Eric Chris’s letter to New Transportation Minister, Mary Pollack

Dear Mary Polak, Langley MLA, Congratulations on being appointed to Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure ai??i?? first order of business ai??i?? a moratorium on any further B-line (rapid bus transit) and SkyTrain expansions along with the sacking of everyone associated with the current SkyTrain and B-Lines not only at the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure […]

SkyTrain on the Fritz Again – So What Else Is New (Updated)

Well once again the automatic SkyTrain underwhelms. The current trouble must be bad because Translink has made a radio announcement about the trouble. Interesting to think, that if we had the ‘full build’ RftV/Leewood TramTrain option, with direct service to downtown Vancouver, transit customers would have another option for travel into town. But hey, just […]

U.S. (And Canada) Taxpayers Are Gouged on Mass Transit Costs

With BC Transit quoting silly prices for LRT in Victoria and TransLink doing the same in Vancouver and Surrey, the following article from Bloomberg should be essential reading. As the previous post has shown, modern LRT/streetcar can be built cheaply, if there is the political and bureaucratic will to do so. With thank to Justin […]

Helsinki tram extension gives some insight as to the cost of building LRT.

The following article from the Railway Gazette, givesAi??raw cost of laying track in Helsinki, Finland and give good insight for the cost of laying tram/LRT track on-street. The ai??i??7.5 million (CAD $9.3 million), 4.1 km double track extension on the metre gauge network alsoAi??includes the cost of the overhead. TheAi??cost of the 4.1 km extension […]

As Predicted – TransLink’s Gas Tax is Faltering – Higher Taxes Predicted!

As predicted, gas tax revenue has failed to meet expectations as thousands of lower mainland residents fill up their family chariots east of Aldergrove or in the US, where gas is much cheaper. This was predicted by Zwei some years ago (the wife fills up her belch-fire in Point Roberts) and was roundly criticized by […]

At Last The Main Stream Media Questions The Transit Police!

For some time now I have questioned why we have the transit police and evidently the main stream media are nowAi??asking questions too. There was never any need for the transit police and more and more the transit police looked like a sop to the provincial RCMP, enabling recently retired officers to make lucrative incomes […]

Faregate Hoopla – In TransLink’s World 1 + 1 =3

Lots of hoopla in the media today about TransLink’s daft $175 million fare-gate program, with the first fare gates being installed at the Marine Drive Canada Line Station. The taxpayer is anteing up over $175 million to retrofit fare-gates to Vancouver’s mini-metro system and with operating costs estimated to exceed $15 million annually, one wonders, […]

War on Buses? Er…No, Just Very Bad Planning

Is there a war on buses in Vancouver? Sorry, no. Instead thereAi??has been an ongoingAi??war on good transit planning and those supporting bad transit planning won decades ago. The real problem is and always has beenAi??SkyTrain and the massive costs associated with the mini-metro. The taxpayer has paid about three to five times more for […]

Detroit’s “Mugger Mover” celebrates 25 years of ‘sort of’ operation

We don’t hear much about SkyTrain elsewhere and I wonder why? Well I know the answer, SkyTrain reign of operation elsewhere has not been as successful as the SkyTrain lobby would have us believe. Please take note of the serious issues regarding the Detroit’s ICTS’s guideway, as previous discussion on the RftV commnets has been […]

CancA?n tram-train feasibility study commissioned

It is so sad that just about every country in North America and Europe are looking a TramTrain (Interurban) to help solve regional transit problems, except Canada andAi??especially BC and Metro Vancouver. That the now obsolete SkyTrain mini-metro is still being planned for the lower mainland only shows how backward and irrelevant our regional transit […]