Clarity With Transit and TransLink ….. Ha, Ha, Ha!

The TransLink referendum continues to provide angst with politicians and TransLink and so it should, because both parties really haven’t a clue about public transit. The new Chair of TransLink, Marcella Szel.Ai?? A former Canadian Railway executive and Port Authority director, has absolutely no background in urban transit and seems to have been chosen because, […]

Bus Stops

From the well duh department, that getting rid of some bus stops can improve service, has been well known for decades. In Europe bus stops tend to be 350m to 400m apart, but in Vancouver bus stops tend to be 250m to 300m apart, with some examples no more than 100m apart. It is easy […]

TransLink Referendum Mayhem

Welcome to the BC Liberal world of transit, where transit or should I say transit mega-projects are a means for winning elections, nothing more. The Canada Line is a good example, where ten BC Premier wanted to showcase a transit P-3, but the problem arose that SkyTrain, being a proprietary railway, made near to impossible […]

The Future through Zwei’s (not so) Crystal ball

The big transit news for 2014 is the BC Liberal transit referendum. What will be the outcome? What will be the question asked for the public to vote on? Presently, I do not think even the Premier herself can answer these questions, as Premier Clark, like several Premiers before her, is a “rubber on asphalt” […]

Tram Train

A summary of the latestAi??EuropeanAi??Tram Train developments at the end of 2013. UK – Manchester: Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has created new plans which could see specially designed vehicles running on both street tracks and train tracks between Glossop and Manchester city centre. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/tram-trains-could-link-glossop-up-6312282 Manchester to explore future tram-train network Councillors in Manchester have […]

What $536 Million Will Buy You – A UBC to BCIT LRT!

Mr. Haveacow made the following important observation; “I am also surprised that few have picked up on that the LRT portion of the contract is only $536,000,000 for 19 km of surface route.” Zwei, referring to his ‘Google’ maps found that 19km of LRT would stretch from UBC, down 10th Ave. onto Broadway, then along […]

Canada Line airport surcharge to hit more (ghost) riders

Maybe, just maybe that the expected numbers of people expected to take the Canada line to YVR was grossly overestimated to secure YVR’s money for a light-metro/subway connection to Vancouver. YVR contributed about $300 million to the Canada Line on the condition that a downtown to YVR service would be no longer than 25 minutes. […]

Improving Metro Vancouverai??i??s public transit system

It seems you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, especially ex GVRD types. Mr. Spaeth has, like many other GVRD/Metro Vancouver types, have deluded themselves that transit has taken cars of the road in Vancouver.Ai?? The reason for declining car use is the changing nature of the city, but this has not translated to […]

Death By Toll

Is anyone surprised by this? If you are, you are either residing outside Metro Vancouver or you are living in a bubble, because the taxpayer is maxed out. The BC Liberal regime of Gordon Campbell has off-loaded so many user fees, taxes and other costs on to the backs of taxpayers that he has all […]

Why we build with light rail

The following was Zweisystem’s first offering on the Rail for the Valley blog, posted on December 12, 2008. Five years and some 1,359 posts later, the message has stayed essentially the same; why does the provincial government and TransLink still pursue light metro instead of LRT, especially when light metro has proven inferior in service […]