Rail for the Valley
First posted in 2013. If one took the ‘Way-back’ machine to the late 1980’s, the argument that SkyTrain was cheaper to operate than LRT would show the massive propaganda campaign to give the public a positive view of the proprietary ALRT light-metro. This is because it was forced upon the region by the Social Credit […]
Erfurt – Germany In Germany, the average cost to construct a new at-grade, 2-track (double) street tramway typically ranges from €10 million to €20 million per kilometer (CAD $16 million to $32 million) This includes the physical track installation, embedding in the road, overhead electrification, and basic stop infrastructure. However, total project costs fluctuate heavily […]
The ION’s capital cost was about $818 million in 2017 (1.06 billion in 2026 dollars) for 19 km of greenfields construction or $43 million/km to build ($56 million/km in 2026 dollars), complete. Compare this with the Expo Line extension now costing over $400 million/km to build not including signalling, cars and much more.
For four decades, the lessons building ‘rai’ transit has not been learned. Politicians in BC refuse the learn the lessons of others and continue to blunder on making the same higely expensive mistakes, over and over again. It is sheer negligence on the part of TransLink, the Mayor’s Council on Transit, the Premier’s Office, and […]
What the (expletive deleted) is TransLink trying to say? I will take an educated guess that Translink is either replacing the reaction fourth rail or replacing the third rail for electrical pick up. The strange thing is, the same trains operate on the Expo and Millennium Lines already. Or, are they replacing the switches to […]
Zwei often hears the tired old saw that “we don’t have the population for light rail or the alternative, light rail does not have the capacity to deal with traffic flows that SkyTrain can. The “Good Burghers” in Bath England are countering this debate by actually listing 40 cities that have populations of 100,000 (with […]
First published in 2022, this post remains extremity relevant today. Four years have gone by and the cost today of the Expo Line extension to Surrey is now estimated at $7 billion and that is just for the guideway, which the federal government is paying 40%of the cost. Zwei has been told privately that the […]
The Leewood Study – Costs Updated To 2026 RftV cost for a Vancouver to Rosedale regional railway $5.4 billion cheaper than the 16 km Expo Line extension to Langley. Re-posted and updated on Saturday, September 19, 2020 Re-released and update July 2, 2026 On September 20, 2010, Rail for the Valley unreleased the groundbreaking Leewood […]
The “gelb wand” (yellow wall) of trams in Karlsruhe Germany With the the Province; the City of Vancouver and TransLink continued selling big porkies about LRT, the following will be enlightening! The ongoing planning and construction charade currently being played out by the usual suspects including cities of Vancouver & Surrey, TransLink and the provincial […]
Zwei has been wondering why all the rah-rah SkyTrain posts on You Tube and it seems the answer is, ridership is collapsing on this gold plated transit system. This is very bad news because falling ridership equates to reduced service and reduced service translates to fewer buses and higher fares. Then there is the now […]