A Very Close Call – The Public Needs An Inquiry

Poor maintenance can be traced to TransLink’s dire financial ills. Sadly the mandarins running TransLink do not seem to be acquainted with the nuances of maintaining the railway and the SkyTrain light-metro system is a railway. Track switches are an integral part of the railway and must be constantly maintained, yet TransLink seems to have […]

It’s a GO, In Toronto – A Report From Toronto

  It’s officially a GO (sorry for the pun), all the EA’s are done, we have the company’s (2 Consortium’s) ready and the work thankfully, has already started. We are about to create what will be, electric regional railway service on the core part of the GO network (about 263 km worth of it. It […]

Troubles at Bombardier = Troubles for Metro Vancouver

The Metro Vancouver mayors may soon foolishly acquiesce to the mayor of Surrey’s demand to build with SkyTrain instead of light rail. Foolish, because they will remain tied to one supplier and will have to dance to the tune of Bombardier Inc., when and if new cars are ordered. Bombardier has ills with its rail […]

Toronto Enters the Light Rail Era as Vancouver Decends Into Traffic Hell

This what LRT is supposed to do – traffic calm, by providing a quality public transit alternative. In Vancouver, light metro is built to increase density, thus increasing auto use. The modern tram, provides transit, on the pavement, easy to use, just what the transit customer wants. Maybe trams on Broadway will bring a Renaissance […]

From Pole to Pan in Toronto

NO, we are not talking ‘pole dancing’ but another kind of ‘pole’ dance happening in Toronto. The use of panto-graphs or “pans” for the collection of electrical power has been around a long time and now it is Toronto’s turn to switch from the old trolley pole to a modern pan. Sadly, some of our […]

The Costly White Elephant In The Room

While Vancouver mayor Pines for a SkyTrain subway under Broadway and Trudeau the Younger smiles at the cameras with promises of transit manna from heaven, no one is addressing the real subway issue: costs! It is now estimated that the Millennium Line subway extension to Arbutus will now cost $3 billion or slightly higher, if […]

On Building The Wrong Type of Transit

An interesting item from Toronto; maybe some TransLink types should read this, or even regional, provincial and federal politicians as well. Investing massive sums of money on dubious subway “vanity projects” pretending that that any investment in public transit is good investment, is a fools game. It is time to design consumer oriented transit, transit […]

Oh Dear, the Scarborough R/T Replacement Again

Interesting news from Toronto, with the ongoing debate over the replacement of the Scarborough R/T. One would think our Toronto cousins believe that money grows on trees, wanting a a $3 billion, three stop subway line instead of a more convenient $1.8 billion seven stop LRT line. What I find so sad is the absolute […]

Subway Realities From Toronto

Interesting article from Toronto, which spells out some fiscal subway realities to TransLink and the City of Vancouver. Please note Zwei’s two comments in the article and should give one pause to think that in Vancouver, the cost of subway construction has been vastly understated. Mayor John Tory eyes alternative, more expensive routes for Scarborough […]

Finch Ave. West LRT is a go!

Finch Ave. West LRT is a go! With thanks from Mr. Haveacow! In the latest of a flurry of transit infrastructure announcements before and since last weekai??i??s launch of Ontarioai??i??s 2015 budget, the government of Ontario says itai??i??s finally going to start building a light rail transit line along Finch Avenue West. At a media […]