407 Rail Freight Bypass/The Missing Link

[TOareaFan]

This helpful procurement chart posted here in a different UT thread> There is a brief bypass reference:

So they are spending over $1,000 on this

p.s. I know it is over $1,000,000 but it is a personal pet peeve of mine that people have just taken to recreate long standing and accepted numerical short forms....if you are using capital letters you are using Roman numerals and the short form for $1 million is $1MM...if you are using lower case letters you are using the french/metric short forms and it is $1m.

I know that people just choose to ignore that these days....but it still bothers me.

 

[kEiThZ]

if you are using capital letters you are using Roman numerals and the short form for $1 million is $1MM...if you are using lower case letters you are using the french/metric short forms and it is $1m.

It's the Americanization of our language. Like so many other things. The yanks use a single 'M' for million. The rest of the world uses 'MM'.

 

[TOareaFan]

It's the Americanization of our language. Like so many other things. The yanks use a single 'M' for million. The rest of the world uses 'MM'.

But, as you can see from what raised this discussion, we are too readily adopting it here. I work in an industry that often (too often) has to write about "millions" and as part of my parting gift as I mentor my younger replacements I am constantly nagging and teaching them that $1M is not a lot of money....but $1MM is a bit more!.....you are welcome civilized world, you can thank me later!

 

[44 North]

....if you are using capital letters you are using Roman numerals and the short form for $1 million is $1MM...if you are using lower case letters you are using the french/metric short forms and it is $1m.

If MM is roman numerals, wouldn't that equal 2,000? Thought it customary in numerals that when writing a number multiplied by a thousand it would be a single letter with a line overtop.

And what about the shortform $___Mn, or $___Bn. Can see that working as an optimal shorthand for million or billion in a headline or byline, just cuz when you sound it out it sounds like the word.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

They need to get moving on this. If they aren't going to pay CN for that stretch of track then this needs to get going.

 

[TOareaFan]

If MM is roman numerals, wouldn't that equal 2,000? Thought it customary in numerals that when writing a number multiplied by a thousand it would be a single letter with a line overtop.

That seems to be what the text books say.....but in the financial world (the one I have grown up in for, well, decades, the taught shortform for 1 million is/was $1MM.......perhaps an adaptation because all typewriters may not have had that bar function (I am guessing here).

And what about the shortform $___Mn, or $___Bn. Can see that working as an optimal shorthand for million or billion in a headline or byline, just cuz when you sound it out it sounds like the word.

Those are, I guess, modern short forms and they may gain acceptance. My point was that M is not an accepted short form for million....and it is disturbing (to me) that one of our government agencies seems to think it is.

 

[TOareaFan]

They need to get moving on this. If they aren't going to pay CN for that stretch of track then this needs to get going.

no one is paying CN anything (editorial opinion by me) for that stretch of track.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

no one is paying CN anything (editorial opinion by me) for that stretch of track.

I mean to add to the two tracks. I want to know how something that was 400 million in 2013 is now so expensive that they have to build a new tunnel and delay service until the early 2020s.

 

[Allandale25]

^ Where are you getting the "400 million in 2013" figure from?

 

[aquateam]

So they are spending over $1,000 on this

p.s. I know it is over $1,000,000 but it is a personal pet peeve of mine that people have just taken to recreate long standing and accepted numerical short forms....if you are using capital letters you are using Roman numerals and the short form for $1 million is $1MM...if you are using lower case letters you are using the french/metric short forms and it is $1m.

I know that people just choose to ignore that these days....but it still bothers me.

The metric shortform (lower case m) means one thousandth. Like how a milligram is mg and millimetre is mm.

It's the Americanization of our language. Like so many other things. The yanks use a single 'M' for million. The rest of the world uses 'MM'.

I've never in my life heard MM for million. I looked it up, it seems more like MM vs. M is a legacy accounting thing vs. everyone else thing than a US vs. world thing.

That seems to be what the text books say.....but in the financial world (the one I have grown up in for, well, decades, the taught shortform for 1 million is/was $1MM.......perhaps an adaptation because all typewriters may not have had that bar function (I am guessing here).

That sounds like a typewriter limitation. Like how my old fashioned professors would bold letters to indicate vectors quantities because it wasn't possible to put an overbar.

As @44North points out, MM means 2000 in roman numerals. Million in roman numerals is M with an overbar. So MM is completely meaningless as a representation of a million.

Those are, I guess, modern short forms and they may gain acceptance. My point was that M is not an accepted short form for million....and it is disturbing (to me) that one of our government agencies seems to think it is.

M is the metric system prefix for million. You use it all the time (e.g. Mb = megabyte = million bytes). So I find it strange that you find it so offensive. Maybe generational differences.

Hopefully the convention of "MM" dies out soon.

 

[TOareaFan]

^thanks for all of that......it was drummed into me about MM being a million at the start of my career in financial services......it will take the retiring/dying off of people of my generation for it to die out.......my apologies to everyone for the tangent but, I guess, perhaps the use is fairly unique in our industry.

 

[Allandale25]

Just noticed in the Woodbine Station report a reference to the Bypass.

C.3 Additional Freight Tracks
As part of ongoing negotiations with CN regarding a freight bypass on the Kitchener corridor, there may be additional freight tracks required in the vicinity of Highway 27-Woodbine station to mitigate the potential delays associated with the proposed station on freight rail services through the station area.

Potential Benefits:
• Reduced conflict with freight services may allow more flexibility in passenger service levels and routing

Potential Challenges:
• Increased cost and rail corridor width due to additional tracks, including impacts to existing rail-over-road bridges and signal bridges.

 

[Allandale25]

RIP, freight bypass (or at least for the foreseeable future)

https://news.ontario.ca/mto/en/2018...e-go-train-service-on-the-kitchener-line.html

"Thanks to an enhanced relationship with our rail partner, CN, we are increasing GO train service for people travelling on the Kitchener line without waiting for a costly rail bypass," said Minister Yurek.

[bold added]

Interesting discussion here about it while it lasted.

 

[SaugeenJunction]

Yurek said today at the Kitchener GO press conference that the Freight Bypass isn't happening. Link to snippet here.

 

[crs1026]

I'm imagining the top CN brass presenting to the next CN Board Meeting

C-Suite guy: "We've convinced the Ontario Government that they don't need a bypass to achieve 2WAD to Kitchener"
Board Member: "Really? What did that get us?"
C-Suite guy: (you fill in the rest.....)

There has to be something given. We don't just know what yet. CN may have hated Wynne/ML, but they aren't that connected to Ford or the PC party to promise GO more access to their lines just because of that. And Yurek is getting too good at saying the phrase "Two Way All Day" to be backing away from it altogether.

- Paul