From The Heart Of The Evergreen Line

The Tri-City news is ground zero with the Evergreen Line projects, but news coming from Northeast sector of Metro Vancouver is not at all comforting, as it seems things are not what they seem. With TransLink, nothing is as it seems, as they have become circus conjurers, rather than transit planners.   Commissioner casts doubt […]

Regiona (Liberal) Mayors Vote To Increase Gas And Property Taxes

It seems, the provincial Liberals called in its markers as Liberal mayors in the Vancouver metro region voted to support gas and property tax increases to further fund TransLink. TransLink was holding a dud poker hand but bluffed regional politicians who were holding all the aces. Such weak tax and spend politicians should be defeated in the […]

Transit is about moving people stupid!

Interesting news item, from all places, the SkyTrain friendly CKNW radio station. VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980) 10/7/2011 Just as the mayors vote today on funding for the Evergreen Line, a report by the transportation commissioner says TransLink’s ridership predictions may just be wishful thinking. The Province newspaper reports commissioner Martin Crilly wrote last week that the growth predictions […]

P. T. Barnum Was Right – There Is A Sucker Born Every Minute!

Psssst…….hey want to buy some stock in Nose Dive Airlines or a gold mine on Mars, well come to Metro Vancouver because we have city mayors that would. With absolutely no guarantee, just a promise from TransLink, that the extra two cent a litre tax increase will actually improve transit, several mayors have blundered ahead on […]

Union urges Vancouver mayors to accept gas taxes to pay for more transit – so they can hire more union bus drivers

The the bus driver union wants regional mayors to vote to increase property taxes to pay for light metro, mainly for Vancouver, comes as no surprise; the light-metro philosophy needs more buses and bus drivers to feed the hugely expensive metro lines. With much cheaper LRT because it can serve more destinations, doesn't such need a vast bus […]

SkyTrain too costly – A letter to the Editor

It not often that a sensible letter about light rail is printed in local papers.   SkyTrain too costly   In his coloum, Grant Granger argued that SkyTrain is a key symbol to the Lower Mainland and a tourist attraction. While this may be true, the trains come at a cost that far outweighs their […]

The Mufford Crescent Debate.

The Mufford Crescent overpass debate has implications for the proposed Rail for the Valley/Leewood TramTrain. The question Zwei asks is: “Why is a hugely expensive overpass being planned for Mufford Crescent at all, yet the far heavier used Langley Bypass/ Glover Road/Rail intersection/level-crossing remains almost unchanged. Would it not be better to move the overpass […]

Vancouver Streetcar Controversy – Facts Please, not Anti-Tram Rhetoric!

The following is typical of the anti streetcar or tram rhetoric that is all too common in Vancouver’s mainstream media. Streetcars are deliberately made to seem inferior to SkyTrain and the SkyTrain Lobby, insure that the blogosphere is filled with anti-LRT/tram nonsense. To make sure this happens, TransLink deliberately inflates the cost of new LRT, […]

Vancouver city staff reject NPAA?ai??i??ai???s streetcar network proposal – Vancouver bureaucrats still want the valley taxpayer to pay for a Broadway subway!

Not surprising that Vancouver’s bureaucrats have rejected a proposed Vancouver streetcar; why build a cheap streetcar when you can sucker Fraser Valley politicians to fund a $4 billion SkyTrain subway under Broadway. Oh no, you say: Anton’s proposed streetcar has nothing to do about the Broadway rapid transit project. Well, sorry to say, it does, because city […]

A Light Rail renaissance

The government has set out its intention to trigger a light rail renaissance in the UK and while specialists welcome the move some are concerned about costs http://www.guardian.co.uk/public-leaders-network/2011/sep/23/light-rail-renaissance?newsfeed=true Nick Appleyard Guardian Professional, Friday 23 September 2011 00.50 BST Major cities such as Leeds and Bristol are missing out by not having either a tram or […]