Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Rail for the Valley gets completely ignored by Gordon Campbell and Translink!


I was given a heads up that the group (Rail for the Valley) was going to be presenting a transit plan that would put Translink`s plan for future infrastructure on its ear!

And last night on both Global news and CTV they ran with the story.......

And today in the Canwest rags there was nothing, the story was ordered squashed by Gordon Campbell, and I know why!

Rail for the valley paid for a very extensive professional study of the GVRD`s transit options(Done by Leewood projects out of the UK)....

As you know the Evergreen line which Gordon Campbell promised would be built a dozen times, has never received appropiate funding, the cost for a short few kilometer Evergreen line is a staggering $1.6 billion dollars, Translink needs $800 million dollars for their share of the project, at present they have ZERO dollars, Gordon Campbell and Shirley Glug Glug Bond will be forcing metro Vancouver mayors to raise property taxes on all residents to pay for the short Evergreen line.....I suspect it will be a major fight with Gordon Campbell giving the mayors an ultimatum, either soak your citizens for money or the Evergreen line will be cancelled.....

And from what I have figured out a long time ago that the Provincial and Federal contribution to the Evergreen line has long since vanished, what we have is an elaborate wag the dog Gordon Campbell scam going on here....But putting that aside for a moment, the study commissioned by Rail for the Valley was a stunning, first class, practical, affordable transit plan.....

For the price of about $500 million dollars, 1/3 of the price of the Nevergreen line, light rail could be installed using the existing inter-urban line, and be up in running in half the time of the few kilometer Nevergreen line, and get this.....

The BRILLIANT, forward thinking plan put forward by Rail for the Valley, for the $500 million dollar price tag we would get a fast efficient transit system that would stretch all the way to Chilliwack!.........

Can you imagine, a transit plan that would be fast, cheap, efficient, affordable, built in half the time, all the way to Chilliwack!

But today nary a word in Canwest/CKNW...Nothing, Zip, Nada!

I admire the hard dedicated work from Malcolm J, John Vissers, John Buker and Stephen Rees on the transportation file, they are held in high regard by this persuader......

But....Let`s get down to the nuts and bolts of the Gordon Campbell crime family ruining our Province.....

As long as the BC Liberals are running this Province the light rail plan out to Chilliwack will never happen!....There are several reasons for this, number 1)

Skytrain has always been about BC Liberal insider land development, and about wealth transfer, taxpayers money transferred to Gordon Campbell`s friends, Stephen Harper`s friends too...And also it`s about propping up Bombardier....Eastern Canada favoured, subsidized wealth transfer...

The next issue comes back to the Port Mann bridge, a $4billion dollar boondoggle designed to steal money from the working stiffs in the Fraser valley.....

As it stands now, everyone and their dog, just like the Golden Ears bridge, will go out of their way to avoid tolls!

So cue the Port mann toll bridge, the Port Mann bridge scam will be stealing money from the public for 35 years, or more before the tolls come off, in actuality the tolls will never be removed because it will take a hundred years to pay off the bridge!....And there is no way in hell that the criminal known as Gordon Campbell will ever facilitate a fast transit option from the Fraser Valley when he has promised billions of dollars to his friends who built the bridge!

Can you imagine if there was a fast, cheap transit option for people in the valley to get to the big smoke, the Port Mann would look like the Golden Ears bridge, an EMPTY PARKING LOT 24/7.....

I expect that the Rail for the Valley study will vanish very quickly and be purged from all future transit talks with Translink and Gordon Campbell.......

I have added the Rail for the Valley link into my favorite blogs list, please folks, if you have the time give it a good read....

Having said that, I know the tenancity of Malcolm J, John Vissers, John Buker, and Stephen Rees and the other determined folks at Rail for the Valley and they will fight on!....They have full backing from me and the Straight Goods, and if there is anything they need from this site I will oblige.

Well done folks, toobad we have a demented criminal premier and a corrupt media, especially the pro-HST radio station CKNW...

The Straight Goods

Cheers-Eyes Wide Open

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

since were on the topic of the courts whats happened to Betty Krawczyk today and why is she in court and why isn't campbell in jail?

jaydee said...

Years ago Campbell's crime family stated they would never go the light rapid transit route, he always insisted it would be Skytrain only, no matter the huge cost and less efficiency of obsolete Skytrain. It's all about cost over-runs for his cronies and huge amounts of money to be made for Campbell and the mob. They would not be able to do it with only an honest 5 million dollar system.

In the last municipal election in Surrey I voted for a kid named Paul Hillsdon, only 18 years old at the time but a whiz on light rapid transit. I was very impressed. Unfortunately people don't want to vote for an 18 year old even if he is brilliant.

When Dianne Watts suddenly quit Translink, I believe last year, I knew something was up. She was the head of the Mayors council at Translink. When she quit she also made sure her selected replacement got the job....a secret deal between her and Translink. The other mayors were very angry at her doing that because they all should have had a chance at the job. I think the Evergreen Line may be one of the reasons she quit, she wouldn't want to fight a losing battle with the Campbell crime family.

With crime boss Campbell and Translink run by the crime boss it does not surprise me at all that the Light Rapid Transit will be buried forever, or at least for as long as we have a criminal running the show. That is if Campbell doesn't put us another few billions $$$$$ in the hole and do it his way, making sure Light Rapid Transit will never see the light of day....and south of the Fraser still having to pay huge tolls to travel to points north and to work. It all helps him to eliminate the middle class and pay his cronies for the huge cost of his 'bad deal' bridges.

It will be interesting to know what Dianne Watts will have to say about this. She should be raging mad and if she raises our taxes sky high to pay for Campbell's version she can be assured she may well not get in again, that is if the uncaring electorate does what they should do. We have already paid huge taxes and a lot of it goes to Translink so Dianne Watts will have to explain that too, or more likely.....just stay quiet about everything.

Anonymous said...

Scambell wants his construction cronies to win huge lucrative Skytrain contracts so they can dish out money to the LIEberals and line LIEberal pocket books.

Cheap and effective rail for the valley means no big construction contracts as the rail is already there. Follow the money!

jaydee said...

Anon 2:55

You can check out Betty Krawczyk's site, it is on the top right hand side of Grant's site here under his favorite blogs.

I have been there and also googled it and nothing comes up about today.

Kim may know what has transpired and Grant G. may well know too. The corrupt, absolute corrupt media will of course not cover it.

kootcoot said...

Betty K was interviewed on CBC radio this morning - the interviewer didn't seem too bright and tended to challenge Betty's sanity and then followed her with a lawyer who dismissed her appeal and defended the court's right to be an ASS!

It should be embarrassing to the Campbelloids, as if they could be embarrassed or shamed that the day after Gordo's absurd announcement that he was going to give break to international air carriers (or a break MAYBE to travelers from elsewhere and BC Residents anxious to get elsewhere to spend their money) it was announced that the Amtrak service from Seattle to Vancouver would be cut in half - one of two daily runs eliminated, for lack of willingness to provide customs officials for Americans bringing MILLIONS of dollars to Vancouver via the most efficient and GREENEST mass transportation existing to date.

Railroads aren't only our past but if we last long enough our future. The only thing Campbell knows about railroads is how to take advantage of rail service closures to make/scam money on what was railway land grants, originally given to induce the railway companies to provide service to communities. Oh yeah, and provide friends like Armstrong with the opportunity to make money selling luxury rail travel to rich tourists.

The only way that Gordo is green is due to his love of the US Dollar and the green bile that rises in my throat when I have to see or hear his sleazy self!

Anonymous said...

It would be interesting to be able to read all the terms & conditions written into the P3 contracts regarding the Port Mann & Golden Ears bridges.

In some parts of the United States these type of toll road contracts contain clauses which do not allow the municipality/county/state to build or improve roads/highways which might take away traffic from the tollers. In some cases other available routes which could be construed as being harmful to the income of the toll roads are deliberately impeded.

Have a look at this link.
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/08q1/turning_asphalt_into_salmon_runs-column

Perhaps this article could help to explain why the Light Rapid Transit competition to Chilliwack might never take place.

Anonymous said...

The lieberals will never go for it because they can't give their "friends" "Sweetheart" deals and "sweetheart contracts" that cost us billions. Look at all the cost overruns since they've have been in office. And, look at the lie after lie after lie. Shameful! Nothing but a bunch of lying, deceitful hypocrits, every one of them.

Light Rail is the only way to go and will move more people and cost a hell of a lot less that they're cement eyesores. They have light rail all over the world.

Grant G said...

@5:00 pm....The Macquarie group was involved with a toll bridge over Sydney harbour in Australia, the promised toll amounts were false, the tolls were far higher than promised.....

The Australians put their backs up and went out of their way to drive around despite time, gas etc...
Then what happened.....

Barricades were erected preventing drivers going anywhere except over the toll bridge...

The people freaked...

If I remember correctly, the Australian government had to step in and lower tolls and subsidize the bridge builders...

Either way, the bridge builder got their money through tax dollars...

But I suspect we will see the same thing here..

Thanks for that!

Malcolm Johnston said...

Grant, thanks for the promo, but I need to make some corrections. First, kudos for hard work must go to John Buker and John Vissers and Leewood Projects in the UK for their dedicated hard work on the Rail for the Valley Report.

Links for the RftV study.

http://railforthevalley.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/groundbreaking-report-on-interurban-light-rail-released-today/

For my part, I just did research and provided a target for the barbs thrown by a very dedicated SkyTrain Lobby. The way they can construe the truth would make even Joesph Goebbels blush!

Stephen Rees was not part of the study, but gave us a fair hearing on his blog.

We have had excellent media coverage by the Black press and the former CanWest regional papers in the Valley, the North Shore News and all three TV stations.

We were mentioned in the province and will be tomorrow in the Sun.

As of yet, no mention in the Globe and Mail.

We have not had good coverage on the local radio, including the talk shows.

TransLink's response was to announce a SFU 'Gondola' ride, which was a rehash of a proposal last year. It is not a serious proposal and has raised eyebrows across the Atlantic!

I received this quote from a transit expert in Europe regarding today's announcement by TransLink: "All I can say is, the mind-set of TransLink beggars belief, what other profligate schemes can this organization devise?"

The world is watching and the world is laughing at us!

Certainly the regional mayors are aware of the RftV/Leewood Project Study, as we have had over 600 downloads of the study!

Let me put his in perspective; for the cost of the Evergreen line we can build a "full build" Vancouver/Richmond to Rosedale TramTrain and have enough money left over for a Vancouver to Maple Ridge TramTrain.

For the cost of the $2.5 billion+ RAV/Canada Line we could have the RftV "full build" + Van to M.R. TramTrain, plus a Vancouver to Steveston/YVR LRT line connecting with the RftV TramTrain, with through service, plus a new Fraser River multi track lift bridge!

For the cost of the proposed $3 billion to $4 billion Broadway/UBC subway, we could have a "full build" RftV TramTrain; a BCIT to UBC/Stanley Park LRT; a Vancouver to Maple Ridge TramTrain; a new multi track Fraser River lift bridge; TramTrain to Whiterock and 20 km. of LRT in surrey; 10 km. of LRT in Langley, a a LRT line to YXX!

Vancouver and Gordon Campbell desperately want one more metro line to Vancouver for posterity (rumour had it that the Broadway Subway is to be called the "Legacy Line"), but the Fraser Valley taxpayer is now waking up to the fact that they are subsidizing Vancouver's transit frills.

Let us hope that the Valley politicos demand affordable transit from bond and Campbell, if not, it would be better for the South Fraser municipalities to secede from TransLink and the GVRD!

Grant G said...

Thanks for that Malcolm...I admire your dedication, you are wise, I meant no disrespect by not mentioning the big players at Rail for the Valley....
As for Stephen Rees...I disagree with him on much(as you know)...But he has been a staunch supporter of light rail so I gave him the plug......
I`m bad with names but not with facts and ....

You know where I stand on many issues, we had many good debates on Rees`s site(arguments)...

Oh, by the way, I haven`t heard you on CKNW for a while...Did they ban you too?

Grant G said...

@Malcolm J....I have added the additional credits to this post, Vissers and Buker as well as Leewood Projects...

And if you fine folk need anything let me know.

Cheers-Eyes Wide Open

jaydee said...

More accurately Dianne Watts bolted from Translink because she is not prepared to do battle with Campbell regarding the complete lack of a transit system that works in the south part of Surrey. You still cannot get to work on time from the south and Watts has not done a thing about it. She does not act because she is only interested in her own political gain, like them all.

Instead of crime boss Campbell and the worst tranportation minister in the history of B.C., the dishonorable Kevin Falcon building that useless 10 lane Port Mann all that is needed down here is light rapid transit not tear down the Port Mann bridge we already have which has at least 50 good years left in it.

More Billions of $$$$ they have wasted of ours and given to their corporate pig friends.

No transportation and the mob makes .05 'legally' drunk and forces more small businesses to close. Impounding of cars for a month or three or more will also make people lose their jobs. More funds for him and his organized crime cronies and ever nearer to his Bilderberg Mafia Union's control of Canada.

Just as (Campbell's and Harper's) mafia union planned. Rockerfeller's invite to Campbell to their secret meeting this year addressed to PRIME MINISTER GORDON CAMPBELL.

Leah said...

When it comes to P3's and contract details - the public is not going to be privy to them until 50 years after the date of contract signature.

I wish I could remember the site on which I read that - it was a solid one - I damn near had a heart attack when I read it!

Evil Eye said...

I see that Rail for the Valley sees Gordo for what he is:

http://railforthevalley.wordpress.com/2010/09/25/mr-campbell-responds-to-the-rail-for-the-valleyleewood-report-with-deciet/