Is the Hawaii SkyTrain Project Bombardier’s Last Kick At The Can?

The i L i n d . n e tAi??Ai??blog has been asking many questions about the proposed SkyTrain transit project in Hawaii, questions which should be answered before embarking on a multi billion dollar rapid transit project. Recent postings point to the fact that light rail was quietly dropped from theAi??Ai??planning process, not unlike […]

Hawaii SkyTrain Project Heats Up

A Hawaiian blog by Ian Lind posted Zwei’s ‘Debunking SkyTrain Series’ and continues the hot debate on the elevated SkyTrain project in Hawaii. http://ilind.net/2010/03/03/responses-show-rail-a-very-hot-topic/ It is good that the locals are beginning to ask questions about SkyTrain and may be beginning to see that the proprietary light-metro isn’t as great as ‘sliced bread’ which the […]

From the Tyee On Line NewsPaper: Vancouver’s Street Car Gift: Keep It?

An interesting article from the Tyee. Vancouver’s Street Car Gift: Keep It? To the delight of tourists and locals, the Olympic Line streetcar has been delivering people smoothly from Athlete’s Village on lower Cambie Street to Granville Island since Jan. 21. A Bombardier Flexity Outlook on loan from Brussels for the duration of the Games, […]

Olympic Hubris – Will The Wrong Conclusions Be Made By Our Planning & Political Elites?

In the last days of the 2010 Olympics, much has been made about how well our transportation worked during the event. What has been overlooked is that for the two week extravaganza, Vancouver had much warmer seasonal weather, meaning noAi??Ai??snow to stall the SkyTrain metro and make a shambles out of the bus schedules. Added […]

A Press Release From The Light Rail Transit Association

Ai?? The following press release from the LRTA is their response to the UK Ai??Ai??All Party Parliamentary Light Rail Group, regarding LRT which ‘Zwei’ commented on earlier in the week. http://railforthevalley.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/all-party-parliamentary-light-rail-group-applrg-report-should-we-do-the-same-in-bc/   PRES S RELEASE FROM Ai??Ai?? TramForward 25 February 2010 Ai??Ai??   TramForwardAi??Ai??Ai??Ai??welcomes publication of Light Rail and the City regions Report TramForward welcomes […]

Note to TransLink: Toronto’s Streetcars operate 24/7

A post from confirms what Zweisystem already knew, many streetcar/LRT systems operate twenty-four hours a day! Here we have an excellent example of the flexibility of modern LRT. 501 Queen and 506 Carlton. The routes are numbered 301 and 306 at night. From Wikipedia: The Blue Night Network is the overnight public transit service operated […]

All Party Parliamentary Light Rail Group (APPLRG) report – Should we do the same in BC?

Some interesting news from across the pond. Urban transit development in the UK has been hamstrung by a very powerful and vocal ‘Roads Lobby’, within the central government (not unlike the SkyTrain Lobby in Victoria), which has all but stopped light rail development in the UK. In an era of peak oil and global warming, […]

Olympic Line Update: Olympic Line street car resumes service after collision

The Olympic Line is back to full operation after Friday night’s fender bender. IndicationsAi??Ai??are, that the motorist ignored light signals and drove in front of the tram. The Olympic Line is not a new line, rather it is Vancouver’s Historic Streetcar line, which has seen operation along the same route for years. There should be […]

Car Crashes close the Olympic Line and Highway 17.

Ai??Ai?? The inevitable has happened,Ai??Ai??a car crash at a light controlled intersectionAi??Ai??at 11: 30 on Friday night, closed the Olympic Line. From the Vancouver sun: VANCOUVER – An Olympic Line streetcar collided with a vehicle at Moberly Road and Sixth Avenue in False Creek just before 11:30 p.m. Friday night. Police officers and fire trucks […]

Light-rail ‘vision’ elevated track would run along I-405 – From the Seattle Times

It seems the hoary old elevated, tunnel, or at-grade debate continues in Bellevue Washington, which is across the lake from Seattle. The success of LRT is to be able to penetrate into city centres cheaply, on-street, where the transit customer wants to go, which is something that a certain rookie Bellevue councilor doesn’t want to […]