A Flash From the Past – "Skytrain gathers speed despite cost to taxpayers" – From Charlie Smith & The Georgia Straight.

In light of TransLink’s newly departed CEO, Tom Prendergast’s parting shot at the SkyTrain Lobby,Ai??Ai?? A?ai??i??Ai??ItA?ai??i??ai???s overcoming the culturalAi??Ai??embracement of SkyTrain that has existed to date.A?ai??i??A? …… “TransLink is seeking to cut through the pro-SkyTrain A?ai??i??Ai??cultural biasA?ai??i??A?…………….”, which isAi??Ai??entrenched in all levels of civic and provincial bureaucracy; we should look at the warnings given almost […]

On-street Light Rail – Streetcars & Trams – How would it look?

The following are streetscapes and street cross sections of modern LRT (streetcars or trams) operating on-street and will help many to visualize how a modern tram would look on a typical city street in Vancouver, Langley, Abbotsford and even Chilliwack. The above picture shows a pure streetcar setting with cars and trams sharing a common […]

From the Surrey Leader – Exposing The SkyTrain Urban Myth

The following letter to the Surrey Leader certainly shreds the SkyTrain Urban Myth that it is faster and has more capacity than light rail. What the SkyTrain lobby and mainstream media forget, that both modes are railways (SkyTrain is an unconventional railway) and adhere to the same operating principals. SkyTrain’s reputation has been created by […]

Please consider joining the Light Rail Transit Association

It’s that time again, membership renewal requests are in the mail or in one’s email box.Ai??Ai??Zwei is renewing his annual subscription to the Light Rail Transit Association and would like you to consider joining the Light Rail Transit Association. There are three good reasons for joining the LRTA: 1) The LRTA membership includes an annual […]

From the Seattle Times – $26 million sought to buy land for portion of Eastside rail corridor

This transit story from the Seattle Times illustrates the land value for a soon to be abandoned rail lines, which with the current railway land deal, amounts toAi??Ai??slightly over $1 million a mile or about $0.6 million/km. A local example would be the Arbutus Corridor, which using the same formula as used in Seattle, would […]

Post number 300 and many more to come.

This post marks the 300th posting on the Rail for the Valley Blog and congratulations to (now) Dr. John Buker for all his efforts with the valley rail project. When John asked me to post for the RFV blog, I don’t think he expected such a “stormy petrel“. I have tried hardAi??Ai??to keep the blog […]

To Toll Or Not to Toll – That is The Question

There is a current push to implement Road Pricing or Road Tolls in the region by various levels of government, to help fund public transit. The problem is, Road pricing or tolling will not work unless there is a viable public transit alternative in place. There isn’t and road pricing will fail and those politicians […]

The Seattle Monorail debate – The Blog’s Most Viewed Post

The Rail For The Valley’s most viewed blog post is “SeattleA?ai??i??ai???s monorail versus LRT debate A?ai??i??ai??? Same story, differentAi??Ai??players!”,Ai??Ai?? http://railforthevalley.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/seattles-monrail-versus-lrt-debate-same-story-different-players/Ai??Ai?? which at first glance is a little puzzling, but when one understands the massive public debate over the proposed Seattle monorail, it is not surprising at all that there is still much interest South of […]

From the Abbotsford News – TramTrain perfect for Valley LRT

TramTrain perfect for Valley LRT Published: November 10, 2009 The Light Rail Committee has long supported the reinstatement of the Vancouver to Chilliwack interurban service and has long corresponded to transportation experts in Europe and the USA, who also support the return of the interurban. The concept of TramTrain, where specially designed streetcars or diesel […]

From the Vancouver Province – Canada Line to lose millions each year despite strong ridership – Another TransLink Bambozzle

From the “Tip of the Iceberg Department”; the RAV/Canada Line is going to cost TransLink money but until theAi??Ai??BC Auditor General has a go at TransLink, SkyTrain and RAV, the public will never know the true costs of the new subway or of TransLink’s metro operation. The $14 million to $21 million shortfall mentioned is […]