High Costs For LRT In Waterloo Ontario Questioned! Is LRT Being Designed as a Money Pit?

It seems well known light rail advocate, Malcolm Johnston, Ai??is at it again, sticking his nose in other peoples light rail business, butAi??there there is a very good point for his interest in Canadian light rail projects, as they are farAi??more expensive when compared to new build European light rail lines. Also in the fray […]

Ida Chong is afraid to order an audit of TransLink! Those damned skeletons in the closet!

Well, good old ‘Zwei’ has been arguing for this for over a decade, but the BC Liberal government and the Liberal lickspital minister in charge of TransLink, Ida Chong, is afraid to order an audit of TransLink. Why? Audits have a strange way of uncovering misspent monies or dubious bookkeeping Ai??practices or evenAi??more sinister wastes […]

Why transit fares must increase.

Some years ago, I corresponded with a chap in the UKAi??who was (and still is) a respected transit consultant and much what I discuss about in this blog comes from our discussions. One striking comment he made; “Building metros on routes that do not have the ridership to sustain them, only invites higher subsidies and […]

The huge cost of building subways: is TransLink listening?

What was once going to be a much more affordable hybrid light-metro/light rail line, before the election of Toronto’s Ai??Mayor Ford, Ai??is now being replanned as a full scale subway, dramatically increasing costs. Those wanting to build a subway under Broadway had better get out their calculators because new subway construction in Toronto is getting […]

Ottawa tries to avoid the Vanvouver T.O.D. disease.

In Vancouver, metro construction is planned andAi??built toAi??subsidize land development, not to provide better transit for customers. In theory it is to greatly increase ridership for the new metro line, in practice some unpleasant things happen,Ai??such asAi??people moving into the new high rise apartments and condos and driving to work because they work where the […]

Toronto’s Mayor “Edsel’s” War On Transit – When idiots makes decisions, don’t be surprised at the results!

Toronto’s Mayor Ford’s (Mayor Edsel is a better name) amateur attempts to improve transit in the Toronto region is fast becoming a fiasco! But what else would one expect from aAi??puffed up American tea-bag style politician who has a hate on for streetcars and LRT because; “they take road space away from cars“. His solutionAi??building […]

E & N Blues

Want to kill a Railway? Starve it of funds and let it rust away and this seems the fate of the E & N railway. For a want of a mere $15 million to upgrade the tracks, the provincial government has loudly signaled that it wants to wash its hands of the E&N, especially when […]

Toronto Meet Your New Ride

New Toronto Streetcars http://lrv.ttc.ca/Ai?? is the website from the TTC on the new streetcars. The Toronto Transportation Societyai??i??s December newsletter has some interesting thoughts on the vehicle as well as photos of the half mock-up. The first 80 cars will have both pole and pantograph with the remainingAi?? (109 or 116 depending on the order) […]

Liar, liar, liar……….

It seems the SkyTrain Lobby has started a wee blog to compete with Rail for the Valley, called Surrey needs SkyTrainAi??and true to form, if one supports light rail, one is a liar. It is so sad to see so much time and effort is wasted on what is now an obsolete proprietary transit mode, […]

Hume: The suburbs ask: Whereai??i??s the subway? In Metro Vancouver, the ‘burbs ask: Where is SkyTrain?

Like the Vancouver Metro Region, everyone wants SkyTrain, but there is no money to pay for it. Trouble is, no one has explained this to civic and provincial politicians, who continue to promise multi billion dollar SkyTrain extensions. In the Fraser Valley mayor Watts of Surrey does get it, with her support for LRT construction, […]