Of Trains, Station Platforms, and Capacity

Zwie has got wind of a local transit advocate getting a nasty phone call a few evenings back from a chap incensed over a blog post on Facebook that went like this: The Canada line has station platforms 40m to 50 m long and operates 41 m long coupled sets of EMU’s, has about one […]

Modular Trams Just Keep On Growing!

BKV, the transit operator in Budapest Hungary has just taken delivery of the 9th of a 12 unit order from SpanishAi??LRV producer CAF (Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles) for the world record setting 56 metre long, 9 section, Ai??Urbos 3 (Type 100) LRV. The first unit has completed testing and hasAi??just been accepted for service. […]

Must see videos

This is one of Zwei’s favourite tram photos. Lawned rights-of-way; simple stations; and pedestrian friendly light rail in Grenoble. Reprinted and re edited from 2009. The two videos from Karlsruhe are a must see, to fully understand TramTrain! All the links work, unfortunately the few that no longer exist, have been deleted. Trams climbing grades […]

City of Vancouver Buys the Arbutus Corridor

Well kiss any thought of affordable transit goodbye, as the City of Vancouver will never agree to have trams operating on the former interurban line, the Arbutus Corridor. They may talk the talk, but will never walk the walk. The Canada Line is extremely capacity constipated and light rail on the Arbutus would be a […]

Is It Time To Get Back To Basics?

Perusing many transit oriented blogs, there seems to be a common thread appearing, we are changing our travel and commuting habits. This poses a very important question; “Is it time to get back to basics with transit planning?” This is a valid question because as driving and commuting habits change, expensive transit infrastructure just may […]

Medical Emergancy – TransLink Speak For Another Death

On Monday last, another suicide another death on SkyTrain, yet the media and TransLink hides the fact, with the utility phrase; “medical emergancy”. The hypocrisy of the mainstream media makes me upchuck, as if they treated suicides on SkyTrain, like the fare evasion issue, maybe TransLink would ‘lift a finger’ and do something. One of […]

TramTrain Gains Favour In The UK

TramTrain development in the UK is gaining momentum as the Yorkshire Post reports that a study indicates a tram-train link between MANCHESTER and its airport in north-central England would be a better choice than passenger rail because of grades along the route. Victoria and Metro Vancouver are candidates for TramTrain, yet the powers that be […]

Subways Are Very Expensive

Despite the cries of shock and disbelief from the peanut gallery, subways are very expensive to build and equally expensive to maintain. * Dusseldorf’s 2.11 mile (3.4 km) cost USD $960.6 million (CAD $1,317.45) billion works out to CAD $387.5 million/km to build, which is the upper end of the cost estimate given by our […]

Try Asking TransLink To Do The Same!

Imagine TransLink changing their schedule to suit a customer, imagine TransLink doing anything to help a customer? Russian Railways adjusts timetable so girl didnai??i??t miss dancing class Published time: 21 Feb, 2016 Get short URL Ai?? Alexandr Kryazhev / Sputnik One lucky Russian girl obviously has a golden ai???ticket to rideai??i??. Russian Railways adjusted its […]

A good read

  There is an interesting article making its rounds, “5 lessons from Los Angles on transforming transportation (and coming after Portland)”,Ai?? in the various transit blogs and I believe it is well worth a read. Zwei is going to comment briefly on each of the five lessons and how they would apply to Metro Vancouver. […]