Late Friday Night’s Musings For Saturday Reading

Zwei, with a cup of tea in hand, has been reading the various transit blogs and answering emailsAi??Ai??from interested parties around the world, trying to get a read onAi??Ai??what direction public transit is going in the near and not so near future. Sadly, I see a trend in North America towards supporting building hugely expensive […]

Smart Growth. A look into Cities, Urban planning, and the Sustainable Movement.

A reader of this blog has kindly given ‘Zwei’ some links about Smart Growth around the world and they are very much well worth having a look. http://smarturbandesign.blogspot.com/2009/04/mall-of-america-and-minneapolis-light.html http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BQQ/is_8_41/ai_81104210/ http://www.friends4expo.org/ltrail.htm http://www.drcog.org/documents/LRT%20and%20TOD.pdf http://www.thespec.com/article/717530 http://www.mindspring.com/~tbgray/lrtmaps.htm

LRT will motivate us to ditch cars, From the Hamilton Spectator

What I find interesting about this news item, is the statement, “…….a consultants’ report into the economics of LRT in Hamilton projected the system would need about 34,000 riders a weekday (8.9 million a year) to break even on its operational costs.“; which should put a stop to the SkyTrain’s lobby claims that light rail […]

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 […]