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 […]

A bad week for Clarkai??i??s fading B.C. Liberals

Another Canadian politico, deep in the doodoo the sad fact is SkyTrain, the Canada Line and now the the Evergreen SkyTrain Line are big contributors to TransLink’s financial woes. building more SkyTrain only exacerbates the situation. by Gary Mason – Globe & Mail It should have been so simple and straightforward ai??i?? a premier announcing […]

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 […]

Bogota’s Vaunted Bus Rapid Transit System ai??i?? in Distress

This comes as no surprise as the shine of bus rapid transit is beginning to wane. In South America, the rise of BRT was mainly due to the World Bank’s aversion to fund any type of rail project, but would shovel piles of money off the back of a truck to fund new highway construction. […]

Cleaning a subway – Does TransLink get it?

A London Underground Vacuum train Subways are an expensive proposition, not only are they expensive to build and operate, they are expensive to maintain. A little known fact is that subways needAi??regular cleaning as the dust and debris from daily operation is very corrosive to important signaling installations. The constant piston like action of trains […]

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 […]

The Karlsruhe model of a dual-mode railway system

Karlsruhe: The Karlsruhe model of a dual-mode railway system Country: Germany Type: Policies Area: Entire City, Region Actors: Local Gov. Funding: Local Gov., Regional Gov., National Gov., Private Topics: Built environment Consultancy Mobility Objectives: Increase non-motorised mobility Increase use of public transport Reduce car mobility Reduce energy consumption Instruments: A coupled set of GT-8’s in […]

Liberal government caves in on road pricing

Ha, ha, ha, it seems the Liberal government hasAi??caved-in at introducing road pricing or road tolls on the region, when they realized that the introduction of road tolls/pricing, would ensure a one way trip to political oblivion. To make road pricing or road tolls work, would mean the region would have to have a viable […]

Bring Back Our Trams – A New Website for Victoria Light Rail – A question About SNC

Our friends across the pond, in Victoria have a new website, Bring Back Our Trams http://www.b-bot.ca/index.htmlAi??which contains some surprising information. Zwei has wondered why the cost of a simple streetcar/LRT line would cost over $62 million/km and BBOTAi??may haveAi??supplied the answer: Canada’s favourite engineering group, SNC Lavalin did the initial cost study. Why then, would […]