Recent content by lrt's friend

The Ottawa issues are not as bad as indicated. Although the buildings mentioned do cover some of the old rail yards at Union Station, there is no need for more than 2 tracks that can be placed under Colonel By Drive. There won't be many NIMBYs either as the ROW goes near the University of...

A university professor was interviewed this morning indicating that the boggies on the Citadis Spirit are not designed to handle heavy passenger loads. I would not count on Toronto avoiding this issue if the trains are busy on a regular basis. There are only 16 of 60+ Citadis Spirit trains...

A university professor was interviewed this morning indicating that the boggies on the Citadis Spirit are not designed to handle heavy passenger loads. I would not count on Toronto avoiding this issue if the trains are busy on a regular basis. There are only 16 or 60+ Citadis Spirit trains...

Low floor trains are more accessible as long as stations are on curbs. You do not need retractable ramps if the stations are designed properly. Who builds new LRT today requiring riders to step up from the street? This is not 1920 anymore. High floor trains require more extensive stations...

We will let the planners chose the best station locations. They need to hear the public though who will express their opinions. I have expressed my opinion. I will say one thing as an Ottawa resident. Some local residents are poo-poo-ing Fallowfield as an Alto station location. It has been a...

I went to the Ottawa Alto consultation. First, the current plan has Alto going into Montreal via Laval and a new Mount Royal tunnel. There will be no stop in Dorval although I expressed a desire for that. This is more important for Ottawa residents who would like easier access to YUL for...

Toronto would have been better off to put BRT in the LRT corridor. It would be a whole lot faster without all the automated and non-automated constraints imposed on trains. Heaven forbid if a bus driver went a little over the speed limit. to maintain schedule and no 25 kph speed limit at...

There are public meetings in Ottawa on January 21 and 22. I hope to go. An Ottawa bypass is plain stupid if it means a 30 minute or longer ride into downtown on local transit. Possibly in the very long term, a bypass might exist for a minority of Express trains but this becomes less likely if...

In this case, reliability and speed are part of the same problem. If you want more reliability, pad the schedule and make the line even slower. LRT must run faster than buses that were replaced or the concept of surface LRT can never be built again in Toronto. Toronto and TTC officials must...

I have seen what happens when you allow punks, addicts and drunks free reign on trains when I last visited LA in 2024. It is viewed by the public as a serious safety issue negatively affecting ridership. While LA has spent piles of money on new rail lines, ridership gains have been hampered by...

Line 1 was supposed to have 250K riders per day from day one. If we can convince the public service to go back to the office, numbers will start approaching that, but Ottawa has also wrecked the overall transit network since 2019 so rebuilding public confidence will be challenging. The Ontario...

What is happening in Ottawa and Montreal is completely different. Those are designed to be rapid transit, not local transit. They are totally segregated rights of way. What is happening on Finch is more a streetcar, but LRT does not necessarily mean 'rapid'. Nevertheless, I am sure the line...

There is no reason why rail in a separate right of way should be slower than a bus in mixed traffic on the very same corridor. There are problems that need to be resolved above and beyond stop spacing. We also have to understand that the Finch West LRT is designed to be a local transit...

There is a big difference in ride quality between Line 1 and 2 in Ottawa. The Flirt trains on Line 2 are very smooth, but ......... , they are so slow, because they are constantly negotiating passing tracks that are not ideally located. Operations are very slow on the original part of Line 2...

It remains pitifully slow especially at the curves near Hurdman Station. As I have said, they run at bicycle speed on both sides of Hurdman. I have watched this awful performance multiple times in the last few weeks. Another source of delay and a long held complaint in Ottawa, is station...