Frankly Speaking

All 12 cars and one locomotive of an Amtrak train travelling from Seattle to Portland derailed Monday morning north of Olympia, with the locomotive and several cars crashing onto the southbound lanes of Interstate 5 and damaging at least five vehicles. Three people were killed and many were injured. The train was the first regularly-scheduled Amtrak train to use the rail line, which has been rehabilitated at a cost of $181 million in the past few years for use by both Amtrak and Sound Transit commuter trains. The crash comes just four days after a study on high-speed rail between Vancouver, B.C.and Portland was released to the Washington State legislature. Photo from startribune.com High-speed rail between Vancouver and Portland got a boost last week – and then suffered a very serious blow on Monday morning, when an Amtrak train derailed south of Tacoma. A study commissioned by the State of Washington was released on Thursday to the state legislature's joint transpo...

The most important news in the federal budget for residents of Surrey, Delta and White Rock was very good – the federal government will pay 50 per cent of the cost of public transit projects. The South Fraser region is badly served by transit, and the transit deficit keeps growing because of development and population growth. Two big projects designed to help reduce the deficit somewhat are LRT lines. One is scheduled to run from Newton along King George Boulevard to 104 Avenue, and then east to Guildford. The other is supposed to run along Fraser Highway, from King George Station to Langley City. The cost of the two is estimated at $2 billion. The budget itself did not provide funds for these projects. However, the shift in the funding formula makes it far more likely that they will actually be built. Prior infrastructure projects have been funded on an equal one-third/one-third/one-third basis, with each level of government paying the same amount. However, local go...