90 Years And Counting

Well, it has taken almost 90 years for transit planners in North America to realize that by giving a streetcar a dedicated lane it becomes light rail. European transit planners clearly understood by the 1930’s that by giving a streetcar a dedicated route, its performance almost matched that of a much more expensive metro or […]

A Proven Winner

Sin city is getting LRT. After flirting with Bombardier’s Innovia monorail and optically guided buses, Las Vegas is now improving their regional transit system, with a proven winner, light rail transit. Light rail is the winning option for Las Vegas transportation Regional Transportation CommissionA rendering of a proposed light rail system along Maryland Parkway. Monday, Feb. 18, […]

Am I the Last Voice against SkyTrain to UBC?

Professor Patrick Condon vents about the Broadway SkyTrain subway. The question is; “Who is listening?”   Am I the Last Voice against SkyTrain to UBC? It will drive unaffordable condos in Vancouver. Which drives me nuts.   By Patrick Condon | TheTyee.ca Patrick Condon is the James Taylor chair in Landscape and Livable Environments at the University […]

The McElhanney Study is a political document masquerading as a technical one

“It is interesting how TransLink has used this cunning method of manipulating analysis to justify SkyTrain in corridor after corridor, and has thus succeeded in keeping its proprietary rail system expanding.” Gerald Fox, 2008 Malcolm Johnston, 2019 Please deliver to Mayor and Council. My name is Malcolm Johnston and I have been involved in Metro […]

Remember, Remember The 13th Of December

The next Mayor’s Council on Transit meeting is on December 13 and a very important meeting indeed. At this meeting the Mayor’s Council on Transit will decide on the fate of Surrey’s LRT project. The SkyTrain Lobby is worried (the number of spam emails has increased tremendously) that common sense may reign and the decision […]

McCallum’s $2.9 Billion Question

From the 2017 Steer Davis Gleave – HATCH report, the total cost for SkyTrain, including fifty-Five new cars is $2,914,798,721.00. As 2019 nears, the cost is rising. Memo to Doug McCallum: we are not building SkyTrain to 1980’s cost of construction. Memo to Gord Lovegrove: I think you need to join the Light Rail Transit […]

Game Changer, The Autonomous Tram

  This will be a game changer for transit and especially for Vancouver, where politic ans love driverless transit. What this means is that the concept of driverless transit systems must be put on expensive elevated guideways or even more expensive subways, will fade to the history books as the autonomous tram will have the […]

A Matter Of Perspective

What is interesting with this story is the matter of perspective comparing Vancouver and Toronto. In Toronto, the 504 streetcar servicing carries around 80,000 riders a day in 2018. In Vancouver, where a subway is being proposed for Broadway, as far as Arbutus and with some promoters wanting it to terminate at UBC; in 2012 […]

The Sum of Zwei’s Fears – Part 2

A fiasco is brewing  in Surrey, as the cost for LRT construction is now exceeding $165 million/km! Is it by design, by TransLink, who wish to continue building with SkyTrain? Is it by devious planning by other City of Surrey, piling on massive infrastructure costs on the light rail project? Is it nothing more than […]

How America Killed Transit – How the Americans (and we) Are Getting it Wrong

I think the author, a PHD candidate, seems unread on what modern light rail is. He still defines light rail vehicles, different than a streetcar Memo to PHD candidate: it is not the vehicle, but the quality of rights-of-way, that defines LRT. His comment; “And though cheaper to build, light rail lines are often too […]