Helsinki’s New Jokeri LRT Opens Early And $19 Million Under Budget

Europe’s newest light rail line just opened and our local tax hungry politicians and bureaucrats should take note! Broadway subway – $2.7 billion for 5.7 km. (not including vehicles, electrical/signalling upgrades) Proposed Expo line Extension to Langley – Almost $5 billion for 16 km. (not including vehicles,  electrical/signalling upgrades) Helsinki’s Jokeri Line, including vehicles – […]

10 Questions

I do not have the answers to these questions or rather I may know the answers but with libel and slander laws the way they are, I will not offer an opinion. Why do TransLink and the Mayor’s council on Transit still continue planning for the obsolete Movia Automatic Light Metro system (A.K.A. SkyTrain), when […]

Why Not TramTrain?

Why not TramTrain? The genesis of this blog was to advocate and support reintroducing a passenger rail service from Vancouver to Chilliwack and after 13 years since the release of the Leewood Study, which created a template for such a service, the need today is greater than it has ever been. As the upper Fraser […]

Why Light Rail?

Why Light rail? This question has been asked over and over again by those who only know our MALM (SkyTrain) light-metro system. After 40 years of non stop rah-rah, propaganda by the federal and provincial governments, civic governments and bureaucracies; and the various groups made up of, what I call, the “SkyTrain Lobby”, Light-Rail, locally […]

They Could Not Even Operate a Christmas Tree Train Set

Regional mayors think themselves somewhat of transit experts. They are not, not even close. What needs to be done before another nickle is spent on transit is a full independent review of TransLink and its operations. That is not going to happen as there are far too many skeletons in TransLink’s closet and best keep […]

Single Track Operation & Level Crossings – Dutch Style

  Some of the detractors of Rail for the Valley’s TramTrain or light DMU line from Marpole to Chilliwack cite that only one train can operate on the line at one time. With properly placed passing loops, preferably at stations, trains can be safely operated going in both directions on a single line. this due […]

Is Bad News In The Offing?

It has been too quiet, too long, on the transit front and with a provincial election looming, unpleasant news is being quietly whitewashed. Hear no cost increase; speak no cost increase; see no cost increase of the Broadway subway seems the order of the day. The pre inflation estimates  just will not stand up today. […]

Money, Money, Money = Subways!

The Mayor of Vancouver discussing the bennefits the Broadway Subway. What could go wrong? It takes a lot of money to operate a transit system and subways tend to be a financial black hole and are avoided unless ridership on a transit line demands the multi billion dollar investment of a subway. Just the MALM […]

Five Car Trains – Much Ado About Nothing

Five car trains, is the current clarion call by TransLink. With lots of hype and hoopla by the mainstream media, the public is made to believe this is some sort of technical break through. It is the old Goebbels Gambit at play; “repeat a lie often enough and the public are bound to believe it. […]

The Real Question TransLink Is Afraid To Ask

In true Orwellian fashion, TransLink “TransLink wants to hear from you“; but in reality they do not. In TransLink Speak, almost everything is opposite to the questions asked. TransLink and all the hangers-on certainly did not want to hear from the taxpayer in 2015 when over 60%  did not want TransLink to proceed with their […]