The ongoing SkyTrain versus light rail debate continues in the Lower Mainland, which is curious because elsewhere modern LRT made SkyTrain obsolete over two decades ago.
Has anyone at TransLink or the SkyTrain Lobby noticed that no one builds with SkyTrain anymore?
Over 33 years being on the market, only seven have been built. Compare this with over 150 new light rail lines being built during the same period.
It's not SkyTrain, rather its the family of driverless light-metros that have been made obsolete by LRT simply because you can operate LRT as lightmetro, on a grade separated guideway like Seattle, yet retain the ability to operate as light-rail or a streetcar on the same route if need be. This inherent flexibility of modern light rail made the much more expensive SkyTrain fit for only small people mover type systems.
SkyTrain is driverless and being so costs more to operate than LRT because instead of drivers, SkyTrain has attendants, over 250 of them at last count and with more technical employees needed for smooth operation, makes SkyTrain more expensive to operate than modern LRT. Combined with SkyTrain's huge construction costs, makes SkyTrain a very bad bargain for those who have bought into the proprietary mini-metro.
The Yongin SkyTrain, the Everline, completed in 2009, has remained idle due to large projected operating costs and embarrassed city officials have only just signed a contract with Bombardier Inc. (the owners of the SkyTrain system) in June of this year, to operate the mini-metro for three years.
The city will assume all operating deficits!
Closer to home, the Canada Line metro, a conventional metro (the only metro in the world designed to have less capacity than a streetcar) was cheaper to build than the proprietary SkyTrain!
The SkyTrain minimetro system has become a pariah of transit systems, yet TransLink, which is sinking fast in a quicksand of debt, still plans for more of the obsolete mini-metro. Can't any civic or provincial politicians draw a straight line from SkyTrain to TransLink's financial chaos? Evidently not!
Today, modern light rail has proven to carry more people, with faster, at a far cheaper cost than SkyTrain.
Who buys with or even plans for SkyTrain today?
It seems it is only the rubes in Victoria, Metro Vancouver and TransLink do.
