The Night of the Blunt Butter Knives – TransLink Fires Three Executives

It looks like TransLink has sacrificed three executives, to give an appearance of “getting their house in order” after two very recent uncomplimentary reports; nothing like firing three top executives (of course leaving with handsome golden handshakes) to give the public confidence that TransLink is cleaning house. Sorry, no it’s not – not even close. […]

Trams for the 21st Century – Alstom Citadis

Ai??Ai?? Bombardier and Siemens trams also have stiff competition from France’s Alstom’s Citadis modular tram. Alstolm’sAi??Ai??Citadis family of modular tramsAi??Ai??includes both partially low-floor and 100% low-floor trams,Ai??Ai??which can be delivered inAi??Ai??three, five, and seven sections, to suit the needs of individual costumers. The Citadis family of modular tramsAi??Ai??comprises of: Citadis 100 – three section, 70% […]

Trams for the 21st Century – Siemen’s Combino

With Bombardier’s two Flexity Outlook trams arriving in Vancouver, let’s take a look what the other companies have to offer for trams for the 21st century. Siemen’s Combino modular car The Combino is a low floor tramAi??Ai??made by Siemens Transportation Systems and firstAi??Ai??model came off the assembly lineAi??Ai??in 1996 at the Duewag works in DA?A?sseldorf, […]

Looming Bus Rapid Transit Fiasco in the UK? – From the Cambridge News: Millions at stake after latest busway wrangle

The UK government have been very pro BRT and the Cambridge – St. Ives BRT was to have been a showcase for Bus Rapid Transit. A dedicated group called CAST. IRON, promoting a ‘rail‘ solution predicted many of the problems now facing the Cambridge BRT and questioned the financing of the scheme. Sounds familiar doesn’t […]

Portland’s Ice Storms – A Chilling Reminder That Mother Nature Is Unpredictable

Zweisystem was in Portland during the 2007 ice storm and what an experience. Portland’s car drivers seemed ill equipped to deal with ice and tried to drive like it was snow and the following video shows the results. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyfjZlOSq2A] The following video shows a four car MAX train clearing the ice build up in the […]

A Flash From the Past – "Skytrain gathers speed despite cost to taxpayers" – From Charlie Smith & The Georgia Straight.

In light of TransLink’s newly departed CEO, Tom Prendergast’s parting shot at the SkyTrain Lobby,Ai??Ai?? A?ai??i??Ai??ItA?ai??i??ai???s overcoming the culturalAi??Ai??embracement of SkyTrain that has existed to date.A?ai??i??A? …… “TransLink is seeking to cut through the pro-SkyTrain A?ai??i??Ai??cultural biasA?ai??i??A?…………….”, which isAi??Ai??entrenched in all levels of civic and provincial bureaucracy; we should look at the warnings given almost […]

On-street Light Rail – Streetcars & Trams – How would it look?

The following are streetscapes and street cross sections of modern LRT (streetcars or trams) operating on-street and will help many to visualize how a modern tram would look on a typical city street in Vancouver, Langley, Abbotsford and even Chilliwack. The above picture shows a pure streetcar setting with cars and trams sharing a common […]

Please consider joining the Light Rail Transit Association

It’s that time again, membership renewal requests are in the mail or in one’s email box.Ai??Ai??Zwei is renewing his annual subscription to the Light Rail Transit Association and would like you to consider joining the Light Rail Transit Association. There are three good reasons for joining the LRTA: 1) The LRTA membership includes an annual […]

LRT versus BUSES – Why Portland chose light rail – from the LRTA

The following article written by Gerald Fox,Ai??Ai??former TriMet Rail Corridor Manager, is well worth a read as it gives good insight why Portland opted for modern light rail. http://www.lrta.info/tramforward/TAUT-Oct09-LRTvBus.pdfAi??Ai?? Gerald Fox, one must remember is the same chap, who in the early 90’s, published a study, “A comparison of Automated Guided Transit (AGT) and Light […]

From the Seattle Times – $26 million sought to buy land for portion of Eastside rail corridor

This transit story from the Seattle Times illustrates the land value for a soon to be abandoned rail lines, which with the current railway land deal, amounts toAi??Ai??slightly over $1 million a mile or about $0.6 million/km. A local example would be the Arbutus Corridor, which using the same formula as used in Seattle, would […]