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Despite what Ford says The Streetcar in Toronto is here to stay.

Rob Ford does not seem to understand public transit at all. Other cities in North America are either planning or actually building new streetcar lines. That is streetcars in mixed traffic, in addition to light rail rapid transit in their own right-of-ways.

Here's a video on Washington's D.C. streetcar lines currently under construction:

[video=youtube;YBhFeJm3dVo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBhFeJm3dVo[/video]
 
The Portland streetcar design is bizarre. Two bogies at the end of an articulated streetcar? It looks like it shouldn't even be able to turn. It leans over in curves (not into the curve but outwards). It has got to be one of the most silly designs ever.
 
Other cities in NA may be building streetcar systems, but I don't think that any one of those lines will carry even 10,000 people a day, let alone 40,000+ like our streetcar lines. Included on the list of cities building light rail systems is Madison Wisconsin, Boise Idaho, Albany New York, and many more cities of this magnitude. There is no logic in converting a streetcar line into a bus line, but let's be honest - Toronto is demanding far more out of its downtown streetcar network than is reasonable to expect.
 
That becomes clear when you look at the reduction of service levels downtown coupled with the increase in population over the last 20 years.
 
There is no logic in converting a streetcar line into a bus line, but let's be honest - Toronto is demanding far more out of its downtown streetcar network than is reasonable to expect.

Not just its streetcar network. There are very few mixed-traffic bus routes in North America that reach the 40,000 person per day count.

Toronto as a whole could use several hundred km of high capacity local service (frequent stop, large trains) in addition to a hundred km of mixed service (service for the city, large trains -- suburban subway like Sheppard), and a much higher capacity on inter-regional (Hamilton to Oshawa type stuff -- stops every few km, frequent service (10 minutes or lower headways)).

The GGH could easily absorb and give a good return on a couple hundred billion in public transit infrastructure (local, cross city, and inter-regional).
 
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"Here's a video on Washington's D.C. streetcar lines currently under construction:"

I had no idea construction was so far along in DC. I look forward to checking them out when next there.

However there will be a horrendous number of collisions between these trams and cars, especially if they run in mixed traffic as the video seems to show. Driving skills in DC (by locals and tourists) are so bad the roundabouts have anywhere from 4 to 10 signalized intersections within them.
 
Driving skills in DC (by locals and tourists) are so bad the roundabouts have anywhere from 4 to 10 signalized intersections within them.

Don't forget the giant underpasses that let you bypass the roundabouts alltogether!
 
I trust the number crunchers here can start updating the cost comparisons between new BRT and LRT. Projections for this BRT: "Estimates of the numbers of users who will ride the service daily range from 40,000 to 70,000."

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news...es+cost+305M/3545407/story.html#ixzz10sNbja4k

MONTREAL - The total price tag for the proposed 15-kilometre stretch of reserved bus lanes on Pie IX Blvd. running from Laval to southern Montreal will be $305 million, the provincial agency overseeing its design said this weekend.
 
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The Portland streetcar design is bizarre. Two bogies at the end of an articulated streetcar? It looks like it shouldn't even be able to turn. It leans over in curves (not into the curve but outwards). It has got to be one of the most silly designs ever.

It is a very popular design, and expect this streetcar to be the standard model for US streetcar system. Skoda, and the Inekon Group designed the vehicle in 1998 for the European market, and an "exclusive technology transfer agreedment" was signed with United Streetcar(Oregon Iron works) to build the model in the US.
 
Rob Ford should do what Los Angeles is doing, building new streetcar lines. WHAT?! Los Angeles building streetcar lines?

Check out this video and article from la.streetsblog.org:

[video=youtube;h5C65fZLwg8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5C65fZLwg8[/video]

Three Visionary Real Estate Developers and the Downtown LA Streetcar

by Gloria Ohland on October 4, 2010

The demand for federal transit funding is so great in the U.S. that getting a project through the funding queue is a decades-long process. To give you an idea: 37 states have proposed 400 projects worth $250 billion, according to a recent report by the national nonprofit Reconnecting America, and at the current rate of federal investment building these projects would take 77 years.

The $100 million downtown LA streetcar is a newcomer to this game, and has to get in line and wait its turn – unless it attracts significant private investment, which can boot it to the front of the line and open up all kinds of funding streams. That makes last week’s fundraiser at LA Live a significant milestone.

The event at the Target Terrace was hosted by LA City Councilmember Jose Huizar, with Eli Broad, Rick Caruso and AEG CEO Tim Leiwecke, and attended by LA City Councilmember Jan Perry as well as a host of major property owners and reps from the downtown business improvement districts. Governor Schwarzenegger sent someone, as did Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard, a longtime downtown streetcar champion. Enough money was raised to keep the nonprofit LA Steetcar Inc. in the business of moving the streetcar project forward during these lean years.

Modern streetcars in other cities have won significant private investment. Property owners along Seattle’s new South Lake Union Trolley (yes, she’s a SLUT) line paid for half the $52 million pricetag, massive development has continued along that line despite the recession, and the city has already planned more lines. Property owners in Portland, where the streetcar attracted $3.5 billion in private investment along the line, also raised significant funding – and almost 40 percent of the cost of the first segment came from increased parking fees – and have even traveled to other cities to preach the streetcar gospel.

Michael Powell, proprietor of the Powell’s Books in Portland, calculated the property owner benefits this way at a national streetcar workshop in LA two years ago: The number of pedestrians in the crosswalk in front of his store numbered three an hour before the line opened in 2001, he said. But when he counted again in 2008 there were 938 pedestrians. Meantime, 400 new businesses had opened along the streetcar line, 90 percent of which were locally owned – the vast majority owned by women and ethnic minorities. And in the meantime, he said, his property values had increased more than tenfold.

That kind of information snapped downtown property owners to attention, and they were all in attendance at LA Live, including Steve Needleman, owner of the Anjac Fashion empire and Orpheum Theater, and Michael Dilijani, owner of the LA Theatre – both of whom are LA Streetcar Inc. board members – as well as Andrew Meieren, designer and owner of the Edison Bar and new owner of the historic Clifton’s Cafeteria. The streetcar would run past their properties on Broadway, connecting LA Live to Broad’s new art museum atop Bunker Hill.

Consider the impact of a streetcar in combination with the downtown Regional Connector, due to open in 2019: Downtown LA could become a real downtown again. “Where does growth and major activity happen in cities? Around transit because there is no room for cars,†noted LA Metro’s Diego Cardoso, one of many enthusiastic transit builders in attendance at the LA Live event. LA Metro’s Robin Blair says once funding for the streetcar is secured building the line would take only two years.

Streetcar stakeholders do the calculus this way: They hope downtown property owners will agree to pony up half the cost of the streetcar and note that another $10 million has been committed by the CRA. And they believe they can get the remainder from the feds and other state and local sources. The streetcar is in LA Metro’s $40 billion long-range plan, which makes $25 million seem like chump change.

The streetcar is currently undergoing environmental analysis, and LA Metro’s Blair said much of the new route could be overlaid on old streetcar lines. It’s important to keep repeating – for those who insist that LA was built up around the car – that LA was actually built up around what was the largest electric trolley system in the U.S., with 6,000 trains running on 144 routes into four counties. It should also be pointed out that in those days, transportation averaged about 3 percent of the household budget, compared to an average of 19 percent today.

The Obama Administration looks much more favorably upon streetcars – they’re urban and urban areas tend to be Democratic – than the Bush Administration. Since Obama took office the US Department of Transportation has invested $258 million in streetcar projects in Portland, Tucson, Dallas, Cincinnati, Charlotte, St. Louis and Fort Worth.

Will the LA streetcars return? “The hosts came together because they know a good investment when they see it,†said Jessica Wethington McLean, executive director of Huizar’s Bringing Back Broadway Initiative. “They know a great downtown will make the city *– and the region – stronger.†Added LA Streetcar Inc.’s Dennis Allen, “Look at it this way: Three of the most visionary minds in the real estate business are hosting this fundraiser, and it’s attended by important downtown property owners, business owners and real estate developers. Clearly the streetcar is going to be built.The only question is, ‘How soon?’â€

Why does Rob Ford want to do the opposite from what history has told us?
 
So is Toronto.

Oh you're referring to what, the subway to middle of nowhere Vaughan? Now that's something to be proud of. Yet we have LRT obstructionists clamouring to get Transit City built before something that's actually important, namely the DRL.
 
Oh you're referring to what, the subway to middle of nowhere Vaughan? Now that's something to be proud of.
It is. Most of the line, and most of the stations are in Toronto. Anyone who drives in the area around the Allen, Finch, Sheppard, Steeles, York University anywhere close to rush-hour is well aware how useful that line will be. That the Province of Ontario and Region of York decided to extend the line 2 stations further than makes sense is unfortunate, but should have little impact on TTC; and at least will cut-down on the amount of traffic bottlenecking trying to cross 407.

It's great to see so much subway construction being started under Miller; one of the greatest achievements of one of our greatest mayors!
 

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