Light Rail for Dummies

Quote: “……..scrapping bike lanes to make way for diverted car traffic defeats the purpose of LRT“ Exactly! To reduce congestion, one must reduce road space, but provide an attractive and affordable transit alternative. LRT has proven to be that attractive and affordable alternative, something that TransLink and the Metro mayors have yet to learn. LRT […]

Tram Trains for Hungary!

TramTrain, one of the fasted growing transit sectors in the world and why not; extending public transit cheaply by using existing infrastructure is a win, win situation. The cost ofAi?? of a 25.3 km of route including 3.3 km of new single track line is CAD $62 million! The cost of the eight Electro-diesel trains […]

More Pre Election Transit News – Monty Python Plans For Transit

Unlike the mainstream media, the Georgia Straight always has better reporting on the local transit scene. This is nothing more than a staged media event featuring two growingly unpopular Mayors, Hepner and Roberts and the ever unpopular TransLink. With a May election looming the Liberals need to show that they are doing something, while the […]

The Pre Election BS Begins!

Let’s see now……election in May; a provincial Premier who doesn’t give a damn about regional transit; political donors getting restless for payback; yes the BC Liberal BS machine is in full swing. A $100 million/km LRT that goes nowhere and a $3.2 billion subway that goes nowhere, yes the BC Liberals are hard at it. […]

Today all Dutch trains are powered 100% by wind energy

  Something to think about. Question: Can we use wind generated power to sell the Leewood RftV TramTrain scheme? Today all Dutch trains are powered 100% by wind energy In the Netherlands all NS’s 1.200.000 train trips per day are now without any CO2 emissions. A world’s first! By Michiel de Gooijer As from 1 […]

Memo to Metro Mayors: Forget Road Pricing, build With LRT!

As Vancouver’s metro mayor’s dig themselves further into a financial morass, with the proposed now $3.2 billion Broadway subway to Arbutus and the now over $100/km Surrey LRT, which will demand more and more punitive regional taxation, why instead don’t we plan for affordable European style LRT? The trouble is, our regional mayors think they […]

SkyTrain – What TransLink Is Not Telling Us

This reply from Haveacow who is an Engineer, to an earlier post and I think worthy of a post on its own. He is familiar with SkyTrain and worked on the Ottawa LRT and inn other words he knows his stuff. Despite the ‘huff and puff’ from high paid TransLink spokes people about how the […]

TransLink’s Ridership Bamboozle Continues

  TransLink continues it ongoing program to bamboozle the public and politicians with their patented ridership bumf. Boarding’s are up 4%, really? Maybe, but boarding’s do not equate into actual higher actual ridership numbers, especially with the 130,000, $1.00 a day, ride at will U-Passes distributed to post secondary students. Simply put, those 130,000 U-Pass […]

Game Changer for Regional Rail!

What the FRA does, Transport Canada will soon follow. This news is of great importance to Metro and Victoria’s metro regions, bringing in a transit option that Rail for the Valley has been championing for many years. Proven European technology combined with proven European transit philosophy (which will come with the technology), just may make […]

UBC expert fears Vancouver subway is still far off

Transit improvements coming soon? Don’t hold your breathe because TransLink’s planning is extremely suspect. Certainly new buses will arrive for new routes and new drivers, mechanics and the rest of the employees needed to operate the new buses will be hired, but will this actually improve transit? I doubt it because TransLink is fixated on […]