And Just What is Rapid Transit – Has TransLink Already Decided To Build A SkyTrain Subway To UBC?

Ai??Ai?? Bay Area Rapid Transit Over and over againAi??Ai??from media reporters and commentators, politicians and/or academics, we hear the term ‘rapid transit’, but are offered no definition to what rapid transit is. Is rapid transit a metro, rapid bus, light rail,Ai??Ai??or commuter rail?Ai??Ai??ThisAi??Ai??begs the question: “Just what is rapid transit?” Ai??Ai??Wikipedia defines rapid transit as: […]

Drive Out the Tax campaign – Sponsored by Vancouver’s Most Hypocritical & Inept Business Organizations!

In the Vancouver Sun today is an article about an anti-TransLink parking tax revolt, the Drive out the tax coalition, sponsored by the Downtown BIA,Ai??Ai??TheAi??Ai??Board of Trade and others. What a bunch of hypocrites; what a bunch of inept businessmen, for it was a loose coalition of the very same groups that glad-handed the almost […]

The hysteria of the anti-LRT lobby – Time to get real!

On other local and US blogs, there is a growing hysteria that once light rail (streetcar or tram) operates on-street, there will be general panic among pedestrians, ultimately throwing themselves under the tram! Shades of the 1820’s railway hysteria, where trains were claimed to cause insanity and sour cows milk! I’m sorry to say, that […]

Why Rail for the Valley must set the agenda in 2010 for light rail in METRO Vancouver.

The region is at a juncture: either proceed with light-metro planning and build the Evergreen Line and extend SkyTrain to Langley by 2030 or abandon current regional transportation planning and start anew, but using LRT instead to service many more destinations in the region. Though TransLink is boasting about its three light-metro lines and continues […]

The Strange Case of the Karlsruhe TramTrain – Streetcar, LRV, or Commuter Train?

Recent posts on the LRTA blog, debated the the present definitions of streetcar/tram and light rail. North Americans tend to define LRT as a light-metro, where as EuropeansAi??Ai??associated LRT as a tram. Now added to the debateAi??Ai??is the tramtrain and the strange case of the Karlsruhe’s new Zweisystem (two system) LRT:Ai??Ai??is itAi??Ai??a tram or a […]

From the Surrey Leader – Rapid transit extensions frozen under TransLink budget

It seems TransLink’s bureaucrats think that the METRO region taxpayer has very deep pockets; while I have a news flash for TransLink, they don’t. To save money, more and more of the region’s car drivers are filling up with gas South of the 49th, encouraging the business of US gas stations. One can save $0.25 […]

From the New York Times – Why Is the M.T.A. Always in Trouble?

It seems that TransLink’s former CEOAi??Ai??may haveAi??Ai??jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire, as New York’s Metropolitan Transportation authority (MTA) seems to be in severe financial distress. There has been much positive news here of late about the MTA, but it seems the transit authority faces the same problems as most others […]

Global Warming, Copenhagen, & Light Rail – The Solution That Is Ignored

When one looks past the European street theater of riots, the embarrassment of Canada, the intransigence of the USA, China and Russia, what will Copenhagen climate conference accomplish? Probably very little. The world is not ready for global warming and if a few island nations submerge due to rising sea levels, no one will really […]

Has SkyTrain become British Columbia’s Greatest Bamboozle?

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. The bamboozle has captured us. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. Carl Sagan Is SkyTrain a colossal bamboozle? Does the SkyTrain lobby and […]

Cambie merchants hope for better fortunes – From CKNW News Radio

As predicted, those thousands ofAi??Ai?? RAV/Canada Line passengers are not getting off the train to shop at Cambie Street stores. The sad fact is, the inference from RAVCo. and later InTransit BC, was that the Canada Line would bring thousands of shoppers to Cambie St., it hasn’t and only those merchants lucky enough to be […]