88% Favour Passenger Rail for the Fraser Valley!

 No surprise here! If anyone who has traveled into the upper Fraser Valley, especially the Chilliwack/Sardis/Vedder areas and seen the huge growth and the associated congestion must realize that a rail connection from Vancouver to Chilliwack, via North Delta, Cloverdale, Langley, Abbotsford, Vedder, Sardis and Chilliwack is most needed. * Rail for the Valley , […]

The Cost of Transporting People in the British Columbia Lower Mainland – Revisited

A repost from 2013. In 1992, the region woke up to a GVRD study that exposed the deceit of many politicians of the day who claimed that SkyTrain operated without subsidy. The truth was just the Expo line to New Westminster was heavily subsidized, more than the combined diesel and trolley buses! I add this […]

The Grand Broadway Subway Photo-Op Begins

It has all been said before the many issues that plague the Broadway subway but never keep a politician from a grand photo-op to show the public how politicians squander money. Liberal and NDP cabinet members, with the federal Liberals election ready, will attend, eager for the public too see how they squander taxpayer’s money […]

It Is Time For The Return of Regional Passenger Rail In BC?

  Calls for a return of an interurban style rail passenger service from Vancouver to Chilliwack; the restoration of passenger service on the E&N; the reinstatement of a passenger service from Vancouver to Prince George;  for a Vernon to Kelowna passenger rail service and now folks in the Kootenay’s want a passenger rail service as […]

The Paths to Public Transport Enlightenment

  In light of former MP Denise Savoei’s grossly ill-informed letter in the Victoria’s Times Colonist about the E&N railway and public transport in general, the following maybe of some help for those advocating for affordable and user friendly transit in BC. The following from London Reconnections. The Paths to Public Transport Enlightenment By Long […]

Why We Build With Light Rail

From December 2008, Zwei’s first post!   What is Light Rail Transit or more commonly known as LRT? According to the Light Rail Transit Association (www.lrta.org) Light rail is a mode that can deal economically with traffic flows of between 2,000 and 20,000 passengers per hour per direction, thus effectively bridging the gap between the […]

How To Build Light Rail In Our Cities Without Emptying The Public Purse

As urban sprawl and strip development is now engulfing the lower mainland, with associated traffic congestion and pollution, Rail for the Valley’s concept of TramTrain makes sense. We cannot afford to extend SkyTrain at over $200 million/km and certainly there is absolutely no real economic or business case for a subway under Broadway for a […]

IS IT TIME TO HAVE A ROYAL COMMISSION ON URBAN TRANSPORTATION?

A repost from April 30, 2011. In 2021, TransLink with the approval of the provincial and federal governments are spending almost $3 billion to build a 5.8 km subway under Broadway in a transit route which (pre Covid) saw the Broadway 99B-Line bus achieve a maximum capacity of 2,000 pphpd, yet the North American standard […]

The Reserved Or Dedicated Rights-Of-Way Makes A Tram Light Rail

After a flurry of TransLink sponsored advertisements on Facebook, has made it very clear, forty years of anti LRT rhetoric by BC Transit, TransLink, the mainstream media, the Ministry of Transportation and the associate claques and shills that parrot the above, the public hasn’t a clue about modern light rail transit. What Zwei calls the […]

The $100 Question – Will Transit Ridership Return?

The Covid-19 pandemic has transit planners worrying about future operations, especially in Vancouver. Despite TransLink’s claims that…… “The agency is projecting ridership to be at 80 to 90 per cent of pre-pandemic capacity by next year” ………. privately, some insiders are predicting that transit may reach pre-covid levels in ridership in a decade! Why so. […]