Canada Line Fizzles

The Canada Line is seeing major problems with a “stalled” train on the tracks. Now new EMU’s are not supposed to stall, but in Vancouver problems with the three mini-metro lines are glossed over by the mainstream media and of course LRT causes traffic chaos every day it is operation, if one wishes to believe […]

“Even your Auditor General seems to have done his sums on the back of envelopes.”

The above quote came from a European transit expert, when I asked him to comment on BC’s Auditor General’s claim that “SkyTrain and not light rail was the best option because of its greater capacity at similar costai??i??.ai???. I apologize for again questioning the AG’s findings, but the AG’s Department is so far off the […]

Regional Politicos Play Russian Roulette With the Province

The regional cities and municipalities are digging the financial spurs into the province to come up with a new TransLink deal, the problem is, the province may go along with this and let the regional mayors hoist themselves on their own petard and let the regional mayors decide how to pay for major regional transit […]

Letters to the Editor: Daryl versus Malcolm

Tit for tat department. Last Thursday SkyTrain lobbyist Daryl Dela Cruz had the following letter printed in the Surrey Leader. An elevated metro station, as envisioned by Mr. Dela Cruz. Expensive to build and to maintain which translates into higher operating costs. Light railai??i??s downsides Published: May 15, 2013Re: ai???Letai??i??s not get soaked by poorly […]

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 […]