A Comparrison Of Operating Costs – SkyTrain & Light Rail

The late Des Turner was meticulous with his research with the SkyTrain light metro system and in 1988, embarrassed the then Social Credit Government to release the real costs of the mini-metro. What is more interesting is comparing the operating costs of the Calgary C-Train light rail and SkyTrain. Thought the operating costs are a […]

Mr. Harcourt, Shut the H*ll Up.

Former one term wonder as BC’s Premier, Mr. Harcourt suffers the same sort of dementia as do most other regional and provincial politicians, he firmly believes he is a transit expert. Both Harcourt’s term as Vancouver mayor and BC Premier, was much ado about nothing. A notable fence sitter, Harcourt waxed and waned as the […]

A Liberal Victory Means “No Transit For You!”

The BC Liberals have won yesterday’s election which means the transit status quo will remain, no new transit for south of the Fraser River. Regional transit issues were ignored by both the BC Liberals and the NDP and for good reason, TransLink is in a financial mess and unless new revenue streams are forthcoming, there […]

Regional Transportation and the Provincial Election – The NDP’s & BC Liberal’s Dirty Little Secret

What has been ignored by both major political parties, vying for the electorate’s vote, is the thorny question of regional transportation and TransLink. In fact the silence has been deafening. It seems both the NDP and the BC Liberals have bought into the TransLink and SkyTrain Lobby’s ‘kool-ade‘ that the region needs to come up […]

A switch problem causes rush hour chaos on the Canada Line

A switch problem caused rush hour chaos on the Canada Line Thursday night, but not reported that if a switch fails on a LRT/tram line, the problem is local and can be dealt by locally by a (in the English vernacular) a temporary ‘pointsman’. The failed switch can be operated manually, until it can be […]

Power rail problem halts SkyTrain service in New Westminster

As metro lines age, maintenance problems come into the fore. With automatic or driverless transit systems, this means complete shutdowns of sections of track or an entire route. Last night, a reported failure of the power rail caused chaos all Thursday night for transit customers. Failures do happen, but a failure of a power rail […]

Limiting in Honolula

The Honolulu High-Capacity Transit Corridor Project (HHCTCP) is the official name for the plan to construct an elevated rapid transit line serving the City and County of Honolulu on the island of Oahu. http://www.honolulutransit.org/ The line will use 128Ai??ft (39Ai??m) trains carrying about 390 passengers each, similar in weight to light rail systems elsewhere in […]

A Question of Capacity – A Transit Primer For BC’s Auditor General

A Question of Capacity ai??i?? A LRTA Topic Sheet Contrary to the COV and TransLink, modern LRT can obtain high capacities, on transit routes, by being able to operate at close headways.Ai??Today, the main tram route through the city is being relocated in a subway because the line was seeing 45 second headways during peak […]

Referendum New Transit funding For TransLink – BC Liberal Election Platform

Interesting, election gimmick from the BC Liberals which just may resonate with the regional taxpayer. For 33 years, the regional taxpayer has been shut out of the regional transit debate, but expected to shell out serious coin for mega transit projects without question. Already the SkyTrain lobby are squealing like stuck pigs with any hint […]

Karlsruhe

TramTrain in a cityscape. This is a picture that the city of Vancouver and the city of Vancouver Engineering Department do not want the public to see; user friendly trams. A Karlsruhe TramTrain S-41 service (Eutingen im GAi??uai??i??TullastraAYe / VBK Eutingen im GAi??u ai??i?? Freudenstadt ai??i?? Baiersbronn ai??i?? Forbach ai??i?? Rastatt ai??i?? Durmersheim ai??i?? Hauptbahnhof […]