The Broadway Follies Part 3 A?ai??i??ai??? Questions & Answers about SkyTrain

We continueAi??Ai??with the question and answer format about Broadway’s transit issues, with a focus on SkyTrain. Vancouver is the only city in the world that continues to plan and build solely with automatic (driverless) light-metro and many people would like to know why. First, we must tackle the issue of SkyTrain and answer questions posed […]

Stephen Rees’s blog – Bond shies away from major TransLink reforms – well worth a read.

Many who read the Rail for the Valley blog also read Stephen Rees’s blog, but for the growing number of overseas visitors, his most recent post; “Bond shies away from major TransLink reforms” is well worth a read. http://stephenrees.wordpress.com/2010/05/02/bond-shies-away-from-major-translink-reforms/

Two Tram projects planned in northern France. What no VAL?

What is interesting about this announcement is that the new tram projects are planned near Lille France, which operates the VAL automatic mini-metro. The two approved tram or light-rail lines are very close to the City of Lille and the VAL mini-metro system. This poses the question: Why not build with VAL? French cities that […]

Light Rail & Tramways Growth Continues With new Openings in 2010

From May’s issue ofAi??Ai??Tramway’s & Urban Transit comes a list of new LRT openings in 2010, almost one every six weeks. The following is a partial list of new LRT/tram and TramTrain systems. It is interesting to note the increase of TramTrain expansion, both in Europe and in North America. Also, when compared to metro […]

The Broadway Follies – TransLink does the Gong Show

Here we go again, TransLink’s famous planning exercises that in the end will please no one and achieve very little. There is no bold ‘grand plan’ but more of the same, a little BRT here; a little SkyTrain there, with a hint of LRT thrown in to keep the trolley-jolly types happy. With all the […]

Transit Agency Approves Cuts, and More Bad News Looms – From the New York Times

It seems that New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority is in dire fancial straights, just like our TransLink. What should not be forgotten is that even though New York has a vast subway system and massive daily ridership, mainteneace cost for that subway are massive and contributing to their finacial plight. For those preaching a subway […]

Clean, affordable light rail also delivers economic lift

Shades of the Broadway LRT/metro debate. It seems the metro lobby is hard at it to derail Toronto’s LRT plans, just like how the metro/SkyTrain lobby is trying to do the same in Vancouver. Ai??Ai?? Added to the metro/SkyTrainAi??Ai??debate is that our friends South of the boarder are trying reinvent light rail into light-metro, a […]

UBC SkyTrain Subway Gaining Steam – Is it An Unstoppable Train?

One year ago, with Cambie Street merchant’s Susan Heyes lawsuit against TransLink fresh in many peoples minds, any thought of a SkyTrain subway under Broadway was quietly ignored. Now, with TransLink teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, Vancouver’s political bloggists and mainstream media are gung-ho promoting a SkyTrain subwayAi??Ai??under Broadway to UBC. The tired old […]

Costly SkyTrain technology choices baffle – From the North Shore News

It seems that the efforts of Zwei and others have paid off’ asAi??Ai??others in the region are taking note of LRT and TramTrain and the hugeAi??Ai??costs that go along with the SkyTrain light-metro system and subway construction. TramTrain andAi??Ai??especially “Rail for the Valley” itselfAi??Ai??may find some welcome allies to their cause from the North Shore, […]

Olympic Hubris – Will The Wrong Conclusions Be Made By Our Planning & Political Elites?

In the last days of the 2010 Olympics, much has been made about how well our transportation worked during the event. What has been overlooked is that for the two week extravaganza, Vancouver had much warmer seasonal weather, meaning noAi??Ai??snow to stall the SkyTrain metro and make a shambles out of the bus schedules. Added […]