A lightrail and streetcar primer.

The silly season has begun in the Vancouver region, with TransLink desperately trying to persuade regional mayors to levy more taxes to mainly pay for the Evergreen SkyTrain light-metro line. The following is a quick primer on streetcars, LRT and SkyTrain for use at upcoming transit dog and pony shows. Question: What is the difference […]

Vancouver’s anti-LRT media and blogs. Don’t diss Portland’s light rail

I don’t like doing this, but the following has struck a nerve. The statement from Frances Bula’s blog, “The famous streetcar and light-rail transit? Iai??i??ve concluded that that is the only option the city has, since it has about 60,000 fewer people than Vancouver does but spread out over three times the land. They canai??i??t […]

Light Rail for Surrey – A Rerun from May

With LRT in the mix for TransLink consultation process, Zwiesystem is reposting an item from May 4, 2011. I believe this plan is superior and cheaper to what TransLink is offering, as well, servicing far more people and has the potential to provide a direct line from White Rock to downtown Vancouver. LIGHT RAIL FOR […]

More trams for Montpelier

The following happier transit news for Montpelier, is courtesy of David Cockle. As the SkyTrain lobby still dream a Luddites dream of the world being flat and everyone builds with SkyTrain, more light rail is being built in France. Why is France so important, you ask? Well France also has a proprietary light-metro system, called […]

Bank Holliday Essay – “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”

 Some background for the following post. The author is commenting on the current Edinburgh tram fiasco, where cacophony of bad management, bad planning, and a very bad contractor Bilfinger Berger (Remember those chaps, eh?, They were the same crew that screwed up the Seymour water tunnel project!) has all but sunk the much needed tram […]

Yup, The Mainstream Media Gets It Wrong Again

Trust the mainstream media to get it wrong and with regional transit, they have been on the wrong track for a very long time. What attracts people to transit? It’s a complicated question that much time has been taken to study. Not so in TransLink’s world where it is claimed thatAi??SkyTrain’s speed alone will attract […]

Wrong Again – How Long will it Take Them To Get It Right?

They have got it wrong, but in Vancouver we have have always got transit wrong. Speed of a transit system is not the prime factor in attracting ridership, it is part of the mix. The main reasons for successful transit, according to the internationally acclaimed study ' Bus or light rail, making the right choice', by Professor […]

Electric Hybrid Streetcars coming to Austin?

Austin Cars ExaminerAi?? August 12, 2011 http://www.examiner.com/cars-in-austin/eclectric-hybrid-streetcars-coming-to-austin A glimpse of the possible future of mass transit in the City of Austin was shown to the public on August 11. Kinkisharyo, a global provider of high speed and mass transit rail vehicles, set up a version of their new low floor hybrid electric street car (the […]

TransLink’s Finacial Woes

The Vancouver Province's editorial has got it partially wrong. a good part of TransLink's financial woes is that they have tied themselves to the extremely dated light-metro/SkyTrain rapid transit model which can cost over fifteen times more to build than light rail, without any operational or financial benefit! Light-metro, especially the automated (driverless) product not […]

TransLink’s Propaganda Machine In Full Force

Wait for it, TransLink wants more tax revenue to fund their questionable transit planning, so the propaganda campaign has started. We have seen this all before with the Canada Line, higher ridership claims, jammed buses due to lack of service, etc. The question what needs to be asked is; "Are TransLink's ridership claims valid?" With […]