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?
[This is not a paid promotion. I paid for my own beer and have received no benefit from the company mentioned here.] So who doesn’t like stumbling across a new brewery. It seems to be the Vancouver thing to do over the past 10 years or so. There’s a little brewery hidden in an industrial section of New Westminster. Where is it? Let’s find out. … Continue reading Hidden brewery in New Westminster?
I just saw a very impressive plan to expand Montreal’s rapid transit system. The new elevated rapid transit line, similar to Vancouver’s SkyTrain design will almost double the rapid transit available in the Montreal region. In fact, it will likely become North America’s longest elevated rail line when it comes to fruition.
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”
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.
Yonah Freemark has been starting off the New Year with a look at New Transit across North America since 2009. Here’s the 2016 edition. Metro Vancouver’s Evergreen Line would have made this map for 2016. However, the tunneling problems involving sinkholes on roads in and around Clarke Road has delayed the complete of the Evergreen SkyTrain Line until early 2017. For an extremely thorough look … Continue reading Transport Politic’s New Transit for 2016
In my last post, I thought TransLink might hold off for another 6 months before discontinuing the paper FareSavers. Well, I was completely wrong. By the end of January, all paper FareSavers will be phased out.
Well, it’s been 3 months with my new Compass Card. I’ve had mostly good experiences with the card. I used 2 months of the card with a monthly pass – in October and November – and one month in December with only my Stored Value.
A trip using Stored Value is $2.10 for 1-zone, $3.15 for 2-zones, and $4.20 for 3-zones. The multi-zone fares apply to any trips that include a SkyTrain and SeaBus portion. However, if you are taking the bus only, then $2.10 is all you pay.
If you’ve registered your card, then you can easily track how much you’ve spent. Simply filter correctly for the date range and find out how much you’ve spent.
metro babel 