality public transit service. With “Global Warming” and associated climate change, […]

The Mayor’s Council’s Delusions Of Grandeur in 2050 – Where Is The money?

One has to just laugh at this tawdry attempt pre civic election spin for the regional transit system. It also highlights the media’s lack of investigative reporting, as they treat dreamy news releases as “breaking news”. The following quote exemplifies the Mayor’s Council’s delusions: Among the improvements and goals, the plan includes additional projects to […]

Another Abandoned UK Passenger Line Is Set to Reopen – Why Not The E&N?

Another long a long abandonment of passenger services, the once called Ivanhoe line is set to reopen for passenger service. The Leicester–Burton upon Trent line is a freight-only railway line in England linking the Midland Main Line south of Leicester to the Cross Country Route at Burton-on-Trent. The line closed to passengers in the 1960s. […]

Tram, Streetcar, LRT – Why The Confusion?

The big problem with light rail is that there are so many definitions that the public get confused. In Metro Vancouver, unscrupulous politicians, planners, and academics deliberately confuse light rail and what is called a streetcar. The article included is now seven years old or seven years and somewhat out of date, as what we […]

Troubles At TransLink?

  Is a financial embarrassment of TransLink at hand? Monday morning I dropped my wife off at a suburban bus stop to catch the express bus going to the Canada Line. The bus had no more than seven people on board. The reason she took the bus, is that we are a one car family […]

A Memo For John Horgan

The Honourable John Horgan, Premier of BC * Dear Premier Horgan, * The Covid-19 pandemic has made absolutely clear, we cannot go back to normal, as it has forever changed how people behave. Covid-19 is a prelude for great change in BC.  * Last summer’s heat dome and subsequent wild fires shows we cannot go […]

Why Canada Gets Less For More When It Comes To Building Transit

This news item explains the huge cost of metro Vancouver’s transit construction. Though the article thinks that $500 million per kilometer, for the Broadway subway is reasonable, it must remembered that the subway it is being built on a transit route that has only a fraction of the ridership deemed necessary for a subway. Much […]

A Repost From November 2018 – Mayor McCallum Has Screwed The City of Surrey

After three years, the news about rapid transit goes from bad to worse. The Expo Line extension to Langley is now costing more than the revised cost of $3.95 billion and despite much false information that the line is fully funded, it is not. The claim that Prime minister Trudeau’s Liberal government will fully fund […]