Mulhouse Light Rail and Tram Train, France: A template for the return of the interurban?

Mulhouse, population 112,260 (2006) isAi??Ai??a small French provincial city that has just built two tram lines but now is expanding their tram service further afield by adding Tram-Train and track sharing with mainline railways. Here, again is another example of small city in Europe, building with LRT and then greatly expandingAi??Ai??tram service via Tram-Train, using […]

More European Tram-Trains – Rail for the Valley offers a challange to Translink and BC Transportation Minister Shirely Bond

In 1994, the GVRD, in an attempt to include the public in the planning process, held a two hour call-in about regional transit, on local cable channels.Ai??Ai??A panel of experts were on hand to answer the publics questions about transit issues, including rapid transit. Zweisystem phoned in and asked a question: Has BC Transit and/or […]

L.A. Times Columnist: American trains and transit will always suck. – Well if US trains & transit suck, god help Canada’s trains & transit!

The following is from The Infrastructurist http://www.infrastructurist.com/about/ Ai?? YesterdayA?ai??i??ai???s dispatch from LA Times business writer David Lazarus has a great lede: A?ai??i??Ai??ItA?ai??i??ai???s hard to appreciate how truly pitiful our public transportation system is until you spend some time with a system that works.A?ai??i??A? Many of us know that feeling. Then he gushes about the consistently […]

TramTrain study for York, in the U.K. – How long until we have a TramTrain study for the Fraser Valley?

Though the following is from 2008, it again shows the feasibility of the TramTrain concept is gaining wide acceptance with transit planners. And why should it not, when compared to more expensive, yet less flexibleAi??Ai??rail options. If the ongoing ‘transit study’ currently being done for transit optionsAi??Ai??in the Fraser Valley, doesn’t include TramTrain, it will […]

Rail for the Valley TramTrain – Arhus aims to pioneer Danish tram-train: Denmark’s second-largest city is planning the country’s first tram-train project. – From bNet

Here is another example for Rail to the Valley of TramTrain beingAi??Ai??planned forAi??Ai??in Europe. The theme is all too familiar, designing a transit system to cater to the needs of the customer, using existing railway infrastructure to reduce cost, while at the same time increasing service. The theme of TransLink is simple, we are going […]

European cities introduce new tram-train technology – From the European Urban Knowledge Network

It seems that almost every country in Europe today, is investing in TramTrain and the reason is obvious, it’s much cheaper than building stand alone rapid transit lines. It is time TransLink to change course from very expensiveAi??Ai??heavy-rail metro construction to very much cheaper light rail and decrease their time line for SkyTrain to Langley […]

The many faces of tramtrain; how soon will the Fraser Valley see one?

It has been a long established transit maxim, long ignored by TransLink and BC Transit before, “use existing rail routes first“. Why? Because existing rail routes are much cheaper to build and install light rail, rather than going ‘greenfields’ construction.Ai??Ai?? Of course, SkyTrain and RAV are the epitome of ‘greenfields’ construction! The cost to build […]

How other countries see light rail and appraise light rail investments? From the Light Rail Transit Association

Article from the March 1999 edition of Tramways & Urban Transit As anyone involved in a British light rail scheme knows, the appraisal system is rigorous and, many feel, fatally flawed, oriented as it is to short term and financial criteria rather than a properly broad social cost-benefit analysis. It is now also heavily influenced […]

What is guided bus? Is it B-Line BRT?

Guided buses are buses steered for part or all of their route by external means, usually on a dedicated rights-of-ways, thoughAi??Ai??not to be confused with a busway. This track, which often parallels existing roads or railways, excludes all other traffic, permitting theAi??Ai??operation of reliable schedules on heavily used corridors even duringAi??Ai??peak hours. Guidance systems can […]

TransLink mired in political standoff – Francis Bula, Globe and Mail

Ten years on, and TransLink remains stuck on the road to nowhere Frances Bula Vancouver A?ai??i??Ai??Premier Gordon Campbell and Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon unveiled a $14-billion public transit plan to be completed by 2020 today. It is a key measure in the province’s greenhouse gas reduction plan, touching every region of the province.A?ai??i??A? Those were […]