If Cambie Street grows as hoped, City of Vancouver will lose big bucks – From The Vancouver Sun

As stated before many times, rapid transit development in Vancouver, especially the Millennium and RAV/Canada Lines, has been about development and not moving people. The hype and hoopla of TransLink and the mainstream media that the Canada Line is carrying 94,000 riders a day ignores the fact that all except about 10% of the Canada […]

Are SkyTrain Mk 1 Cars For Sale?

An interesting post in the Toronto Information blog. SRT: What To Look Forward To With the funding deferment pushing back the conversion of the SRT until after 2015, the plan includes buying some used ICTS Mark-I cars from Vancouver. Want a look at what is in store for us, take a look atAi??Ai??this article which […]

Texas’s Newest ‘Rail’ Transit line, the Red Line

This article for Mass Transit should prove interesting to supporters of the “return of the interurban“, in the Fraser Valley. What should be of interest is the cost of the 32 mile (51.5 km)Ai??Ai??line is less than $5 million per mile or $3.1 million per km. (CAD $ 3.24 million)! Let’s see, a Vancouver to […]

SkyTrain Derails In Surrey – Is This The Shape Of Things To Come?

TransLink was very lucky that this accident happened at the end of the line in Surrey, with an apparently empty train. A brake caliper fell onto the track and was large enough to derail the next train that passed by. Here lies the Achilles heel of automatic transit systems, they can’t see obstructions on the […]

Canada’s gridlocked mayors call for multi-level strategy on transit

The following news item shows that the issue of public and regional transit and funding of transit is beginning to creep into the politicians radar. Throwing more money at transit will not solve very much as politicians have a very strange habit of funding their ‘pet‘ projects. The federal government can help by rewriting the […]

TransLink’s Ridership Numbers – Can They Be Trusted?

Several local blogs have trumpeted TransLink’s claim thatAi??Ai??March’s ridership is up over 19% from the same time last year. http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Olympic+commuters+sticking+with+public+transit/3065957/story.html#Comments Yet ‘Zwei’ has some nagging questions as to how TransLinkAi??Ai??counts transitAi??Ai??ridership, especially on the metro system. Back in BC Transit days, the transit agencyAi??Ai??proclaimed in annual news releases; “that ridership on the SkyTrain metro has […]

SkyTrain service shut down between two Surrey stations

From the Vancouver Sun. According to the SkyTrain Lobby, SkyTrain operates trouble free; well not today it seems. SkyTrain service shut down between two Surrey stations May 25, 2010 SURREY – A problem with a train near the end of the Surrey section has shut down SkyTrain service between Gateway and King George stations. Coast […]

The Failure To Understand Modern Light Rail = Public Transit Chaos

‘Zwei’ has been taken aback by the viciousness of the SkyTrain Lobby and the great lengths they haveAi??Ai??taken in discrediting the LRT, while at the same time refusing to acknowledge the marketing failure of the proprietary (ICTS/ALRT/ALM/ART ) light-metro system, known in Vancouver as SkyTrain. ‘Zwei’ is also taken aback by abject refusalAi??Ai??by many supposed […]

The 1986 LRTA Study: Bus – LRT – Metro Comparison

The followingAi??Ai??is from the Light Rail Transit Associations hand book Light Rail Transit Today, comparing the operating parameters of bus, light rail, and metro on an unimpeded 8 kilometre route with stations every 450 metres. Using real data based on acceleration, deceleration, dwell time, etc., the study gives real time information for the three transit […]

A Poll That the Main Stream Media Ignored. Can We Expect The Same For Other Non SkyTrain ‘Rail’ Projects?

A very strange thing happenedAi??yesterday with ‘Zwei’. When I was discussing a transit matter with an US transit type about the RAV/Canada line. He told me that TransLink officials claimed that over 80% of Vancouverites supported RAV and if it were not for the high costs of the metro, many more metro type transit systems […]