A day in gridlocked Richmond

Zwei had business to conduct in Richmond yesterday and it was my first time I have driven around the municipality in many years. Yes, ‘Zwei‘ ventures to Landsdown Mall to rescue his wife from TransLink when she works late in Vancouver several times a week, but that is late at night and traffic is light. […]

TransLink and the Canada Line – The real story – Part 2

It even gets better! More from the email I received Monday and what a bombshell! If the following is to believed and I believe very strongly it is true, TransLink is doing a very poor, yet very expensive job in moving transit customers. This why TransLink and the provincial government are deathly afraid of an […]

TransLink and the Canada Line – The real story

The following was emailed to me last night and contains some explosive comments about TransLink and the RAV/Canada Line. Rand Chatterjee is one of the very few people who took the time to research the cost of the RAV/Canada Line and he clearly understands the nuances of the P-3 contract and the negative impact on […]

Review of Light Rail/Tramway costs

A Federal Parliamentry Review of Light Rail/Tramway/Transit costs must be carried out!Ai?? Both Fang & Zwei have posted articles in the past weeks on the high costs of Canadian LightAi??Rail, Tramway & Transit schemes. Vancouver, TorontoAi??and Waterloo. Design, Utility relocation, Financing vehicles (ie P3) Project management, Construction management, Land purchase and now theAi??concern that Ai??Canadian […]

North American light rail systems

Modern LRT is reasonably cheap to build, when compared with metro type systems, but in NorthAi??America transit planners have done the impossible, they have planned LRT to be more expensive than a metro to build.Ai?? Such stupidity should be stopped at once! From the Globe and Mail. This maybe of some interest, but the cost […]

Ida Chong is afraid to order an audit of TransLink! Those damned skeletons in the closet!

Well, good old ‘Zwei’ has been arguing for this for over a decade, but the BC Liberal government and the Liberal lickspital minister in charge of TransLink, Ida Chong, is afraid to order an audit of TransLink. Why? Audits have a strange way of uncovering misspent monies or dubious bookkeeping Ai??practices or evenAi??more sinister wastes […]

Why transit fares must increase.

Some years ago, I corresponded with a chap in the UKAi??who was (and still is) a respected transit consultant and much what I discuss about in this blog comes from our discussions. One striking comment he made; “Building metros on routes that do not have the ridership to sustain them, only invites higher subsidies and […]

Transportation Planning – A North American view

An interesting extract from a commentary comparing currentAi??North AmericanAi??practice with European `In Vancouver, over a decade ago at the grand opening of the heritage streetcar project, a chap from Bombardier singled me out. What he said after a few niceties, astounded me. To paraphrase, he claimed that: Vancouver’s SkyTrain greatly retarded sales of Bombardier built […]

Ottawa tries to avoid the Vanvouver T.O.D. disease.

In Vancouver, metro construction is planned andAi??built toAi??subsidize land development, not to provide better transit for customers. In theory it is to greatly increase ridership for the new metro line, in practice some unpleasant things happen,Ai??such asAi??people moving into the new high rise apartments and condos and driving to work because they work where the […]

Trams, Pedestrians & Bicycles + buses & cars in Amsterdam

Trams, bicycles, pedestrians also buses, motorcycles & cars happily co-existing in Amsterdam. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JeWED7Zilo Just to reassure Ai??theAi??Ai??retardedAi??Ai??dingbats amongst Skyscraper, Ai??Skytrain for Surrey, Translink & Ai??VancouverAi??activistsAi??that it can be done Ai??and that no one was killed or injured during the making of this video a Happy New Year to one & all…. the toast is `Shiney […]