Eby’s Reality Check On Transit

From what I can read, Eby is playing footsie with the Broadway subway to UBC. Farnsworth, who is now minister in charge of transit is doing penance for his complete screw-up of the Surrey RCMP/police fiasco, which many in the NDP blame their poor showing in the recent election. Subways are expensive, both to build […]

Notes From The Past

The preceding graph is from the late 1980’s and adjusted for 2024 Canadian dollars: San Diego: $10.25 million/km Portland: $20.25 million/km Nantes: $25.15 million/km Calgary: $30.26 million/km VAL: $56.7 million/km SkyTrain: $66.82 million/km. Please note, the current 16 km Expo Line extension to Langley is now costing in excess of $375 million/km or put another […]

For Mr. B – Dealing With The Facts

Again, a SkyTrain supporter casts doubt on veracity of statements contained in posts. So, to clarify any doubt, the following comes from a December 1983, article,The Direction of TTC Planning For the 1980’s by Phillip Webb, which appeared in Modern Tramways. This interesting item certainly raised my attention. For further clarification, ICTS was renamed ALRT […]

Thoughts For 2025

If You Build a Better Mousetrap the World Will Beat a Path to Your Door. TransLink would like the public to think that our transit system is world class and spends a lot of money on ‘spin-doctors’ to convince the taxpayer of this. Sadly, the centerpiece of TransLink’s transit empire is the now obsolete and […]

The Transit Deficit Begins To Bite

Thursday night’s massive traffic accident on Highway 99 was to be expected, as it could not be otherwise. Zwei drives this route twice a week for my cardio-rehab in White Rock and my eyes have been opened wide at the utterly poor driving habits by both car and commercial drivers. Just on Wednesday, I witnesses […]

A Bad News Situation

Kevin Quinn, the American spin doctor, hired by TransLink (a.k.a the provincial government) to bamboozle the taxpayer to agree to anti up more money for the regional transit system is again taken to the media pleading poverty to the provincial government, in order to secure more funding. He is now blaming the “electric car” for […]

Articulated Rail Cars – Transit 101

So boys and girls, lesson for today; what is an articulated car? I ask this because a TransLink type said that the new Mk.5 SkyTrain cars are articulated, which they are not. Definition: Articulated cars are rail vehicles which consist of a number of cars which are semi-permanently attached to each other and share common […]

Transit History That Politicians Would Like The Public To Forget

The history of Vancouver’s SkyTrain light-metro system has been somewhat altered to fit today’s politcal narrative; the following is a brief but concise history of how metro Vancouver got saddled with the SkyTrain light metro system. Prior to the Social Credit government forcing the then called Advanced Light Rail Transit (ALRT) system onto Metro Vancouver […]

Rail for the Valley’s Letter To The Mayor’s Council On Transit

I have been involved with transit issues in the lower mainland for 40 years. I am also the person responsible for the Leewood Study, an independent study by Leewood Projects UK, about the viability of reinstating the former Vancouver to Chilliwack interurban service with modern TramTrain or light diesel multiple units, on behalf of the […]

Mayors Council on Transit Begs For More Funding

Ah, the Mayor’s Council on Transit, or the gang who couldn’t operate a Christmas tree train set is begging for more taxpayer’s money. One has only look at the Stanley Park miniature railway fiasco to understand that politicians do not understand the issues, let alone trying to fix it. There only recourse is to throw […]