Does Toronto look to North America or elsewhere for inspiration for transit/infrastructure?

[W. K. Lis]

Baltimore Metro Subway to Partially Close for Weeks

See link. A three week closure is worse than the TTC's weekend closures.

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — It could be a rough ride on the rails for a few weeks. A major shutdown is planned on the Baltimore Metro Subway system, as aging infrastructure requires replacement.

Transit officials say they planned the shutdown for their slowest time of the year, but admit there will still be headaches for some commuters.

Tens of thousands of people get on board each day, but a major shutdown is planned for Baltimore’s Metro Subway.

“I guess there’s nothing I can do about it, but it definitely hinders me getting to where I need to get to,” said rider Kiara Lindsey.

From July 22 to August 14, track work will shut down service between Mondawmin Mall and Milford Mill.

“I have to catch the 91 or the 51, and if this is cutting off, then that would be a problem for me,” said rider said.

“These three weeks are going to be tough, we realize that,” said Suhair Al Khatib, Maryland Transit Administration.

Transit officials say some tracks on the more than 30-year-old system must be replaced to avoid an emergency.

“The dangers are derailment, a train could derail,” Al Khatib said.

Trains have already been slowed in the area.

Transit officials spent two years planning the three week shutdown, which will have contractors working around the clock.

“The train system or roadways, they all — at some point — reach the end of their life,” Al Khatib said.

The aging infrastructure is not just a problem in Baltimore.

Track issues on the D.C. Metro system led to smoke filling a tunnel in January of 2015, killing one female rider and injuring dozens more.

A series of similar problems has caused a massive one-year rehabilitation project, which promises huge delays throughout the D.C. system.

“We want to avoid a situation where we have to be in an emergency situation,” Al Khatib said.

The MTA will provide a bus bridge to get passengers between stops during the closure.

It’s estimated about 45,000 people ride the Baltimore Metro Subway each day.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Testing of
Platform Screen doors at Åkeshov station Stockholm

 

[W. K. Lis]

Seattleites Own More Cars Than Atlantans, and Other Surprising Comparisons

See link.

Here’s an interesting glimpse at car ownership in a cross-section of American and Canadian cities, courtesy of a recent report from the Shared Use Mobility Center.

This table comes from SUMC’s analysis of car-share and bike-share [PDF]. We trimmed it to highlight the cars per household across the 27 cities — 25 in America and two in Canada — in SUMC’s report. The sample is meant to include different types and sizes of cities — it’s not a list of the biggest cities. And the data comes from core cities, not entire regions with the suburban belt included.

Among these 27 cities, household car ownership is lowest in New York, Washington, Boston, Philadelphia, Buffalo, San Francisco, and Toronto. Not many surprises there.

But the car ownership numbers do make for some unexpected city-to-city comparisons:

• The average household in Seattle, for instance, owns more cars than the average household in notoriously sprawling Atlanta.
• Car ownership is higher in bike-friendly Boulder than in unwalkable Las Vegas.
• In Portland, households typically own more cars than in Miami, and the rate isn’t much lower than in Houston.

You can’t read too much into this one table, but it does suggest that some cities haven’t overcome car dependence as much as their reputations may suggest.

SUMC notes in its report that car ownership rates are basically a function of the strength of the transit system — the better the transit, the fewer cars people own.
​

And from this PDF.

 

[allabootmatt]

Assuming this uses cities proper, results will be heavily skewed by their size. City of Boston is strictly the urban core, less than 600K population.

 

[torontologist]

You can’t read too much into this one table, but it does suggest that some cities haven’t overcome car dependence as much as their reputations may suggest.]

My issue with this is that ownership does not equal use. Seattle may have more cars per household than Atlanta, but Seattle is an extraordinarily affluent city, especially compared to Atlanta. I'd be curious to see numbers on transit use as a primary mode of transportation.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

My issue with this is that ownership does not equal use. Seattle may have more cars per household than Atlanta, but Seattle is an extraordinarily affluent city, especially compared to Atlanta. I'd be curious to see numbers on transit use as a primary mode of transportation.

re: car ownership vs. usage - also think examples such as Curitiba in Brazil. Plus the data is for household, not per person - and it also doesn't get at subtleties like commuters using both cars and transit.

AoD

 

[W. K. Lis]

Rio's new metro opens, week before the Olympics.

Maybe Toronto should get the Olympics, to get the Relief Line going on the fast track.

On second thought...

 

[W. K. Lis]

 

[Cobra]

The GTA and TTC aren't looking nearly enough towards what Europe is doing. This is what we should be looking to work towards to... at least catch up to Europe:

International Railway
A North American "Eurostar" service from at least

• Eastern Coastline Network:Montreal-Boston-NYC-Washington DC & Toronto-Albany-Boston-NYC
• Great Lake line: Toronto-Chicago via Detroit
• West Coastline: Vancouver-Los Angeles via Seattle

Eurostar at St.Pancras International train station

Canadian Rail
This Via Rail "High Frequency" plans needs to be excluded from the Toronto-Montreal-Ottawa corridor. I hope Ontario keeps pushing for High Speed rail in the Toronto-Windsor Corridor. I have faith that this government will recognize that only true high speed makes sense for Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto.

• Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto=High speed 300 km/h
• Toronto-Windsor (Ontario Initiative)= High Speed
• The rest of Via Rail network=High Frequency Via Rail service with possible upgrade in the future

GO RER
We really have to applaud this government to bring RER/fast commuter service to the North America...although we're late to the party.

They should be looking at better integration on both fares and transfers to subway lines in the core like in Europe.

National Rail Services train arriving at King's Cross

Paris RER arriving at Chatelets Les Halles

TTC
I think in term of headway and service frequency, TTC is on par with what's being done in London. The TTC biggest issues is service reliability and the overall infrastructure maintenance which seems to be addressed (slowly but surely)

We clearly need more subway as the backbone of the system and suburban LRT lines for a city this size that can barely keep up with the massive growth. However, building everthing underground is misguided. Although I support the any proposed subway extension, the TTC need to stop their moratory on elevated subways which would significantly reduce the cost. Most subways outside of the core in Europe are outside for obvious reasons. It can and should be done, just look at what Paris and London are doing instead of New York City or Chicago. Heck, just look at Vancouver.

Paris elevated subway (2:20)

London DLR

Vancouver Skytrain

Scarborough Extension, Sheppard Extension, Kipling Extension, Crosstown extension and York Region should like this where possible.

Downtown Streetcar Network
I'm of the opinion that speeding up our streetcars in the downtown cores significantly would decrease the car congestion. Like London who's making drivers pay to drive within the core, Toronto should look at this model and use the existing transit system as an alternative as justification for the move. Not only would the city get extra revenue, the streetcar lines could be faster by grade separating them while reducing car traffic.

This should be replicated for Queen, College-Carlton,Dundas and Bathurst

Our downtown core looking like this below, with fast east-west and north-south streetcar service connecting to the subway with beautification of those corridors would make Toronto an instant hit and must see city on this planet

Melbourne, Australia

 

[MisterF]

Canadian Rail
This Via Rail "High Frequency" plans needs a quick death. I hope Ontario keeps holding their ground on the necessity of High Speed rail in the Toronto-Windsor Corridor and not giving into Via Rail's plan which they view as "competition". I have faith that this government will recognize that only true high speed makes sense for Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto.

• Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto=High speed 300 km/h
• Toronto-Windsor (Ontario Initiative)= High Speed
• The rest of Via Rail network=High Frequency Via Rail service with possible upgrade in the future

I wouldn't be so sure that Via is a threat to the provincial HSR plan, or vice versa. Via's plan goes east to Montreal while Ontario's plan goes west to London. While the Via president has argued that their plan is more appropriate than HSR in general, he's never argued against the London HSR plan specifically. In fact, even in articles meant to drum up controversy about his position, they acknowledge that Via isn't opposed to the province's HSR plan at all:

Desjardins-Siciliano called the government’s plan “a great project. We’ll have to wait and see what is the plan and what is the route specifically for this region to make sure we don’t duplicate efforts and we compliment each other.”

Via tried to get HSR built for decades but failed; what they're proposing now is very much plan B. Look at it this way: if the Via plan is successful and makes a profit, it makes an eventual HSR to Montreal more likely. But if we demand all or nothing we'll continue to get nothing.

 

[Johnny Au]

China is doing a great job at constructing high speed rails very much throughout the country (thanks to its cheap labour with low safety standards).

I can add a fourth international line: Toronto–Boston via Albany (and there would be some trains going from Toronto to NYC as well; a Chicago–NYC line via Cleveland and Buffalo could be built as well)

 

[Cobra]

I wouldn't be so sure that Via is a threat to the provincial HSR plan, or vice versa. Via's plan goes east to Montreal while Ontario's plan goes west to London. While the Via president has argued that their plan is more appropriate than HSR in general, he's never argued against the London HSR plan specifically. In fact, even in articles meant to drum up controversy about his position, they acknowledge that Via isn't opposed to the province's HSR plan at all:

Desjardins-Siciliano called the government’s plan “a great project. We’ll have to wait and see what is the plan and what is the route specifically for this region to make sure we don’t duplicate efforts and we compliment each other.”

Via tried to get HSR built for decades but failed; what they're proposing now is very much plan B. Look at it this way: if the Via plan is successful and makes a profit, it makes an eventual HSR to Montreal more likely. But if we demand all or nothing we'll continue to get nothing.

Thanks, I fixed my post

 

[TheTigerMaster]

Metro system in Lillie, France. They use tiny little trains. Reminds me of the SRT, just tinier

 

[Burnt creek]

It is silly to look to Europe for reference points for urban planning or transit. Canadian and american urban centres were built up over the past 200 years. Many european urban centres have 2000 years of history and were not built up but rather evolved to what they are today. Toronto is a city on grid that is constantly growing and needed to expand, whereas most older cities in europe are not. There are few exceptions in europe like Turin for example. But basically, one needs only look at map of your typical north american city and your typical european city and you should see the differnce.

There are so many other societal differences between europe and north american that i dont even want to go there because there are volumes of text in this subject. Laws in regards to private property, access to private property and building laws are very very different. As is culture. Businesses and the economy is very different especially the marketing ditribution channels (which affects transportation needs) and commercial development. Even the notions or concepts of urban Versu suburban versus rural are differnt. There is no where near that kind of gap or differnences between canada and the US. Canada and the US were frontier nations settled by outsider/pioneers, europe is not. We were instilled With british institutions. All that stuff impacts what kind of city you will have and whether european ideas or thought can apply here. This goes for transit as well. Then there is jurisdictional differences and variations on the powers of of city versus national governments. Again, this will also impact transit development.

Every time i have gone accross the Atlantic, it was always to to see people (usually family or extended family). Or to connect with people. Thats different from the many who go there as tourists. Also, i can speak three languages fluently. When you go there as tourist, hang with tour guides and tour buses, and go the places where only tourist go (ie.: the cobblestone plaza's), you dont really know or learn much about what its really like to live there. You are in bubble. I believe that many of these types who constantly think that we need to compare ourselves to europe and have this romantizied notion that we need to make our city like european city, are people who have only been there as tourist. You also might be surprised to learn that i have had guests from europe tell me how impressed with our expressways and business parks, and how you can acquires homes and property so easily and how peacefull and clean our suburbs are. Again, all this affects the kind of city we live in. And transit needs.

How you get to work, what your work hours are , where your business and/or work place is located...etc. again, there are differences here between TO and many euro city. Again, this has direct impact on transit needs. As does the economy as a whole. We (US and Canada) are a much more tolerant and flexible society that can adapt to change better than europe. This is shown by the fact that we can and will easily move re locate if needed and to improve our livelihood. In Europe, people are more reluctant to relocate. Again, this also impacts transit and urban planning and influences. In europe, some of the ethnic ghettos are underserved by transit, why? Because they're ethnic. Is that what you want inspire yourself from? We dont have those same attitudes in regards to our identity.
We are very close to the US in very many ways, anyone who thinks otherwise is naive.

 

[44 North]

Metro system in Lillie, France. They use tiny little trains. Reminds me of the SRT, just tinier

Man, that thing is whisper quiet. Quick wiki says the system was designed for 52m platforms and will soon run in a consist of two cars (vs the 1-car in the video), which with its 66sec headways would give something like 17k pphpd.

Personally tho I'm not a big fan of the rubber-tyred system...seems a bit proprietary. For the concept of a smaller-scale metro / light metro, I prefer something like what Cobra linked to in the post above yours. It's also driverless and light, but seeing that it's based off a standard LRV it seems less proprietary. A proposed system that's close to home and shares some of the aforementioned attributes, Montreal's REM plan should be one to watch in the future. I'm particularly interested in what type of train they will opt for: will it be MkIII, the French VAL, or a standard LRV? *Edit: this is Mtl's RFQ for rolling stock if anyone is interested. Skimming it over I guess it's safe to say the rubber-tire VAL will be ruled out.