An Interesting Post From Net Density – American Changes to Transit funding

I wish we could apply the same criteria to our ‘rail‘ transit planning. Economic development Mobility improvements Environmental benefits Operating efficiencies Cost effectiveness Land use What, no mention of increasing population density? I wonder why? Ai??Ai?? Could new FTA A?ai??i??Ai??livabilityA?ai??i??A? funding rules change Southwest LRT route? Posted by Brendon on January 30, 2010 The big […]

If Cambie Street grows as hoped, City of Vancouver will lose big bucks – From The Vancouver Sun

As stated before many times, rapid transit development in Vancouver, especially the Millennium and RAV/Canada Lines, has been about development and not moving people. The hype and hoopla of TransLink and the mainstream media that the Canada Line is carrying 94,000 riders a day ignores the fact that all except about 10% of the Canada […]

Questions: What density is needed for ‘Rail’ Transit? Does Anyone Really Know?

Simple questions today folks. Over the past few weeks the ugly question of densityAi??Ai??has beenAi??Ai??rearing its ugly head in Vancouver and the Fraser Valley concerning transit. Vancouver council is considering major density increases for Cambie Street because it has the Canada line mini-metro and the same treatment is expected for Broadway if ‘rail‘ transit is […]

Light Rail on Broadway – The SkyTrain Lobby Ramps Up The Costs – BARSTA Fights Back

On June 22nd, at St. James Community Square 3214 West 10th Avenue at Trutch, a public meeting will take place concerning the building of ‘rail‘ transit on or under Broadway. What is of no great surprise, Translink has vastly ‘ramped’ up the cost for building modern light rail, with needless over-design. This is the tired […]

Take the Tram – From the AntonNews.com Long Island New York

Take the Tram By Michael Miller Friday, 11 June 2010 Why in 2010 does it often take twice as long to get from the North Shore to the Five Towns than it does to get from Mineola to White Plains? Cars are choking our roads, gas prices are threatening our economic viability. We need alternative […]

Trams, Buses & Trolleybuses Can Co-exist

On another blog, a long standing member of the SkyTrain/metro fraternity alluded to the fact that LRT and buses could not co-exist on the Granville Mall. Sorry to disappoint the purveyors of misinformation, but they can and do in many cities. A photo essay from several citiesAi??Ai??proves the point. Milan Ai?? Geneva Ai?? Essen Riga

Texas’s Newest ‘Rail’ Transit line, the Red Line

This article for Mass Transit should prove interesting to supporters of the “return of the interurban“, in the Fraser Valley. What should be of interest is the cost of the 32 mile (51.5 km)Ai??Ai??line is less than $5 million per mile or $3.1 million per km. (CAD $ 3.24 million)! Let’s see, a Vancouver to […]

The Failure To Understand Modern Light Rail = Public Transit Chaos

‘Zwei’ has been taken aback by the viciousness of the SkyTrain Lobby and the great lengths they haveAi??Ai??taken in discrediting the LRT, while at the same time refusing to acknowledge the marketing failure of the proprietary (ICTS/ALRT/ALM/ART ) light-metro system, known in Vancouver as SkyTrain. ‘Zwei’ is also taken aback by abject refusalAi??Ai??by many supposed […]

A Poll That the Main Stream Media Ignored. Can We Expect The Same For Other Non SkyTrain ‘Rail’ Projects?

A very strange thing happenedAi??yesterday with ‘Zwei’. When I was discussing a transit matter with an US transit type about the RAV/Canada line. He told me that TransLink officials claimed that over 80% of Vancouverites supported RAV and if it were not for the high costs of the metro, many more metro type transit systems […]

The Broadway Follies Part 4 – The Versatile Light Rail

TheAi??Ai??entire transit debate for the Broadway route has been defined by the SkyTrain Lobby as a quest for speed, as if speed was the only criteria for a successful urban ‘rail‘ line. Yet speed of a transit system is onlyAi??Ai??one ofAi??Ai??many factors that determine a successful ‘rail‘ transit line. From the Haas-Klau study (Bus or […]