French Delights – Part 4: Le Mans Trams for small cities.

Le Mans, with a population of 150,000 and an urban population of 300,000Ai??Ai??(with a density of 2,806 per km/2), opened its first tram line on 17 November 2007. The north-southAi??Ai??route, about 15 km long, serves the city center and the railway station, besides other majorAi??Ai??urbanAi??Ai??transit destinations including theAi??Ai??university and the mainAi??Ai??hospital. An eastern branch-line joins […]

French Delights Part 3 – Grenoble

Ai??Ai?? Grenoble France, with a regional population ofAi??Ai??580,000 completed it’s first a modern tramwayAi??Ai??line in the 1987, after aAi??Ai??successful, but hard foughtAi??Ai??civicAi??Ai??referendum and has set the standardAi??Ai??for modern LRT not just in France, but for the EEC. The first tram (streetcar) line, Line A, currently 13 km with 29 stops, opened, followed by Line B […]

French Delights Part 2 – Paris Tramway T-3

Paris’s tram line T3 (tram Marechaux) opened on 16 December 2006, along a 7.9 kmAi??Ai??route from Pont du Garigliano (Bd Victor) to Porte d’Ivry. The new line runs along the southern boulevards, replacing many bus routes andAi??Ai??attaining an higher commercial speeds (about 20 km/h vs. the current bus value of 14.5 km/h). Some of the […]

From the Georgia Straight – TransLink’s Broadway transit gambit condemned

It seems Vancouver’s politicians are not satisfied with one hugely expensive subway, they want a almost $4 billion subway under Broadway to UBC. Indeed, as Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan points out, Vancouver’s politicians are blinkered to the real costs involved with subway construction, especially when the provincial and region taxpayers anted up for the almost […]

A news release from Rail for the Valley – Light rail groups renew call to scrap SkyTrain expansion

September 29, 2009 Media Release (for immediate release) Rail For The Valley and the Light Rail Committee today joined forces in calling on provincial and federal governments, and Translink, to respect the wishes of local governments in the region, and start work on a modified Evergreen line. John Buker, a spokesman with Rail For The […]

From the Georgia Straight – Metro Vancouver board pushes for $450 million a year increase in TransLink funding

If one really wanted any more evidence that our regional politicians are completely outAi??Ai??of touchAi??Ai??on regional transit issues, this item from the Georgia Straight should putAi??Ai??that to rest. The financialAi??Ai??problems with TransLinkAi??Ai??are simple: 1) It operates light-metro (an obsolete transit mode) on routes that do not have the ridership to support it. Result – high […]

The propaganda campaign for the UBC subway has begun. Here comes the Campbell Line!

OnAi??Ai??September 8, theAi??Ai??first day of regular commuting, after the summer break,Ai??Ai??in the region, the Vancouver Sun had a “Canada Line” Live chat where a poll question pops up “Should SkyTrain continue to UBC” and not surprisingly 59% have voted, “Yes get on with it”. Here we have the the firstAi??Ai??push ofAi??Ai??a massiveAi??Ai??propaganda campaign to win […]

The Greer Report – Review of Rapid Transit Project Claims. We didn’t need an American consultant to tell us TransLink is ‘off the rails’.

Over ten years ago the Greer Report, done byAi??Ai??Greer Consulting Services, issued a scathing report on the Broadway/Lougheed Rapid Transit Projects, later to be know as the SkyTrain Millennium Line. The report found: cost comparisons appear to have been contrived to favour SkyTrain over LRT Ai??Ai??no ridership (demand) analysis was reported to justify the high […]

Tramway Line 3 in Paris – Let’s have a look!

A post inAi??Ai??today’s blog about Portland’s new light rail line mentioned Paris’s newAi??Ai??Tramway Line 3, so let’s explore Tramway Ligne 3 in Paris. If TransLink ever showed the public true images of modern light rail, instead of their stock of dated and altered photos, there would be much more public support for modern light rail […]

From Radio 1130 – Cambie merchants still waiting for Canada Line business boom. Not coming? Yes, Zweisystem told you so!

Well the RAV/Canada line has been open for some time now and now one wonders where is all those subway passengers that were dying to shop on Cambie St., as promised by RAVCo. and InTransit BC? Didn’t come? Well don’t hold your breathe, they’re not. It has been found in other jurisdictions where cut-and-cover subway […]