The Penny Dreadful – The Transit Referendum Saga

The ongoing saga of the Mayor’s Council, TransLink, the Province, and the referendum reads like a ‘Penny Dreadful’. The province has no money, the metro mayors have no money, yet the metro mayors have approved a hugely expensive Vancouver centric rapid transit plan focused on a $2 to $3 billion truncated extension of the Millennium […]

From June 20, 2013 – Road pricing

A repost from June 20, 2012. The song remains the same! Force TransLink to efficiently and affordably operate the transit system – No. Force the taxpayer to ante up more money through road pricing (another name for a tax) – Yes. The following 1983 quote is from Norman Thompson; CBE, FCA, ACMA, English transit consultant […]

The Whalley, King George, White Rock Light Rail line Revisited – Again

  It has has been three years year since I entertained the idea f the Whalley – King George – White Rock LRT Line and in 2014 the WKW Line is still superior to what TransLink is planning for Surrey. TransLink’s LRT plans for Surrey are three ai???poormanai??i??sai??? SkyTrain type designed light rail lines feeding […]

Metro Vancouver Sleepwalks Into a Financial and Transportation Disaster.

There is so much wrong with this announcement that it boggles the mind, but it is suffice to say, this plan will not go anywhere. Let’s look at the basics of this announcement. A SkyTrain subway to Arbutus has nothing to do about transit ridership, it has everything to do about property development and ensuring […]

Light Rail Stops Attracts new Business

This interesting study from down South. The myth makers who favour SkyTrain make much how SkyTrain attracts new development, yet that development has been allowed by city councils, who have allowed for higher densities, read higher buildings) at SkyTrain stations. At the same time the inference is that LRT does not attract development. The study […]

Gridlock Is Endemic In Vancouver and Will Be For Years To Come

Nothing new here. As the provincial government keeps building new highways and bridges, car use will increase, simple. As the provincial government, the City of Vancouver, TransLink, and Metro Vancouver, keep planning for and building hugely expensive mini-metro’s like SkyTrain and the Canada Line, for strictly political prestige and not as a convenient transit mode, […]

What Could Have Been – Should Have Been – Updated

One of the hardest transit plans to find in the Vancouver Metro Region is the 1978 Rapid Transit Preliminary Design, by the then GVRD. The reason why it is hard to find is that most of the copies were shredded and/or similarly destroyed on orders by the provincial government when they forced the SkyTrain mini-metro […]

TransLink’s ridership down and has a surplus

All the hype and hoopla about transit funding, reality has struck TransLink in the face like a banana cream pie; ridership has decline, yet there is a surplus or profit. Oh there are lots of excuses like fewer people working weekdays or there has been a decrease in employment in metro Vancouver and even with […]

For Donna – Part 2 – Debunking the SkyTrain myth. Rail for the Valley answers the UBC SkyTrain Lobby!

A repost from 2009! What has changed from 2009 is that the cost of a Broadway to UBC subway (full build) would be over $4 billion. Cut and cover subway construction will be used because the Susan Heyes court case has now set the precedent that TransLink can build a cut-and cover subway without paying […]

Dead Parrot Sketch Part 2

In all my years advocating for better transit in the Vancouver metro region, I have never heard an excuse for not building with LRT, that is as silly as this. “An European style lawned tram rights-of-way will kill birds.” How low will the SkyTrain lobby stoop to? Don’t believe me? A story in the Tyee […]