Is Factbender Going To Announce SkyTrain To Langley On Canada Day?

“You are going to get SkyTrain whether you like it or not”, has been the popular refrain from notable BC politicians including Bill Bennett, Bill Van der Zalm, Grace McCarthy, Glen Clark, Joy McPhail, Gordon Campbell, Kevin Falcon and now, Factbender and Premier photo-Op! Only seven built in 40 years!   Is the Minister responsible […]

Honolulu is Learning the Vancouver Lesson – Build Light-Metro At Your Financial Peril

Updated May 22, 2016 – Added CAD currency conversions. Bombardier and SNC Lavalin spent years grooming Honolulu City politicians to build with light-metro. For their efforts, Bombardier and SNC got pipped at the post by Ansaldo with their proprietary light-metro and and the now chagrined burghers of Honolulu are now finding out that proprietary light-metro […]

Why the car is winning the commuter war – Simple, it is called SkyTrain

The modern tram brings fast, reliable and user-friendly public transport to densely populated European Cities, like Amsterdam. The ability of the transit customer of having his/hers transit on the pavement and easily accessible, makes modern light-rail the first choice of transit planners around the world. Sadly, not so in Metro Vancouver. A bit of a […]

TramTrain – TransLink Fears Success

A candid conversation with a former TransLink planner all most a year ago (I gather from an email he is happily motoring along in his motor home in New Mexico), may shed some light on TransLink’s current planning and fiscal ills. The problem seems to be TransLink’s planners and bureaucrats are afraid of success. Why? […]

Is gridlock the real Expo 86 legacy for Metro Vancouver?

Charlie Smith of the Georgia Straight is the one reporter who has studied the transit issue and knows the issues. Despite the hype and hoopla, especially from provincial politicians (both Liberal, Socred & NDP) the SkyTrain Lobby, the many issues surrounding SkyTrain have been glossed over by the mainstream media. This is still evident today […]

Another Vancouver Sun “PUFF” Story

In one of the greatest non stories from the pages of the Vancouver Sun, the announcement that the Evergreen ART cars will be operated on the ALRT/ART system as they arrive. Why wouldn’t they? Let us not forget the Evergreen Line is the unfinished portion of the NDP’s boondoggle, the Millennium Line. The entire story […]

The 7% Solution

It has been puzzling me greatly, TransLink’s claim that; “SkyTrain revenue up 7% after closing of fare gates.” Strange that because prior to the fare gate introduction, the majority of the fares for SkyTrain were paid on the bus. As over 80% of SkyTrain’s customers first take the bus, the fare was paid on the […]

Evergreen Line Cost Overruns & Broadway Subway Censorship – Business As Usual At TransLink

Hats off to Bob Mackin, for his continued journalistic investigation of TransLink and SkyTrain. The cost overruns on the Evergreen Line were expected as TransLink’s Business Case for ART for the Evergreen Line was as phony asAi?? the proverbial $3.00 bill. Also, it is no surprise that TransLink is censoring its Broadway subway and Surrey […]

Compass Card Hack – Another Fine Mess TransLink Has Gotten Into

Not well reported in the mainstream media is the fact that the $200 million Compass Card/Fare gate systemAi?? is now next to useless because not so honest people can hack through the system. The Compass Card is old tech, sold to TransLink after an orchestrated campaign by the mainstream media that fare evasion was rampant […]

Ontario Could Get Half Of Ottawaai??i??s $3.4B Transit Infrastructure Money This Year

No surprise here, as Ontario holds the key for the Liberals reelection in three years hence and the Libs need some transit projects to cut ribbons in front of. BC, as always will get crumbs, but we well deserve it as regional politicians still want hugely expensive vanity projects so they can cut ribbons in […]