A Letter to the Prime Minister – Transit Issues in Metro Vancouver

Sent November 9, 2015 Dear Prime Minister Trudeau; Congratulations on your recent electoral success and now a fresh wind sweeps across Canada. I have been an advocate for better public transit in the Metro Vancouver region for over 30 years. I have seen three major rapid transit projects built during this time and can honestly […]

The 1986 LRTA Study: Bus ai??i?? LRT ai??i?? Metro Comparison

I thought I would again reprint this post from May 20, 2010 as it may clear up some major misconceptions about LRT capacity, since many in Metro Vancouver are very confused about modern light rail. There is an ongoing debate today that LRTAi??can only carry a limited number of riders and that the magic number […]

Vancouver Blunders Ahead With Its Vanity Project.

Well, Vision(less) Vancouver is blundering ahead with its much cherished $3 billion subway under Broadway and our feckless politicians South of the Fraser remaining willfully blind to this billions of dollars boondoggle. One would think they would be more in tuned with the costs of this massive project. Surrey has been bought off with its […]

Portland’s Streetcar, Connecting The Entire Community

This speaks for itself. I must remind the unconvinced that going from 4,000 users a day to 15,000 users a day (in TransLink’s convoluted lexicon, this equates to over 30,000 boarding’s a day), which is a big deal in the U.S.A. So here is a thought, instead of a $3 billion subway to Arbutus, with […]

Annual Tram/LRT Statistics

The following are the annual tram/LRT ridership statistics courtesy of the Eurotrams group. In contradiction to what many local politicians; bureaucrats and academics would have us believe, modern LRT and or tram can carry large numbers of transit customers and do in annual revenue service. Let us forget the many “man-of-straw arguments” against LRT by […]

Light Rail Gets an Ally – We Welcome New Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi

For the first time since I have been advocating for better transit, now over thirty years, we now have a minister of the crown who not only understands modern light rail, he is an advocate of modern LRT! Let us hope new infrastructure minister Amarjeet Sohi is open to new ideas including the Leewood/RftV TramTrain! […]

Do I Hear Trams On The Arbutus Line………

Want to see Vancouver politicians tearing their hair from their heads? Just mention building LRT on the Arbutus Line. I say not a penny for the Broadway Subway until trams run along the Arbutus Line.   Stockholm completes LidingAi?? Line reconstruction Written byAi?? Keith Barrow PUBLIC services resumed on Stockholm’s LidingAi?? Line following the completion […]

Common Sense Transportation In The Fraser Valley

Common sense. Maybe the University of the Fraser Valley could offer a course in Urban Transit and Transportation, or be even more daring and have a Department of Urban Transport, offering degrees in Urban Transportation, just like Europe! Guest lecturer argues that inter-urban rail could improve transportation in the Fraser Valley Posted on September 30, […]

Monkey See – Monkey Do

The Surrey LRT (in dark green) will just inconvenience the bus customer with an unwanted transfer and one can lose upwards of 70% of potential ridership per transfer. Well, the Liberals re-announced an already pledged monies to fund one third of the Broadway subway if elected, now it is the Conservatives turn to re-announce already […]

The Boarders Railway Reopens After 47 Years! Leewood/RftV Interurban Is a Bargain!

The Beaching era in the UK saw the dismantling and the run down of Britain’s extensive railway network. Though some railway lines deserved to be abandoned, many did not. The Beaching philosophy was that railways were obsolete, with the exceptions of two trunk lines running North/South and one East/West, all other railway lines, except for […]