B.C. premier orders audit of TransLink. Two important questions

B.C. premier orders audit of TransLink, but will it be the right sort of audit? Will the BC Auditor General do the Audit? Will it be a value for money audit? Two important questions that must be answered before anyAi??credenceAi??is given to Premier Clark’s call for an audit of TransLink. TransLink is auditedAi??on an annual […]

Vehicle registration fee eyed to generate cash for transit services

They just don’t get it. The lower mainland’s regional mayors just haven’t a clue about transit and just keeps the money pumping into the bloated TransLink bureaucracy, which has achieved very little since its inception over a decade ago, except that is, for giving Vancouver the hugely expensive Canada line subway, because Vancouver’s politicians did […]

Kirkland city manager stumps for trail project along old rail line

Interesting news from just South of the border, a city manager actually eying a former disused intact railway for future transit use. Such thinking is so hard to imagine on our side of the 49th, where politicos and bureaucrats, mostly run and hide at the thought of using existing infrastructure. Here is the difference, in […]

How the TTC sullied the reputation of LRT (Part II)

How the TTC sullied the reputation of LRT (PartAi?? II) Ai??March 16,Ai?? 2012 In Part I of my look at howAi?? the TTC has sullied the reputation of LRT, I focused on the TTC’s communicationsAi?? on surface rail, where “LRT” somehow meant “Streetcar Rapid Transit” but “SRT”Ai?? meant “Scarborough… RT”? Plus, while there were 75 […]

Surrey’s mayor renews call for light rail

Surrey mayor, Dianne Watts is renewing her call for LRT and well she should as the province is now leaning towards a SkyTrain subway under Broadway. Surrey and the south Fraser region is grossly shortchanged by TransLink and public transit is just a few steps up the ladder from dismal. The real problem is TransLink’s […]

Subways dreams for dreamers

Interesting article from Toronto. I doAi??take issue with is the claim “that subways attract more riders than any other form of transit.”whichAi??is not supported by studies elsewhere, instead it isAi??modern LRT actually attracts more new ridership than other modes. That Toronto doesn’t have modern LRT and instead operates with the light rail variant streetcars (mostly […]

Who is driving TransLink?

Who is driving TransLink, you ask? The real answer, if a Mr. Ferry cared to investigate, is the provincial government and the Premier’s office. What is making TransLink so expensive, demanding all sorts of taxes and levies? The provincial demand for light-metro, mostly in the guise of SkyTrain, has increased the the cost of a […]

Why Is Victoria’s Proposed LRT So Expensive?

Why is Victoria’s proposed light rail so expensive? Our friendsAi??at Bring Back Our Trams in Victoria, like the Rail for the Valley folks on this side of the pond, are beginning to wonder aloud, why the proposed Victoria LRT isAi??very close to beingAi??the most expensive LRT in the world, on a per kilometre basis. What […]

Eric Chris Responds To The SkyTrain Lobby

Eric Chris responds to the SkyTrain for Surrey blog. It is just not Zweisystem who has questions about SkyTrain and TransLink and Eric Chris’s reply to the SkyTrain Lobby has great merit. The Vancouver Sun has always treated SkyTrain as a “mother and apple pie issue” and has never challenged the government on building more. […]

Onetime Toronto subway lover transfers support to LRT

Interesting article from Toronto. When there is honest and truthful debate about modern light rail, the public willAi??generally support the mode, leaving the die hard metro/subway lobby with a very hard debate to counter, but not in Metro Vancouver. BC Transit and TransLink have always and continue to do so, deliberately misinform the public about […]