“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

The title quote by Joseph Goebbels, famed Nazi propagandist, aptly describes the SkyTrain lobby’s and BC Transit/TransLink’s thirty year long propaganda campaign to sell SkyTrain and discredit modern light rail. The many pro-SkyTrain blog sites that offer little in fact, but much in unfounded rhetoric. All the bumf spewed hides one singular fact; that SkyTrain has been rejected by transit planners around the world.

Why is it important for Rail for the Valley to expose the SkyTrain myth for what it is? Simple, it’s all about money. SkyTrain consumes up to ten times or more the money to build, per route kilometre than light rail; put another way, the taxpayer may get up to one tenth, or less, of ‘rail‘ transit by building with SkyTrain instead of LRT! For any chance of a Valley interurban service, Rail for the Valley must put a ‘wooden stake’ through the heart of SkyTrain and give no quarter to its adherents. It’s ugly business, but for the future of the region, it must be done.

Zweisystem will make two predictions:

1) If the province forces TransLink to build a SkyTrain subway to UBC, there will be NO interurban for the valley.

2) If a SkyTrain subway is built, the municipalities without SkyTrain will secede from TransLink and form their own transit authority or rejoin with BC Transit. (If that happens, watch for $1000.00 to $1,500.00 property tax hikes for the remaining, SkyTrain and metro served cities, including Richmond, Vancouver, Burnaby, Tri-Cities, New Westminster and North Surrey).

The Rail for the Valley blog follows the course of modern public transit development as reported in the transit press and reports truthfully. And one must remember, SkyTrain is sponsored by the state through the Premier’s office and TransLink and unfortunately those who support light rail and not SkyTrain are seen as enemies of the state!

The choice for future transit in the region should be this:

SkyTrain metro, with costs starting at $125 million/km.

or

Light rail with costs as low as $6 million/km (tramtrain)

or as low as $15 million/km. (streetcar)

or as low as $25 million/km. (LRT)

Let the public decide!

Tags: cost per km, economic stimulus, Evergreen Line, infrastructure, Karlsruhe, light metro, light rail, LRT, LRTA, Patrick Condon, Rail for the Valley, skytrain, streetcars, study, Translink, UBC, UBC SkyTrain, Vancouver