Blog – SkyTrain for Surrey

SkyTrain for Surrey launches response to Rail for the Valley lobbyist

3 June 2012 By Daryl Leave a Comment

Observations of existing rapid transit implementations such as this one simply prove that SkyTrain costs less than what most people think! Based on this photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/sillygwailo/348736559/sizes/o/in/photostream/ licensed under the creative commons - attribution

Daryl Dela Cruz of the SkyTrain for Surrey Initiative has sent this response letter to the Langley Advance regarding the Rail for the Valley Initiative: Mr. Johnston of Rail for the Valley, a long-time lobbyist of the Light Rail Transit Association (LRTA), has demonstrated in his barbaric response to my recent letter that he is clearly disarrayed with his resources and the facts as they have been published. The level of unfairness and inaccuracy in his statements was so high that our Initiative analysts found the attempt laughable. It is about time that him and the Rail for the Valley … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Debunking misconceptions, Press Tagged With: Community Impact, competition, competitive transit, Economic development, Economics, Greater Vancouver, light rail, light rail advocates, Light Rail Transit, light rail transit advocates, limitations, lobbyism, LRT, LRT advocates, Metro Vancouver, misinformation, misleading, plan, Rail for the Valley, rapid rail transit, Rapid Transit, RRT, SkyTrain, SkyTrain for Surrey, Surrey transportation future, transit, TransLink, Transportation

REVIEW: Should the public trust Rail for the Valley?

3 June 2012 By Daryl Leave a Comment

Members of the public should be aware that the Rail for the Valley Initiative for interurban-corridor Light Rail Transit service in the Fraser Valley and its advocates have mislead and continue to mislead people in several instances. There are several mistakes on the website that are un-sourced, incorrect, and stand uncorrected. There are few major resources that support the organization's wishes but fewer yet to support their arguments against things like SkyTrain. Many mistakes exist, standing uncorrected. One uncorrected misconception still exists on the Initiative's website and is … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Debunking misconceptions, Press, Studies Tagged With: cardinal fang, Light Rail Transit, mr johnston, Rail for the Valley, Transportation

SkyTrain is popular worldwide (RE: Mr. Johnston)

1 June 2012 By Daryl Leave a Comment

A newest generation ART 200 SkyTrain car - From Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sperling_Station_West_Bound_Mk2_Train_Entering_Station_20100116.jpg by Wakasui

Members of the public should not be misled by the rhetoric from Mr. Malcolm Johnston of the Rail for the Valley transit initiative, who recently responded [LINK HERE] to a letter sent into the Langley Advance by Initiative chairman Daryl Dela Cruz by attacking the Initiative and the "SkyTrain lobby". Mr. Cruz should answer this one question: “After being on the market for over 33 years and during an era in unprecedented growth of urban transit systems, only seven SkyTrain type systems have been built: why?” The very last question he asked Initiative chairman Daryl Dela Cruz is … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Debunking misconceptions, Important facts Tagged With: Bombardier Innovia ART, British Columbia, Canada, Community Impact, competition, Greater Vancouver, light rail, light rail advocates, Light Rail Transit, light rail transit advocates, limitations, LRT, LRT advocates, Metro Vancouver, misinformation, misleading, plan, rail transit, rapid rail transit, Rapid Transit, RRT, SkyTrain, train, transit, TransLink, Transportation

Misconceptions: SkyTrain technology is “proprietary”

30 May 2012 By Daryl Leave a Comment

A 4-car Bombardier Innovia ART 200 car from Kuala Lumpur. Such a config will soon exist in Vancouver, and it may use even newer ART 300 trains.

"SkyTrain technology", as it is so often described (although this is incorrect - SkyTrain describes the name of the rapid transit system managed by TransLink and not any technology associated), is not proprietary. While Bombardier's predecessors played a part in the development of the tracking, propulsion and automation technologies used by today's SkyTrain system, the Bombardier Innovia ART trains used by SkyTrain's Expo and Millennium Lines are not actually part of any proprietary technology. Provided power delivery type, train and platform height provisions in rolling stock are the same … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Important facts Tagged With: automation technologies, Bombardier, Bombardier Innovia ART, rapid transit system, SkyTrain, skytrain system, SkyTrain technology, Transportation, vancouver skytrain

104th Ave faces city’s largest congestion growth rate

29 May 2012 By Daryl 3 Comments

Congestion on the increasingly growing 104th Avenue corridor is already becoming a problem.

We were interested in seeing whether we could interpolate the City of Surrey's data collections to obtain information about the patterns of congestion growth that have been occurring within the city for the past few years. We took the values to the test and opened up an Excel spreadsheet and set forth our calculators. We took the values that were recorded in July 2010 and July 2011 (except where noted) at all the possible locations and came up with the following results after inputting and extrapolating the data: With what might be the highest congestion growth rate in the city of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Important facts, Problems that need Solutions, Surrey's Transportation Future Tagged With: 104 Ave, 104th Ave, BRT, bus rapid transit, cars, city of surrey, Community Impact, data collections, environment, Greater Vancouver, Guildford, Guildford Town Centre, light rail, Light Rail Transit, limitations, LRT, Rapid Transit, roadway capacity, RRT, SkyTrain, SkyTrain for Surrey, Surrey, Surrey Central, Surrey City Centre, surrey corridor, Surrey Rapid Transit Study, Surrey transportation, Surrey transportation future, Sustainability, transit, TransLink, Transportation, unacceptability, unsustainable, vision

Portland, OR: LRT is so cost-ineffective, unable to operate at promised frequencies

28 May 2012 By Daryl 1 Comment

This train on the MAX arrived 4 minutes early.

There were a number of interesting facts pointed out by The Cascade Policy's John A. Charles, whose research we have cited before (see references #39 and #79), about the Portland MAX in his latest article, called: Transit Hypocrisy. It is notable that he points out that that it has been said that there is a bias in recent American transit planning towards Light Rail, that may have been a result of why Light Rail lines have been appearing in the United States. Many people triumph that it is a result of being a "good technology choice for price" that so many LRT systems have in recent years … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Comparisons, Concerns, Examples for Surrey, Operating cost recovery, Posts that have to do with:, Reliability of service Tagged With: Bombardier Innovia ART, Canada, Canada Line, cars, cascade policy, city of surrey, Community Impact, competition, competitive transit, Economic development, light rail, Light Rail Transit, limitations, LRT, LRT fail, LRT failure, max light rail, Metro Vancouver, Metropolitan Area eXpress, misinformation, misleading, Oregon, plan, Portland, Portland MAX, Portland MAX Light Rail, portland trimet, rail transit, rapid rail transit, Rapid Transit, service intervals, Surrey transportation future, Sustainability, train, transit, TransLink, Transportation, TriMet

Langley Advance – TransLink: SkyTrain boosting profits

27 May 2012 By Daryl Leave a Comment

SkyTrain for Surrey spokesperson Daryl Dela Cruz has hit the press! In late March, Daryl wrote to the Langley Advance and The Province concerning a misleading letter in their papers having to do with SkyTrain as a "wrong choice". The Advance has recently published this letter. Interested readers will note that Daryl's data is proven in one of our original articles; please read: Canada Line made significant positive effect on system-wide operating cost recovery His letter: TransLink: SkyTrain boosting profits Dear Editor, Readers of the Langley Advance are being misled [TransLink … [Read more...]

Filed Under: News Tagged With: British Columbia, Canada Line, capital mistake, Community Impact, competitive transit, Greater Vancouver, langley advance, letter, letter to the editor, light rail, light rail advocates, limitations, LRT, max light rail, Metro Vancouver, misinformation, misleading, plan, rail transit, rapid rail transit, Rapid Transit, RRT, SkyTrain, SkyTrain for Surrey, SkyTrain letter, Surrey, Surrey transportation future, Sustainability, train, transit, TransLink, Transportation

Coquitlam releases SkyTrain community integration concepts

22 May 2012 By Daryl Leave a Comment

City of Coquitlam Concept - http://www.coquitlam.ca/Libraries/Council_Agenda_Documents/CouncilInCommittee_2012-05-14_03.sflb.ashx

An atmosphere of doubt has surrounded the viability of SkyTrain in Surrey under a false perception that at-grade Light Rail Transit (LRT) will help shape and build communities - whilst SkyTrain expansion will not, supported by quotes from advocates, city officials and other LRT supporters. Even Dianne Watts had more than a few statements in support of this doubt, such as: "I don't want to have SkyTrain cutting our communities in half — that is going to destroy our city" - Mayor Watts, 2011 State of the City speech and: "It's not just about moving people as far as you can from A to B; … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Important facts, News Tagged With: BC, Bombardier Innovia ART, British Columbia, Canada, cars, city of coquitlam, Community Impact, competition, connected, Coquitlam, Dianne Watts, Economic development, Economics, Evergreen Line, Greater Vancouver, Metro Vancouver, rail transit, rapid rail transit, Rapid Transit, RRT, SkyTrain, station areas, Sustainability, transit, Transportation, vision

Canada Line cut-and-cover tunnelling saved $400 million

11 May 2012 By Daryl 2 Comments

There has always been a continuous level of controversy surrounding the (perhaps sudden) decision to construct more of the Canada Line's underground sections in a cut-and-cover tunnel as opposed to with a bored tunnel, at the short-term expense of travellers and business along the Cambie Street corridor in Vancouver. Opposition to the corrupted scheduling and tactics of the Canada Line's cut-and-cover tunneling process has always been an apparent issue - so apparent that businesses along the Evergreen Line corridor, despite that the tunneled portion of the Evergreen Line would be bored and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Important facts Tagged With: BC, British Columbia, Canada Line, Canada Line/RAV Line, cost savings, cut and cover, cut and cover tunnel, Greater Vancouver, GVRD, light rail, Light Rail Transit, Metro Vancouver, misinformation, rail transit, rapid rail transit, Rapid Transit, RAV Line, Richmond, RRT, SkyTrain, Sustainability, train, transit, TransLink, Transportation, Vancouver

Richmond citizens wanted grade-separated SkyTrain

3 May 2012 By Daryl Leave a Comment

Canada Line train at Vancouver City Centre Station - CC-BY Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Canada_Line_train_at_Vancouver_City_Centre_Station.jpg

We'd like to comment on a statement launched by Stephen Rees in a blog article he released last year. Richmond wanted what Surrey now wants. It had a rapid bus and quite reasonably thought that it could be turned into surface light rail. They were simply overruled. Local preferences count for nothing – nor do city visions in our system. Whether it agreed with the views of the City Council and Mayor of the time, it became clear that the preference of the city's actual residents and citizens was for an elevated, grade-separated rapid transit line (i.e. SkyTrain) over at-grade Light Rail … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Important facts, SkyTrain and the Community Tagged With: British Columbia, Canada, Canada Line, Canada Line/RAV Line, Community Impact, competition, competitive transit, connected, grade-separated, Greater Vancouver, light rail, light rail advocates, Light Rail Transit, light rail transit advocates, limitations, LRT, Metro Vancouver, plan, rail transit, rapid rail transit, Rapid Transit, RAV Line, Richmond, RRT, SkyTrain, Sustainability, train, transit, TransLink, Transportation, vision, want SkyTrain