SkyTrain Really Isn’t A Regional Distance Based, Rapid Transit System

First published in 2022, this post remains extremity relevant today. Four years have gone by and the cost today of the Expo Line extension to Surrey is now estimated at $7 billion and that is just for the guideway, which the federal government is paying 40%of the cost. Zwei has been told privately that the […]

From September 2010 – The Groundbreaking Leewood Study – Updated

The Leewood Study – Costs Updated To 2026 RftV cost for a Vancouver to Rosedale regional railway $5.4 billion cheaper than the 16 km Expo Line extension to Langley. Re-posted and updated on Saturday, September 19, 2020 Re-released and update July 2, 2026 On September 20, 2010, Rail for the Valley unreleased the groundbreaking Leewood […]

TransLink’s Sinking Ship

Zwei has been wondering why all the rah-rah SkyTrain posts on You Tube and it seems the answer is, ridership is collapsing on this gold plated transit system. This is very bad news because falling ridership equates to reduced service and reduced service translates to fewer buses and higher fares. Then there is the now […]

Lies, Damned Lies And The Broadway Subway

Translink, Metro Vancouver, and the provincial NDP, especially Minister of Transportation, Mike Farnsworth, are “flooding the zone”, with the Broadway subway, “nearing completion“, “on time and on budget“, “with change how people commute“, and the goody, “the line will be soon extended“. Why all the hype and hoopla? Like all big ticket items, politcans want […]

Telling The Truth About Transit In Metro Vancouver, Is A Revolutionary Act

The problem with the current transit system is simple, those in charge are doing the same thing over again, expecting different results. Not working! What is needed is a complete rethought how transit service is provided, based on customer needs and not TransLink’s or Victoria’s political needs. TransLink’s ridership has been in decline for almost […]

The Pied Piper of SkyTrain

Evidently, the 16km Expo Line to Langley is in trouble, so who else to defend this hugely expensive project but the folks at SkyTrain for Surrey, otherwise known as FOX Entertainment North. The claims made by SFS are breathtaking and needs serious comment. True to form, the deliberate misinformation by SkyTrain for Surrey is again […]

The MetroTown Express?

I have to ask, why an express bus to MetroTown? It is puzzling that TransLink would waste valuable money on an express bus to, transit wise, nowhere. It’s like the Broadway subway stopping at Arbutus and it just does not make sense. The 99-B “Rapid” (Express Bus) is successful because it largely serves UBC and […]

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 […]

De-spinning The Spin – The Broadway Subway

First published on July 8, 2022 under the title “The $1.47 Billion Solution”, recent comments about the Broadway subway need clarifying. The following quote sums up the capacity issue for the Millennium Line (Broadway subway). When the programme is fully implemented, the Expo Line will be able to accommodate 17,500 passengers per hour per direction, […]