Ontario looks at hydrogen-powered trains

As hydrogen fuel cell technology improves, the application for ‘rail’ transit is close to become a reality. The main problem for hydrogen fuel cell transit is that the cell tends to produce power at a steady rate, but poor in providing power at times of high demand, like accelerating out of stations. This has made […]

Is TransLink Hiding Subway Costs?

I wanted to post this item, not to show problems with London’s proposed BRT, rather that cost of tunneling had been vastly under estimated on the subway portion of this project. An excerpt from the London Free Press. City hallai??i??s consultant, IBI Group, had dropped a bombshell on city officials that day: The tunnelai??i??s construction […]

Road Pricing -To Hide Transit Blunders In The past And Blunders Yet To Come

The major rule about “Road Pricing” or congestion charges and that is, one must have an affordable and user friendly transit system in place before road pricing will be accepted by the populace, if not, it is not going to happen. The Metro Vancouver region does not have, nor will have any time soon a […]

SkyTrain Incidents – A Most Curious Article

Gregory (Scotland YardAi??detective): ai???Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?ai??? Holmes: ai???To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.ai??? Gregory: ai???The dog did nothing in the night-time.ai??? Holmes: ai???That was the curious incident.ai??? It is interesting what is not reported. It seems, Postmedia did not report […]

The Regional Mayor’s Pork Barrel Express

The provincial government is in turmoil and those who “Pay to Play” on the municipal scene are getting anxious, as billions in potential profits are being put on hold for the moment. The Metro Vancouver’s metro Mayors Ten Year Plan is nothing more than a skillfully drafted document that is designed to direct the flow […]

Canada line Goes Ka-Put – Could Dirty Tunnels Be The Culprit?

The Canada Line was down for three hours on Friday, but if one was looking for evidence of it, well TransLink is doing its best to cleanse the internet from reporting the problem. Trying to avoid the fiasco of last winter, where TransLink abandoned customers, when the Canada Line failed in the snow, officials were […]

Bombardier’s Blundering Is Alstom’s Gain

Recent problems with Bombardier’s delivery of new trams for Toronto has made Canadian customers look elsewhere. For two long, Ottawa has twisted arms of Canadian transit operators to buy the Canadian Bombardier product, to keep production going, propping up the giant multinational company and garnering votes from Ontario and Quebec. This is not to say […]

A Subway Conversation Unheard in Vancouver

Subways sound great – at first, but when the realities of subway operation, including extremely high costs and user unfriendliness, the love affair with subways tend to wane with customers. The huge cost of subway construction, means economies must be had and in Scarborough, those economies mean a lack of stations. Subway stations are both […]

An Election come And Gone

Just brief notes on the election or deciphering the entrails before they get cold. It seems the SkyTrain/TransLink curse has now caused the Liberal Minister responsible for TransLink, Peter Fassbender to lose his seat. Regional transportation has been made the “kiss of death” for politicians by successive NDP and Liberal governments and combined with weak […]

The Second letter Sent To Surrey Council

April 18, 2017 The second letter sent by Malcolm Johnston to Surrey council and a possible solution for South of the Fraser transportation woes. Mayor and council; Two weeks ago I sent a letter to Mayor and Council about modern light rail and this letter is a follow up. Our urban transit planning is an […]