Timing is right for Interurban line – A letter in the Surrey Leader

More letters supporting valley rail. Sadly, if one links to the original story, one can see the same old anti-LRT rhetoric and unrealistic calls for spending $2 billion to connect Langley with SkyTrain, through “sparsely populated areas“. Re: A?ai??i??Ai??Transit at a crossroads,A?ai??i??A? The Leader, March 24. I have been following with interest those who for […]

Rail advocate quotes Gretzky to push plan

Another fine article on the proposed ‘valley’ rail. There is an ever growing support for the ‘return of the interurban’ but please, there is really no such thing as ‘community rail’ and it would sad if the proposed interurban project were to beAi??Ai??side-tracked by an unproven transit philosophy. Any form of rail transit is expensive […]

Transit at a crossroads – From The Surrey Leader

Well here we go again, TransLink is planning for ‘rapid’ transit for Surrey and the Fraser Valley.Ai??Ai??Zwei has seen this all before and I’m afraidAi??Ai??I amAi??Ai??not at all enthused with the process, nor have much faithAi??Ai??in TransLink to do an honest study. Zwei hates the term ‘rapid transit’ as it refers to metro and only […]

Man walking on tracks holds up SkyTrain – From The Vancouver Sun

This is the third time in as many weeks where a person walking on the SkyTrain guideway stops SkyTrain servcie; of course people walk all over LRT/tram track everyday and with ;ding-ding’ of a tram bell, they get out of its way! Ai?? Man walking on tracks holds up SkyTrain By ANDREA WOO, VANCOUVER SUNAi??Ai??Ai?? […]

A?ai??i??E?Blank slateA?ai??i??ai??? transit plan bodes well – Um no, Not Until TransLink Stops Playing Dirty Tricks!

Though the transit debate is supposed to be a ‘Blank slate’, it seems TransLink is up to its own dirty little tricks as usual. It has been a long and well established fact that light rail (LRT) can and does carry over 20,000 persons per hour per direction. The claim that it can carryAi??Ai??Ai??Ai??only 6,000 […]

Two letters in the North Shore News

The usual suspects yes, but an insight to the up coming Evergreen Line/Broadway – UBC metro line debate. Take the regional view on transit investment North Shore News Published:Ai??Ai??Wednesday, March 24, 201o Dear Editor: In her March 17 columns Costly SkyTrain Technology Choices Baffle, Elizabeth James, cites U.S. professor Panos Prevedouros saying, “Light rail service […]

Costly SkyTrain technology choices baffle – From the North Shore News

It seems that the efforts of Zwei and others have paid off’ asAi??Ai??others in the region are taking note of LRT and TramTrain and the hugeAi??Ai??costs that go along with the SkyTrain light-metro system and subway construction. TramTrain andAi??Ai??especially “Rail for the Valley” itselfAi??Ai??may find some welcome allies to their cause from the North Shore, […]

Hawaii SkyTrain Project Heats Up

A Hawaiian blog by Ian Lind posted Zwei’s ‘Debunking SkyTrain Series’ and continues the hot debate on the elevated SkyTrain project in Hawaii. http://ilind.net/2010/03/03/responses-show-rail-a-very-hot-topic/ It is good that the locals are beginning to ask questions about SkyTrain and may be beginning to see that the proprietary light-metro isn’t as great as ‘sliced bread’ which the […]

Olympic Hubris – Will The Wrong Conclusions Be Made By Our Planning & Political Elites?

In the last days of the 2010 Olympics, much has been made about how well our transportation worked during the event. What has been overlooked is that for the two week extravaganza, Vancouver had much warmer seasonal weather, meaning noAi??Ai??snow to stall the SkyTrain metro and make a shambles out of the bus schedules. Added […]

All Party Parliamentary Light Rail Group (APPLRG) report – Should we do the same in BC?

Some interesting news from across the pond. Urban transit development in the UK has been hamstrung by a very powerful and vocal ‘Roads Lobby’, within the central government (not unlike the SkyTrain Lobby in Victoria), which has all but stopped light rail development in the UK. In an era of peak oil and global warming, […]