Bus or Light Rail, the Evidence Is Clear

Public transit is a necessity in today’s congested cities, yet politicians and their planners tend to ignore the importance of public transit in the 21st century city and either invest in the “cheap and nasty” rapid or express buses, or overly expensive gadgetbahnen like our Skytrain and Canada Line mini-metros. There is also the disturbing […]

Worldwide Tram Market Review – 2014

The Cardinal posts hereAi??the schedule ofAi??Worldwide Tram orders as of March 2014, courtesy of Tramways & Urban Transit Manufacturer City’s Orders Options Sub-Total Orders Pending OrdersAi?? Options Alstom Aubagne, Avignon, Bordeaux, Constantine, Cuenca, Dubai, Montpellier, Nottingham, Ottawa, Oran, Paris, Rio, SAi??tif, Sidi Bel AbbA?s, SNCF, Toulouse 374 214 AnsaldoBreda Genova, Firenza, Kayseri, Zhuhai 70 7 […]

New Tram-Train service in France

FRANCE: Tram-train services on a 64 km route linking Nantes and ChA?teaubriant are launched by SNCF on February 28. Opening on 28 February a new tram-train service is now operational on the reopened regional railway between Nantes and ChA?teaubriant. The railway has been renovated totally after the closure for passenger service at 31 May 1980. […]

Hutzpa!

What hutzpa! The Broadway subway a transit project of national significance, really? I think Mayor Robinson thinks that the taxpayer are rubes. According to our friend, Mr. Haveacow,Ai?? Broadway’s peak demand numbers on average of 2000-3700 passenger trips per hour per direction, which is barely enough to support light rail, let alone a subway. What […]

Light Rail & Tram ridership

Have received the following statistics from an Aussie mate, who is resident in Europe. 1 St Petersburg: tram 476 mill pax p.a., 205 route km. Ai??2 Budapest: tram 393 mill pax p.a., 156 route km. 3 Prague: tram 324 mill pax p.a., 141 route km. Ai??4 Warsaw: tram 270 mill pax p.a., 120 route km. […]

5 light rail projects to watch this year

Which light rail Ai??projects should we be watching this year? Here are just 5 of the many projects developing around the world. They are at different stages and may have different reasons you should keep an eye on them, for example, to find out who will land major contracts or what will happen when it […]

Tracks to the Cities

Light Rail for Liveable Cities A UITP POSITION PAPER http://www.uitp.org/sites/default/files/cck-focus-papers-files/01%20LIGHT%20RAIL%20FOR%20LIVEABLE%20CITIES.pdf In countries where tramways had survived the massive closures of the 50ai??i??s and 60ai??i??s, e.g. Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, many remaining systems have been modernised and upgraded and may now be called ai???light rail systemsai???. In many other countries, where tramways had disappeared from the streets, […]

Subway cost per mile nearly 9 times higher than for light rail, says study

Recent study results of subway-LRT investment costs posted on the Light Rail Now (LRN) site provide a sobering reality check on the cost issue. http://austinrailnow.wordpress.com/2014/02/15/subway-cost-per-mile-nearly-9-times-higher-than-for-light-rail-says-study/ Projects examined were an assortment of “recent urban rail projects (all from the 2000s), either completed or well under construction and fully budgeted.” The report lists 24 subway and 13 […]

The Affordable Tram, a Template for Surrey?

A few posts back, Zwei looked at the affordable tram for Vancouver connecting UBC with BCIT, so now let us see how the affordable streetcar would do in Surrey. What should be of extreme interest is the low cost for the proposed Dundee tram compared to the sky high costs for light rail from TransLink! […]

LRT South of the Fraser

A pleasant surprise in the Delta Optimist, Zwei’s home town paper, a light rail friendly article. Though I hate the term Light Rapid Transit, because I believe it is used deliberately to misinform people. The comment by Delta-Richmond East MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay, the minister of national revenue; “the fund is aimed at projects that have […]