A Bad News Situation

Kevin Quinn, the American spin doctor, hired by TransLink (a.k.a the provincial government) to bamboozle the taxpayer to agree to anti up more money for the regional transit system is again taken to the media pleading poverty to the provincial government, in order to secure more funding. He is now blaming the “electric car” for […]

The 2024 Provincial Election And Transit

How will the 2024 provincial election impact transit? Hard to answer but, the current major “rapid transit” (Expo and Millennium Lines) projects are seeing a funding shortfall of around $4 billion and it is hard to see the new Parliament in Victoria approving funding, for what is now largely seen a “prestige” transit projects. Oh, […]

Lessons

A lot has happened with Ottawa’s hybrid light metro/rail system, most of it negative, but most confuse it with the very successful O-Train, which is not light rail at all, rather a regional railway, operating DMU’s. This is what Rail for the Valley is proposing for the Valley Rail scheme and what the E&N folks […]

Back On Track

Cities across Europe are building trams (streetcars) at a rate not seen in nearly a century. Places that had torn up their tram tracks in the 1950s have realized they had made a mistake. Twenty-one French cities have built a tramway system this century. Sixty German cities now have trams. Further afield, China has built […]

Are You A Transit Expert? 15 Questions.

Here are ten questions to test the knowledge of political candidates about LRT & public transit for this coming provincial election. Passing grade is 70%. Answers: 1) LRT is a transit mode, generally electrically powered, able to operate in mixed traffic, that can economically carry between 2,000 and 20,000 persons per hour per direction. (Light […]

The Song Remains The Same. The NDP Stick To Their Worn SkyTrain Script

An at grade SkyTrain R-o-W in Coquitlam. could this happen on Broadway or the Fraser Highway to save costs?

TransLink’s BRT – What Is The Real Story?

BRT – A View From a Canadian Transit Expert – A Repost from 2015 Today’s post is a re post from 2015  and 2023, is an an interesting piece offered by Mr. Haveacow, a transit specialist from Ottawa who has good knowledge of Canadian public transit. He wishes to be anonymous because of Canada’s arcane […]

What Is The Real Cost For The Expo & Millennium Line Extensions? A Repost From 2022.

The following post is from a September 14, 2022 and I am re-posting because Zwei was wrong about the cost of the 16 km Expo Line extension to Langley. Evidently, my cost estimates were out by $1.5 to $2.5 billion as the provincial government recently announced that the cost of the 16 km extension to […]

OMC #5 – Who Made $8 Million?

An interesting passage from Bob Mackin’s Breaker News has peaked my interest concerning the the Operations and Maintenance Centre #5. “A Dec. 11, 2023 NDP cabinet order, signed by Surrey-Green Timbers MLA Rachna Singh, took a nearly 37-acre parcel of land at 176th and the Fraser Highway out of the Agriculture Land Reserve on which […]

The NDP Just Love FastFerry Projects!

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana, an early 20th century writer and philosopher. Well, the NDP certainly do not remember their past because the $6 billion, 16 km Expo Line extension to Langley is turning into another “FastFerry” fiasco! Well done, Premier Eby, well done! The fast ferry […]