A Letter To Media and Politicians

ai??i??This letter went out to all the usual suspects, MP’s, MLA’s, and Mayors and Council.   There is a general naivete about Light Rail Transit or LRT in the media, due in part to TransLink’s and previously BC Transits thirty five year war on LRT, with their well advertised preference for light-metro. Today, except for […]

BART’s Problems Today Are TransLink’s Problems Tomorrow

Aging metro systems are a big problem in North America and the more complicated the transit system, the more costly it is to maintain. Unlike TransLink, BART’s (Bay Area Rapid Transit) bureaucrats are far more forthcoming with system ills and for that they must be congratulated for their candor. We see none of this with […]

The Federal Budget – LRT Mentioned, But Not A Subway

The Federal budget did not hold any transit surprises, with $370 million to be spent over five years for transit project support. Well, $370 million will buy you about one kilometre of a Broadway subway or put another way, 200 metres a year spread over five years, big deal! We could build 2 km of […]

Of Trains, Station Platforms, and Capacity

Zwie has got wind of a local transit advocate getting a nasty phone call a few evenings back from a chap incensed over a blog post on Facebook that went like this: The Canada line has station platforms 40m to 50 m long and operates 41 m long coupled sets of EMU’s, has about one […]

Light Rail, Streetcars & Light-Metro – A Primer.

First published in the RftV blog in 2011, it is still pertinent today. Updated and edited for March 2016.   Due to many people posting, on various blogs, absolute rubbish about light rail, it is time again for a quick primer on streetcars, LRT and SkyTrain. Question: What is the difference between LRT and a […]

Must see videos

This is one of Zwei’s favourite tram photos. Lawned rights-of-way; simple stations; and pedestrian friendly light rail in Grenoble. Reprinted and re edited from 2009. The two videos from Karlsruhe are a must see, to fully understand TramTrain! All the links work, unfortunately the few that no longer exist, have been deleted. Trams climbing grades […]

Is It Time To Get Back To Basics?

Perusing many transit oriented blogs, there seems to be a common thread appearing, we are changing our travel and commuting habits. This poses a very important question; “Is it time to get back to basics with transit planning?” This is a valid question because as driving and commuting habits change, expensive transit infrastructure just may […]

Toronto council lacking critical transit information ahead of key decisions

Sound familiar? Vancouver Councillors utterly clueless about subways and transit in general. Surrey Councillors completely naive about light rail. TransLink blunders along, without a clue what they are doing. Bureaucrats kowtowing to political whims, with no thought about the negative effects on the taxpayer. “We’re OK Jack, coz we all have six figure salaries.” Yet […]

Medical Emergancy – TransLink Speak For Another Death

On Monday last, another suicide another death on SkyTrain, yet the media and TransLink hides the fact, with the utility phrase; “medical emergancy”. The hypocrisy of the mainstream media makes me upchuck, as if they treated suicides on SkyTrain, like the fare evasion issue, maybe TransLink would ‘lift a finger’ and do something. One of […]

Subways Are Very Expensive

Despite the cries of shock and disbelief from the peanut gallery, subways are very expensive to build and equally expensive to maintain. * Dusseldorf’s 2.11 mile (3.4 km) cost USD $960.6 million (CAD $1,317.45) billion works out to CAD $387.5 million/km to build, which is the upper end of the cost estimate given by our […]