The Usual Suspects Shill for a Yes Vote for the Upcoming TransLink Referendum

Yikes, the Vancouver Sun is at it again, blindly shilling for a yes vote in the not yet announced TransLink referendum. This only makes me guess that internal polling shows that a yes vote is far from certain. All the usual suspects, the B.C. Federation of Labour; The B.C. Board of Trade; and the various […]

The Le Havre Tramway

Le Havre:Ai?? Population:Ai?? City 180,000; Metro Area 300,000 Distance:Ai?? 125 miles west northwest of Paris, 125 minutes System Length:Ai?? 13Ai?? kilometres No. Lines:Ai?? 2 No. Stations: 23 Year Opened:Ai?? 2012 Rolling Stock:Ai?? 22 Citadis 302 Cost – Vehicles: ai??i??45m (CAD $62.62m) Cost of project: ai??i??395m (CAD $550m) which includes a 575 metre tram tunnel In […]

The Broadway Subway – Vancouver’s Phallic Symbol

Vancouver’s politicians and elites desperately want the city to be a “world class city” and by their definition, a world class city must have subways. The Canada Line, the only heavy rail metro in the world that operates as a light metro, runs in a subway under Vancouver’s streets because city politicos, in effect, held […]

TransLink Report On SkyTrain Out

From what I can see, the problems that plagued SkyTrain last summer, were ones of very bad management and deferred maintenance. TransLink’s bad management is legendary and the outfit continues its oppression of transit customers with gestapo like ticket checks and its general anti transit customer attitude. The question of deferred maintenance is another matter […]

TransLink: LRT is suitable for Broadway!

A post from our friend Mr. Haveacow deserves more attention. Contained within is an interesting comment; “They have chosen that overall the Skytrain is the best choice (no surprise there). The whopper comes form the admission that LRT is cheaper and does provide better service over the status quo but the cost is significantly less […]

Tunnel Vision vs. Green vision

The following power point presentation comes from Adam Fitch and succinctly shows the difference between light rail and a Skytrain subway under Broadway. Click and view. Tunnel Vision vs Green vision   UPDATE: WE HAVE TECHNICAL PROBLEMS, MY APOLOGIES

BCIT to UBC and Picnics in the Park, by tram

First published in 2009. Updated 2014. A Wee Bit Of Local History In early 1996, during BC Transitai??i??s meaningless public consultation period for the Broadway Lougheed Rapid Transit Project which later morphed into the Millennium Line, Zweisystem received a phone call from an European Transit specialist, who worked for Asea Brown Boverai (later absorbed by […]

Compass Card Fiasco

Installed but not working. Until the compass Card becomes operational the turnstiles stay idle, paying silent testament to TransLink’s incompetence. As expected, TransLink’s new Compass Card is turning into a fiasco and now the transit agency is contemplating a single zone for buses. Because of TransLink’s simple three zone fare system and full fare/concession fare […]

The SkyTrain Subsidy Revisited

The SkyTrain and Canada Line light-metro are bleeding over $350 million from TransLink’s $1.2 billion budget! In 1993, the GVRD (now Metro) and Transport 2021, published the study, “The Cost of Transporting People in the BC Lower Mainland” and for the first time the annual SkyTrain subsidy was mentioned. In 1991, SkyTrain was subsidized to […]

Horse manure from Vision(less) Vancouver and the N.P.A.

Wow, such BS from Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and mayor wannabeAi??Kirk LaPointe, saying he is going to build an affordable subway is laughable. Robertson has no proof to back up his claim that a subway will be; “taking 50,000 cars off the road”. One should remember the empty claim that the Canada line would take […]