TramTrain to White Rock!- And on to Chilliwack!
It seems the good Burgher’s in White Rock want the AMTRAK Vancouver to Seattle – Portland train to stop at their city, to give a direct rail service to Seattle. It’s not going to happen. The Soviet style American security types will demand so much expensive infrastructure for boarder security as to make the service […]
The hysteria of the anti-LRT lobby – Time to get real!
On other local and US blogs, there is a growing hysteria that once light rail (streetcar or tram) operates on-street, there will be general panic among pedestrians, ultimately throwing themselves under the tram! Shades of the 1820’s railway hysteria, where trains were claimed to cause insanity and sour cows milk! I’m sorry to say, that […]
Why Rail for the Valley must set the agenda in 2010 for light rail in METRO Vancouver.
The region is at a juncture: either proceed with light-metro planning and build the Evergreen Line and extend SkyTrain to Langley by 2030 or abandon current regional transportation planning and start anew, but using LRT instead to service many more destinations in the region. Though TransLink is boasting about its three light-metro lines and continues […]
The Strange Case of the Karlsruhe TramTrain – Streetcar, LRV, or Commuter Train?
Recent posts on the LRTA blog, debated the the present definitions of streetcar/tram and light rail. North Americans tend to define LRT as a light-metro, where as EuropeansAi??Ai??associated LRT as a tram. Now added to the debateAi??Ai??is the tramtrain and the strange case of the Karlsruhe’s new Zweisystem (two system) LRT:Ai??Ai??is itAi??Ai??a tram or a […]
From CKWX NEWS 1130 – SkyTrain issues for morning commute
What the SkyTrain lobby wishes us to forget is that the automatic metro is somewhat erratic in its operation. SkyTrain is a complicated proprietary light-metro and even small issues defeats the computer and the system shuts down. TransLink plays down these problems but regular riders of the metro has told Zwei that problems on SkyTrain […]
A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL – FROM RAIL FOR THE VALLEY
From the Zweisystem and the rest of the Rail For The Valley Gang A very merry Christmas and a very happy and safe New Year! A Darmstadt tram plowing through a snow storm.
TransLink Faregate Fiasco – Mr. Dobell wins again!
Stephen Rees’s blog has a good article on TransLink’s faregate fiasco and is well worth a read. The fare gate issue is not one of safety or making people pay, rather it is one of political influence and meddling. If the cost of implementing and operating faregates is $30 million annually as claimed by TransLink […]
From the New York Times – Why Is the M.T.A. Always in Trouble?
It seems that TransLink’s former CEOAi??Ai??may haveAi??Ai??jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire, as New York’s Metropolitan Transportation authority (MTA) seems to be in severe financial distress. There has been much positive news here of late about the MTA, but it seems the transit authority faces the same problems as most others […]
Global Warming, Copenhagen, & Light Rail – The Solution That Is Ignored
When one looks past the European street theater of riots, the embarrassment of Canada, the intransigence of the USA, China and Russia, what will Copenhagen climate conference accomplish? Probably very little. The world is not ready for global warming and if a few island nations submerge due to rising sea levels, no one will really […]
Overseas news From the LRTA – Wuppertal ‘Monorail’ Closed
The following news item shows the problems of not doing proper maintenance on a transit system, especially a ‘grade seperated’ transit system. In the winter, in the least desirable time, the Wuppertal Schwebebahn is closed due to serious safety concerns with the support columns, until they are replaced, sometime near Easter. The problem with expensive […]
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