Lawned Rights-of-Ways Come To Canada

Will this be a game changer for light rail in Canada? For over thirty years, lawned rights-of-way have been the norm on European tramways and light rail operations; even the Deutsche Bahn (German Federal Railway) investigated lawend rights-of-ways for the main line railways. Today, the lawned R-o-W’s are a fixture of the modern tram.   Not […]

The Shape of Surrey’s Future

The shape of things to come for Surrey. Surrey, ever trying to out do Vancouver to be number one in the city, is building with light metro, because Vancouver has one. The following quote caught my eye. Gurugram is not a walkable city, and has very limited public transport connectivity for the masses. While it […]

Bafflegab From TransLink – The Never Ending Story

The real story here is not about replacing the expansion joints on the Sky Bridge, it is what TransLink’s new CEO Kevin Quinn (remember the chap worked for Baltimore’s MTA, which saw a 2% decrease in ridership every year Quinn worked there)  said, revealing ridership numbers. For that week, total system-wide boarding’s were 48. 2 […]

RAIL FOR THE VALLEY – A Step Closer

Is common sense finally making its way with politicians in Victoria? Is the $4 billion price tag for the 16 km Expo Line extension to Langley (the Reelection Line) scaring the provincial treasury? Has BC’s explosive fire season, capped with record breaking temperatures, finally conveying the message that politcal prestige must take a back seat […]

The Expo Line Extension to Langley: The Reelection Line!

Prime Minister Trudeau wants cool photo-ops for the federal election, coming sometime this summer and fall. The mayor of Surrey wants cool photo-ops for next years civic election in 2022. Premier John Horgan wants cool photo-ops for anything not involving  Covid and wildfires and for the provincial election in 2024. Politicians need a good back […]

An Apples To Apples Comparison – A Tale of Two Cities

We all know about the $3.95 billion 18 km extension of the Expo line to Surrey with all the hype and hoopla of the SkyTrain Lobby is in full swing. Back in the Waterloo region of Ontario, $2.2 billion buys you 37 km of light rail! The comparison between Surrey and Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge, (the urban areas […]

The Canadain Disease

Despite the churlish comments who oppose Zwei’s views on transit, claiming that I somehow invent issues and more, the following comment came via a chap I was corresponding with in Ontario and I just cannot help but agree. Canadian transportation is now so hideously politicized that I just don’t see how we can bring any […]

Langley Expo Line Extension Almost $1 Billion Over Budget!

You just got to love the NDP, as this hapless crew love budget breaking FastFerry style mega projects. Remember the FastFerries? The financial stench from that fiasco hung around the neck of the NDP as a fiscal Albatross for over twenty years and you would have thought that they would have learned…………..but no, they are […]

Trudeau And Horgan Codemn Metro Vancouver And the Fraser Valley to Gridlock Hell

An election is coming and time to bribe the voters with their own money. So the the PM, needing cheap politcal points, helps our the premier with $1.3 billion announcement to fulfill his politcal promise made in the last election to Langley voters to extend the Expo line to their city. Whether this is new […]

Bombardier’s Skeletons Draining Cash From Alstom

Zwei knew all would not be happiness with Alstom’s acquisition of Bombardier Inc. Lingering court cases, lawsuits and other criminal intrigue with the Yongin and Kuala Lumpor ART systems (that is SkyTrain in TransLink Speak) and other issues pertaining to the now called Movia Automatic Light Metro System (erroneously called SkyTrain), must be causing acute […]