Light Rail In Victoria Before Vancouver?

Interesting news from Victoria, BC Transit is recommending LRT for Greater Victoria. Though BC Transit doesn’t have much competence with modern LRT, the organization certainly has more experience than TransLink, with the historic LRT planning for the Broadway-Lougheed Rapid Transit project before the provincial NDP did their infamous flip-flopAi?? to SkyTrain. Zwei also questions the […]

Canadaai??i??s light rail renaissance

From the International Railway Journal http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/light-rail/canadas-light-rail-renaissance.html Light rail is experiencing a renaissance in cities throughout Canada with various new lines planned and some currently under construction. LIKE most cities across the world, Canada’s leading urban centres suffer from traffic congestion leaving many residents wasting time in their cars. In recent years light rail schemes have […]

U.S. (And Canada) Taxpayers Are Gouged on Mass Transit Costs

With BC Transit quoting silly prices for LRT in Victoria and TransLink doing the same in Vancouver and Surrey, the following article from Bloomberg should be essential reading. As the previous post has shown, modern LRT/streetcar can be built cheaply, if there is the political and bureaucratic will to do so. With thank to Justin […]

“Lightness” of light rail

TransLink, BC Transit, SNC Lavalin, UBC, SFU, and a host of North American Engineering firms, please take note! ThisAi??”lightness” of light rail – a combination of flexibility, low impact,Ai??modest cost, and environmental softness – is ephemeral. It mustAi??be carefullyAi??guarded. Ignorance orAi??ineptitude during the planning, design, specification writing, engineering, orAi??construction phases of a project can lose […]

The Karlsruhe model of a dual-mode railway system

Karlsruhe: The Karlsruhe model of a dual-mode railway system Country: Germany Type: Policies Area: Entire City, Region Actors: Local Gov. Funding: Local Gov., Regional Gov., National Gov., Private Topics: Built environment Consultancy Mobility Objectives: Increase non-motorised mobility Increase use of public transport Reduce car mobility Reduce energy consumption Instruments: A coupled set of GT-8’s in […]

Why Is Victoria’s Proposed LRT So Expensive?

Why is Victoria’s proposed light rail so expensive? Our friendsAi??at Bring Back Our Trams in Victoria, like the Rail for the Valley folks on this side of the pond, are beginning to wonder aloud, why the proposed Victoria LRT isAi??very close to beingAi??the most expensive LRT in the world, on a per kilometre basis. What […]

Bring Back Our Trams – A New Website for Victoria Light Rail – A question About SNC

Our friends across the pond, in Victoria have a new website, Bring Back Our Trams http://www.b-bot.ca/index.htmlAi??which contains some surprising information. Zwei has wondered why the cost of a simple streetcar/LRT line would cost over $62 million/km and BBOTAi??may haveAi??supplied the answer: Canada’s favourite engineering group, SNC Lavalin did the initial cost study. Why then, would […]

Review of Light Rail/Tramway costs

A Federal Parliamentry Review of Light Rail/Tramway/Transit costs must be carried out!Ai?? Both Fang & Zwei have posted articles in the past weeks on the high costs of Canadian LightAi??Rail, Tramway & Transit schemes. Vancouver, TorontoAi??and Waterloo. Design, Utility relocation, Financing vehicles (ie P3) Project management, Construction management, Land purchase and now theAi??concern that Ai??Canadian […]

How to pay for Victoria’s proposed over priced light rail….. Don’t!…..Plan for much cheaper TramTrain on the E&N!

BC Transit is an old hand at inflating costs of LRT, so they don’t have to deal with it. In the 90’s, BC Transit increased the cost of the proposed Broadway-LougheedAi??LRT to such an extent, that there was only a 7% difference between the cost for light rail and that of SkyTrain. Sprinkled with political […]

E & N Blues

Want to kill a Railway? Starve it of funds and let it rust away and this seems the fate of the E & N railway. For a want of a mere $15 million to upgrade the tracks, the provincial government has loudly signaled that it wants to wash its hands of the E&N, especially when […]