Scarborough Subway Derailing?

Unfortunately financial reality is now setting in in Toronto and building subways are a very expensive proposition.. The cost to replace the aging Scarborough ICTS mini-metro with a one stop, 6 km. subway (about the same length as a Broadway subway to Arbutus!) is now put at $3.2 billion and rising. Plans to revive a […]

Subways – Red Flags in Ontario – Should The Same Be Happening Here?

It now seems Ontario’s big subway plans are costing more, a lot more to build than what was first proposed as exampled by the Toronto York Spadina Subway Extension, whose cost soared over from $1.5 billion to $3.2 billion! TransLink is blithely planning away for both a hugely expensive SkyTrain subway under Broadway and an […]

TransLink Will Not Come Clean On Subway Costs

Nothing new here. The truth is very simple, subways are very expensive to build, as TransLink found out with the Canada Line. We have to remember that the cost of the Canada Line soared past the first estimated cost of $1.3 billion, to around $2.7 billion. The Gordon Campbell Liberal government then forced TransLink to […]

What about the Patullo Bridge? Updated

In light of today’s news that the Pattullo Bridge not only will collapse in a seismic event, it may topple in a wind storm. Pattullo Bridge vulnerable during seismic or ai???high-windai??i?? events: Report Zwei believes the old child’s song should be updated to: Pattullo bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down Pattullo Bridge is […]

Teething Troubles – TransLink Singing The Bombardier Blues

Bombardier’s rail division is a bit of an embarrassment with late deliveries of trams to Toronto and now something seems amiss with the new MK.3 cars, which are really MK.2 cars with fewer seats. But what caught Zwei’s attention was this little quote” Seven of the new Mark III cars have been budgeted at $91 […]

SkyTrain doesn’t Breakdown – Well Almost Never

The aging SkyTrain seems to be having a rough time lately, but it is to be expected as most proprietary transit systems age badly. TransLink has a new word for its lexicon, “temporary” and lest us hope that the delays are not permanent. The problem with SkyTrain breaking down is that there is no alternative […]

New Highways & Bridges Will Not Reduce Congestion – It will Increse It!

Bigger and wider bridges and adding new lanes to existing highways will not reduce congestion, but do the opposite, increase it! Yet this is the BC’s governments big transportation plan. TransLink continues to plan for a “Toonerville Trolley” for Surrey, instead of building useful LRT that will serve transit customers andAi?? a $3 billion subway […]

Metro Mayors Bite The Bullet

Metro Mayors, with visions of federal cash dancingAi?? in their heads approved a draft transit plan part of their so called ten year plan. Like all other transit ten year or twenty year plans that have come and gone, this one was drafted, probably on orders of the premier who is afraid of any negative […]

“The problem with TransLink is that you can never believe what it says…………”

The problem with TransLink is that you can never believe what it says; TransLink never produces a report based on the same set of assumptions.” Former West Vancouver Clr. Victor Durman, Chair of the GVRD (now METRO) Finance Committee. Old habits die hard and with TransLink, old habits never die, they just hire a new […]

SkyTrain Embaresses Itself Again

Oops! Rush hour, the time that transit must work, but with SkyTrain it doesn’t matter as it craps out now all to regularly. Again, aging complicated automatic transit systems grow more unreliable, making transit less dependable, which in turn makes the car more desirable. Memo to CKNW: Tracking issues? Are they trying to hunt down […]