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Mayor John Tory's Toronto

It's interesting having a mayor who can make a few phone calls and find corporate donors. But if this is how the rinks are going to be funded, city hall should line up the sponsors for next year, now.

The city is more likely to find sponsors by waiting until the last minute. Nothing beats a story about a company coming in to save the day. Lining up for next year means less bang for a sponsor's buck. A company is always willing to pay a premium for that kind of exposure.
 
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Ben Spurr @BenSpurr
Board now debating the $80M, 10-year contract for the Scarborough subway. CEO Andy Byford says it has "escape clauses."
Ben Spurr @BenSpurr
TTC staff says the Scarborough subway project "could be cancelled at any time."

What a mess.

Ben Spurr
@BenSpurr
Board unanimously approves award of $80M, 10-year contract for management of Scarb. subway project.
 
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I didn't mean that it would be a waste to improve service on the 501. I meant it may be superfluous to have more frequent service just for the sake of having more service and on all lines at all times. .

I'm not sure what you mean by "superfluous" service???

Better service = better ridership. With peak AND midday headways of 4 mins, 501 daily ridership in 1976 was 66,500. What is it now...FORTY EFFING YEARS LATER!!! 43,000.

Streetcars are the money-makers of the TTC. I don't think it's even possible to provide service that would be considered "superfluous".

~10 min headways on the 501 is absurdly bad service (if they could even maintain that).
Waiting for the next car because you can't get on this one is absurdly bad service (and makes the "real" headways longer).
Riding on a crush-loaded vehicle is absurdly bad service.
Being ejected from a short-turning vehicle is absurdly bad service.

The 501 represents good public transit service like Rob Ford represents good municipal governance.
 
This is what I do not get. They approve the budget for $80.0M for Scarborough subway, yet it can be cancelled anytime
 
Superfluous meaning extra to what is necessary. Also, I clearly said the 501 could use more service....I'm just not sure that hyper-service is warranted on all streetcar lines at all times. I'm no expert on ridership numbers and only go by what I experience so I know the 501 and 504 need more service, but am satisfied that the 512 has enough.

I'll say it again so that it doesn't look like I'm disagreeing with you re: service on the 501 (as if it somehow wasn't already clear): as far as I can tell, there could be a streetcar come every 3 minutes along Queen Street West and it'd still fill up. They don't come every 3 minutes therefore service clearly needs to be improved.

PS: Also, yeah....what JWBF quoted above. :p
 
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The city is more likely to find sponsors by waiting until the last minute. Nothing beats a story about a company coming in to save the day. Lining up for next year means less bang for a sponsor's buck. A company is always willing to pay a premium for that kind of exposure.

That seems strange since this emergency 'exposure' only lasts for a very short time, whereas an annual sponsor could have their company logo visible at the rink for the entire season and include it in their marketing or company profile.
 
http://www.biv.com/article/2014/10/developers-step-pay-transit-stations/

Ford's plan, and the city in general, seems to have the idea that if you build the subway, the people and development will follow. And that each subway station is a stand-alone building. I like these ideas from Vancouver better - include developers in the station planning to cover much of the cost.

Ford's plan was the exact opposite of what you say. Ford was the one who wanted to included developers to cover much of who cost - he even said they would cover ALL the cost. Unfortunately, he had not idea how this could be accomplished. Then, council, MP's, etc. decided to not include developers in the plans (at least publicly) because the goal was to show how stupid Ford was for thinking that developers would even pay a dime.
 
Ford's plan was the exact opposite of what you say. Ford was the one who wanted to included developers to cover much of who cost - he even said they would cover ALL the cost. Unfortunately, he had not idea how this could be accomplished. Then, council, MP's, etc. decided to not include developers in the plans (at least publicly) because the goal was to show how stupid Ford was for thinking that developers would even pay a dime.

Ford did not want any mass transit, anywhere, for any reason, at any price. To pretend otherwise is whistling by the Ford yard.
 
Mr. Tory. Sit down and watch this video on

10 Great Transportation Best Practices from 10 Great Cities

From this link:

Firstly right up front: this is NOT a Top Ten list. We are the first ones to admit Streetfilms has hardly travelled everywhere on the globe and seen only a fraction of the world. But we have seen more than the average person and of the places we have been here are ten cities and ten great 'best practices" that the cities do that make them shine.

Now just imagine a city that did all ten of these things really well?

[video=vimeo;120131626]https://vimeo.com/120131626[/video]
 

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