BCIT to UBC and Picnics In The Park

First published in 2009. Updated 2014, 2016 and in 2019   A Wee Bit Of Local History In early 1996, during BC Transit’s meaningless public consultation period for the Broadway Lougheed Rapid Transit Project which later morphed into the Millennium Line, Zwei received a phone call from an European Transit specialist, who worked for Asea […]

Stadler Trains For Ottawa’s Trillium Line

This is of great importance for Fraser Valley passenger  rail. The  Stadler FLIRT is a close cousin of the Stadler  GTW tramtrain and like the GTW, the articulated FLRT uses a diesel power-pack located in the middle of the train. The FLIRT DMU is really a five section, articulated diesel rail car, with four sections […]

King Street Success – Lessons for Vancouver and Surrey!

Kicking and screaming all the way, Toronto is now updating its heritage streetcar system to light rail standards and the the result is obvious, success. Modern trams, reserved rights-of-ways, all the key ingredients for successful LRT. Sadly, this puts Toronto 40 years behind most other European Cities. As found in Europe, modern light-rail has changed […]

South Fraser Community RAIL

South Fraser Community Rail South Fraser Community Rail is the latest group joining the struggle to get rail passenger service operating in the Fraser Valley. Instead of TramTrain and its variants, they opted for the hydrogen powered electric train in the guise of an electric multiple unit (EMU) passenger trains.        

King Street Versus the BS Line

I added this article to demonstrate that is Canada, simple streetcar lines can carry large volumes of people. Each day, 84,000 people ride the King St. Streetcar, while TransLink claims a modest 60,000 people a day use Broadway. The King car is not just Toronto’s busiest surface transit route. It carries as many people as […]

BS Line To Nowhere Or The Big Dig Part 2

Oh, the BS Line, Vancouver’s great vanity project. All world class cities must have a subway, according to the “booster class” who just love mega projects. Last cost estimate for the BS Line is around $3.5 billion, not including cars. Looks like the powers that be are already planning to reduce the scope of the […]

90 Years And Counting

Well, it has taken almost 90 years for transit planners in North America to realize that by giving a streetcar a dedicated lane it becomes light rail. European transit planners clearly understood by the 1930’s that by giving a streetcar a dedicated route, its performance almost matched that of a much more expensive metro or […]

Toronto’s 6.2 KM Scarborough Subway Costs Soar To $3.9 Billion – What Will be The Real Cost Of The BS Line?

I include this article from the Toronto Star to illustrate the escalating costs of subway construction. The one stop, 6.2 billion Scarborough subway cost has soared to $3.9 billion and climbing! Vancouver’s 5.7 km six station Broadway subway cost has escalated past its $2.8 billion price tag and now is said to cost $3.5 billion […]

Chaos Wednesday

And SkyTrain never breaks down or stops service? Just saying. Commuter chaos amid problems on Expo, Canada Lines By Simon Little Online Journalist  Global News Passengers using the Expo and Canada Lines on Wednesday had to deal with major delays after both lines experienced separate problems. The Canada Line was dealing with a stalled train […]

Something In The Air

Something is in the air. Could it be that the sickening stench of the Broadway Subway or BS Line deal has reached the lofty halls of Postmedia? For decades, the Vancouver Sun and to a smaller extent, the Vancouver Province, refused to print negative stories about SkyTrain or do any investigative journalism about SkyTrain. This, […]