Toronto again! Ford & Gilbert sound-off & more irrelevant comparisons
Toronto owes mayor a thank you on transit Toronto Star.com February 24th http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/943888–toronto-owes-mayor-a-thank-you-on-transit#article Toronto owes Mayor Rob Ford a big thank you for three things. [Most definitely not] The first is for raising timely doubts about the wisdom of proceeding with Transit City. This was the previous council’s expensive one-size-fits-all plan to replace buses on […]
Staffing on light rail systems
From a previous post http://www.railforthevalley.com/latest-news/zweisystem/now-we-know-why-skytrain-is-so-expensive-to-operate/ we find that there are 600 or more employees (530 in the CUPE Union) that work on the SkyTrain Expo and Millennium Lines. The Canada Line is a conventional metro and employs over 200 people (with 180 in the CUPE union) and both metro systems are quite separate. The Canada Line, a […]
Tales of Buffoonery – Rob FordA?ai??i??ai???s anti streetcar/light rail saga continues!
Mr. Ford's utter stupidity is breathtaking and the financial roller coaster ride he is taking the Toronto taxpayer on is beyond belief. This is the sort of simpleton anti tram, anti light rail planning which seems to be the rigour of right-wing politicians in North America and Europe – to hide their real agendas of increasing car use, […]
Flagship BRT Fizzles in the USA
Bus Rapid Transit or BRT is the transit flavour ‘du jour’ of BC politicians. Any mention of transit in the region ultimately leads to BRT, as if it was the grand panacea to solve our transit woes. The trouble is, our politicos have never read a book about public transit,Ai??let aloneAi??perused the chapter on buses. […]
Susan Heyes and the Canada Line fiasco – Justice denied!
The Canada Line was never about providing good public transitAi??for the region, rather the metro was all about political and corporate prestige. The Vancouver International Airport gang wanted a prestigious metro to connect YVR to downtown Vancouver, for corporate prestige because they thought that a metro would make YVR ‘world class’; the City of Vancouver […]
Now we know why SkyTrain is so expensive to operate.
The main story here is not the strike vote taken by Expo and Millennium Line workers, but the amount of workers that are needed to operate the SkyTrain mini-metro. According to the article, there are 530 CUPE members that work on the Expo and Millennium Lines, then add in senior non-union managerial staff, transit police and […]
Absurdity, Hiatus, Ignominy, Irony, Paradox and Prognosis
The Cardinal cordially welcomes Zweisystem back & offers him wishes for a speedy recovery from his recent illness; – Hurry up and get the heck out of there! Zwei, remember Mark Twainai??i??s advice `be careful when reading health books; you may die of a misprintai??i?? Ai?? With Zweisystem back in the section, continuing his mission, […]
Porkies from TransLink!
In the UK, London's Cockney's (the East End crowd) have long had an interesting rhyming slang tradition – examples: jam jar is a car; dicky dirt a shirt and so on. Well, a pork pie or porkie is – well you guessed it. The following letter from Ken Hardie, to the Delta Optimist, is full of "Porkies" […]
Delta Politicians Mull Leaving TransLink
As predicted, the South Fraser municipality of Delta is mulling over the proposal to leave TransLink. Delta is the first, but if TransLink doesn't change its current very expensive metro only policy, then providing second rate transit services for customers, then more South Fraser municipalities will contemplate leaving. If TransLink stopped being devious and actually told […]
Long-awaited tram system for Tampere (Finland) is under consideration
Residents are now being polled on their route preferences The construction of a light rail system for Tampere has been discussed for decades. It has finally been decided that the construction of tracks could commence in 2015, provided that the city can reach a binding political decision on the necessity of […]
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