Rail for the Valley in the News!

The Rail for the Valley/Leewood TramTrain study has had region wide reporting, with most of the weekly papers featuring this historic news release. Click here to download the full 84 page report Surrey Leader, Langley Times & Chilliwack Progress, BC http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/surreyleader/news/103467759.html or http://tinyurl.com/32zmj7n Valley light rail all go, twin groups claim Vancouver Province http://www.theprovince.com/life/Valley+light+rail+twin+groups+claim/3556678/story.html or […]

Mayors, Premier and Transportation Minister to meet next week – The Blind Leading the Blind

Talk about the blind leading the blind. BC Transportation Minister, Shirley Bond (who knows little or nothing about transit), the besieged premier (who knows that building glitzy metro lines buys votes), and regional mayors (who are equally unread on transit) are going to have a private meeting regarding TransLink’s ongoing financial crisis. The first hing […]

European News

ALSTOM ORDER FOR RATP LINE T3 Alstom has received zamA?A?wnienie for 25 tramsAi??Ai??for Paris.Ai??Ai??Twenty-fiveAi??Ai??Citadis trams ordered a French Alstom RATP – the operator of public transport in Paris. Warehouses to be delivered in 2012.Ai??Ai?? The Alstom order was announced today an option agreement signed in December 2003 . Its value is EUR 77 million, along […]

Off The Rails – From the Abby Times

An interesting tome in the Abbotsford Times. Anyone wanting to put ‘rail’ transit down the median of the number 1 highway forgets that it would be hugely expensive and the curvature and gradients along the route would mean very expensive engineering would have to be done. Going ‘greenfields’ construction is always an expensive propositionAi??Ai??which knowledgeable […]

The LR55 Rail System – Cheap track for trams!

This item first appeared in August 20,2009, but I think it is so important to reprint the article in light of todays interest in streetcars and light rail in Vancouver and Surrey. The LR55 rail, not only provides a cheaper solution to tram track construction, it makes a quick job of construction, making life a […]

STREETCARS: THE MISSING LINK? – September 29, 2010

For Immediate Release A?ai??i??ai??? Please circulate! Ai??Ai??Lawrence Frank, PhD, CIP, ASLA Bombardier Chair in Sustainable Transportation University of British Columbia 604-822-5387 ph / 604-822-1628 fx Ai??Ai??Bombardier Active Transportation Lab http://www.act-trans.ubc.ca/Ai??Ai?? Ai??Ai??——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————– UBC School of Environmental Health and the UBC School of Community and Regional Planning are pleased to inform you of our upcoming symposium: Ai??Ai??STREETCARS: […]

A letter from Oslo

This has been forwarded to Rail for the Valley from the Eurotrams e-group. Now where have you heard similar arguments? Read RoyA?ai??i??ai???s last two paragraphs, a certain resonance with the situation in the Fraser Valley & Metro Vancouver? The infrastructure in Trondheim suffers from lack of interest from the city council. The tramway has been […]

News From Portland – Trams and Light Rail

The newly-redesigned Portland Streetcar website is especially informative, and is doing a great job reporting on the week-by-week progress of our forthcoming east side (of the Willamette River) streetcar line. For example, see http://portlandstreetcar.org/node/16 for a video visualization of the new line, and also http://portlandstreetcar.org/node/12 which has a good map and discussion of the current […]

Prefab tram track = fast construction! Friends of the Broadway Light Rail/Streetcar Take Note!

The following article from EccoRussia, gives an account of the installation of 670 metres of prefabricated tram track on the Athens (Greece) light rail/tram in just 10 days or about 67 metres of new tram track a day! At this speed of track laying it would take a mere 14 days to lay one kilometre […]

From Bus to Light Rail

From to Light Rail. The following Master’s Degree Project – Ottawa’s Transit Busway to Light Rail by David James, is well worth a read. http://homepages.ucalgary.ca/~dpjames/mdp/david_james-mdp-final.pdf