I have a confession to make. I am, for the most part, a Surrey bus virgin. I don’t know much about the bus system south of the Fraser River. I’ve taken the SkyTrain into Surrey a few times, but I rarely ever take the bus in Surrey. Yeah. I’ve taken the R1 one stop. And then I started to travel up and down Scott Road … Continue reading Where’s the double-decker bus?
Have you heard about the Vancouver Plan? The Vancouver Plan will feature a single, city-wide plan to guide future growth in line with key community priorities. The Vancouver Plan will also aim to keep the qualities that make Vancouver special while responding to the challenges facing the city and its residents. The Vancouver Plan has been in process for a while, but it is now … Continue reading Vancouver Plan
With two new boys in my life, I wasn’t able to step away from home to experience the opening of the Evergreen Extension of the Millennium Line. Besides, it was a miserable, rainy day. Plus, I’m almost a week after the opening day releasing this post. Life happens.
In lieu of my own photos and video, I thought you could partake in some videos yourself scattered across YouTube.
My Flipboard feed turned up an article on ekinaka at nippon.com. It was not a new idea me because I’ve seen such ekinaka first-hand on my visits to Japan. However, the term is new to me. Ekinaka literally means “inside the station.”
Continue reading ““Ekinaka” – Shopping complexes at Japanese train stations”
Okay, let’s start by looking at some of the numbers being bandied about in the news.
First off. There’s the one constant in this picture. Justin Trudeau’s federal Liberals have promised to pay for 50% of the funds for infrastructure projects across the country.
Here’s what the other two levels of government have offered.
Continue reading “Metro Vancouver Transit Funding’s Ongoing Saga – May 2016”
There’s been a flurry of transit related news this past week. Most of it about funding transit from the local Metro level and the BC provincial level. I haven’t had time to sift through the numbers, let alone blog!
So let me work on something that’s a bit more tangible and easier for me to blog quickly about. My local SkyTrain station is under reconstruction. The whole east stationhouse is being rebuilt.
There’s finally been a breakthrough in the negotiations between the City of Vancouver and Canadian Pacific Rail (CP Rail) over the 9-kilometre long unused rail line. It has sat dormant since the 1990’s. It has been a collection of unused train tracks, overgrown bushes, and community gardens over the years. The City is finally taking it over and changes will be afoot.
Interesting article at Citylab on parking and transit subsidies in the US. It’s definitely a good study in human behaviour. Apparently, the “fairness” of transit subsidies that match parking subsidies given to employees does not really pan out.
Continue reading “Free/Subsidized Parking and Transit Subsidies”
The conversation for expanded fixed rail transit in Surrey continues to roll along. Metro Vancouver’s second largest municipality by population and largest by land area is still trying to push forward after the failed transit plebiscitie/referendum of 2015.
A few things have happened in the past year that may help Surrey get its long-desired LRT.
Ever since I lived in Toronto back in 2003, I’ve always kept an eye on transit developments in the GTA. In the early days, there was David Miller’s Transit City, which promised to criss-cross the city with light rail. Then Rob Ford rumbled into office and promised the gravy train along with the light rail trains. Instead, Rob Ford planned on fewer lines, but with all of them being heavy rail subway lines. Then most recently came John Tory and his SmartTrack which was a vaunted “surface subway” that would start moving Toronto in a new way.
Three mayors with three very different visions over the past 13 years. It’s enough to make any transit follower’s eyes spin.
metro babel 