South Fraser Community RAIL

An environmentally friendly hydrogen powered passenger train connecting the Pattullo Bridge in Surrey to Chilliwack

Alstom Purchase Of Bombardier Rail, and how the COVID-19 virus could scuttle Translink Plans

This is the latest edition of our bi-monthly South Fraser Community Rail Newsletter. Please subscribe to stay in the loop of the latest updates!  The recently announced purchase of Bombardier by the Alstom Group plus COVID-19 is a game-changer for TransLink’s SkyTrain plans that are yet to receive senior government final approval for the Fraser Highway proposal …

UPDATE: Letters exchanged between Former Premier and Mayor of Abbotsford on Interurban

Last month we published a letter that Former BC Premier Bill Vander Zalm sent to Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun setting the record straight on the public interurban rail rights, the 99 km rail line that connects Surrey to Chilliwack. It was under Bill Vander Zalm’s direction that the public rights to this line were preserved …

Community Rail Response to TransLink Report on Reviving Interurban Line

Patrick Condon is the James Taylor chair in Landscape and Livable Environments at the University of British Columbia’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and the founding chair of the UBC Urban Design program. TransLink has released a report dated June 6 to the Joint Regional Transportation Planning Committee later shared with the Mayors Council …

Former Langley Mayor: Wider Highway 1 Wont Fix Traffic Problem

In response to The Progress article titled “Highway 1 widening in Chilliwack”: It is a popular political notion that Highway 1 widening is overdue, and that it will go a long way to solving our traffic problem. The first part of that is true. I’ve had to deal with this issue myself 8 years ago …

The world’s first hydrogen-powered passenger train became fully operational in Germany this past November.

The trains, named Coradia iLint and manufactured by Alstom, can cover up to 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) with one tank of hydrogen, and can reach a maximum speed of up to 140 kilometres per hour. Though the trains are pricier upfront compared to old diesel engines, hydrogen fuel cells have many advantages over batteries.