Six operators award joint contract for up to 504 tram-trains

This is big news and certainly shows the European confidence in TramTrain. The cost per car is somewhat steep (CAD $9.85 million) but it includes 16 years (and up to 32 years) of maintenance. This means the operators would be saved the cost of a mid life rehab! Also this highlights the advantages of group […]

A Comparrison Of Operating Costs – Revisited

If one took the ‘Way-back’ machine to the late 1980’s, the argument that SkyTrain was cheaper to operate than LRT would show the massive propaganda campaign to give the public a positive view of the proprietary ALRT light-metro. This is because it was forced upon the region by the Social Credit government of the day. […]

Rail For The Valley – We Told You So Dept.

Rail for the Valley told you so months ago! The 16 km Expo Line extension to Langley is now a provincial project. This is what happens when a TransLink project becomes over one billion dollars short of funding. This is what happens when the premier of the province makes construction a politcal promise. This is […]

Is Ottawa Getting a Tramway?

Traffic calming major streets and having a tramway or streetcar operate on the route is standard practice in Europe, so why not here? Politics aside, a modern tramway in Ottawa would, I believe, catch on with other major Canadian cities for providing an affordable quality public transit service. With “Global Warming” and associated climate change, […]

The Mayor’s Council’s Delusions Of Grandeur in 2050 – Where Is The money?

One has to just laugh at this tawdry attempt pre civic election spin for the regional transit system. It also highlights the media’s lack of investigative reporting, as they treat dreamy news releases as “breaking news”. The following quote exemplifies the Mayor’s Council’s delusions: Among the improvements and goals, the plan includes additional projects to […]

Another Abandoned UK Passenger Line Is Set to Reopen – Why Not The E&N?

Another long a long abandonment of passenger services, the once called Ivanhoe line is set to reopen for passenger service. The Leicester–Burton upon Trent line is a freight-only railway line in England linking the Midland Main Line south of Leicester to the Cross Country Route at Burton-on-Trent. The line closed to passengers in the 1960s. […]

Good News Everyone! Updated.

In our local ongoing transit debate the SkyTrain lobby and those who are just anti-LRT pointed fingers at Ottawa’s new transit system’s teething problems as a failed LRT line. For two years, local politicos and the media happily reported even minor problem and mishap with Ottawa’s light rail line while at the same time ignoring […]

Troubles At TransLink?

  Is a financial embarrassment of TransLink at hand? Monday morning I dropped my wife off at a suburban bus stop to catch the express bus going to the Canada Line. The bus had no more than seven people on board. The reason she took the bus, is that we are a one car family […]

A Memo For John Horgan

The Honourable John Horgan, Premier of BC * Dear Premier Horgan, * The Covid-19 pandemic has made absolutely clear, we cannot go back to normal, as it has forever changed how people behave. Covid-19 is a prelude for great change in BC.  * Last summer’s heat dome and subsequent wild fires shows we cannot go […]

A Repost From November 2018 – Mayor McCallum Has Screwed The City of Surrey

After three years, the news about rapid transit goes from bad to worse. The Expo Line extension to Langley is now costing more than the revised cost of $3.95 billion and despite much false information that the line is fully funded, it is not. The claim that Prime minister Trudeau’s Liberal government will fully fund […]