Metrolinx $55 Billion Plan

[urbanboom]

Every city of 20 million has an amazing transit system: Sao Paulo, Tokyo, New York.
When we get to 20 million, I am sure MetroLinx will be built.
:

Yes, Toronto is half the size of NY. But then why do we have a transit system that is an eighth the size of NY's? Proportionally speaking, we are still lacking.

 

[MisterF]

Someone should inform Sydney that they should stop building Cityrail lines because of the vastness of Austalia. Maybe we'll tell Moscow that they can never hope to have one of the busiest metro systems in the world because of the vastness of Russia. Oh wait...

Second world...lol...right... I'd like to think you're trolling but you seem to actually believe your own gibberish.

 

[Dichotomy]

Someone should inform Sydney that they should stop building Cityrail lines because of the vastness of Austalia. Maybe we'll tell Moscow that they can never hope to have one of the busiest metro systems in the world because of the vastness of Russia. Oh wait...

Second world...lol...right... I'd like to think you're trolling but you seem to actually believe your own gibberish.

Sorry, my bad. Perhaps I should write at a Toronto Sun level so you can understand........

Economies of scale. Yes, Australia is spread out, too, but then they don't have our tundra to deal with.

Gad, sometimes talking to a few of you is like trying to teach kindergarten!

 

[EnviroTO]

Economies of scale. Yes, Australia is spread out, too, but then they don't have our tundra to deal with.

Almost nobody lives in the tundra so almost no money needs to be spent there. Which roads and subways have been built in tundra? Approximately 1/2 of the population of Canada lives in the Quebec-Windsor corridor and a large portion of that is in the GTA.

 

[afransen]

Sorry, my bad. Perhaps I should write at a Toronto Sun level so you can understand........

Economies of scale. Yes, Australia is spread out, too, but then they don't have our tundra to deal with.

Gad, sometimes talking to a few of you is like trying to teach kindergarten!

I don't understand... Australia has scorching desert.

Btw, dichotomy, Canada has some of the soundest economic and fiscal indicators in the world. We can do better, but we aren't about to regress to a developing nation.

 

[MisterF]

Sorry, my bad. Perhaps I should write at a Toronto Sun level so you can understand........

Economies of scale. Yes, Australia is spread out, too, but then they don't have our tundra to deal with.

Gad, sometimes talking to a few of you is like trying to teach kindergarten!

lol...and did they teach you in kindergarden that Siberia is all sunshine and lollipops?

 

[TOareaFan]

We may spend like we are First World in this country, but we are rapidly becoming Second World.

This may be a bit off topic....it is a legitimate question, however.

So, what are the definitions of these "worlds".....I once asked a Poly-sci professor and his explanation was:

First World ------ The old European civilizations/empires who set about exploring

Second World ---------- Really wasn't an area called that but when they discovere North America and all of its riches it was called "the New World"

3rd World --------- Everything else that is not part of the above and is generally thought to be less developed (financially mostly).

is that close? does someone have a better set of definitions?

 

[toraerach]

We are a few more job losses short of becoming 'second world.' ( I would desperately hope we can avoid 'third world status!')

I remember once a guy from Alberta saying that the streets of Toronto were starting to look like Somalia. What you just said is just as idiotic. You say you've been to Sao Paulo yet you don't see a difference? Show me one favela in Toronto where police are too scared to set foot for fear of angering the drug lords. You know the gang violence is so bad there that more people are killed than any other conflict the world over. Get a grip on reality please and realize that Toronto is not the worst place in the world.

We have our problems, but so does everywhere else. You want to be more like Berlin, but at least in Toronto we don't have Neo-Nazis marching around intimidating immigrants. Or maybe we should be more like a city in the U.S. with racial tension and exponetially greater rates of murder. Every place in the world has its strengths and its weaknesses. Try looking at ours. At least here we're talking about transit seriously even if it's not going that well.

A few job losses? Really?

 

[W. K. Lis]

I remember once a guy from Alberta saying that the streets of Toronto were starting to look like Somalia.

Maybe he means the weeds growing between the sidewalks and roads, and just about everywhere on the streets of Toronto. It looks like ghost towns with all those weeds growing, and I don't mean the illegal type of weed.

 

[toraerach]

Maybe he means the weeks growing between the sidewalks and roads, and just about everywhere on the streets of Toronto. It looks like ghost towns with all those weeds growing, and I don't mean the illegal type of weed.

Those aren't weeds those are native species!

 

[Dan416]

It's really incomprehensible that a city would be afraid of building too big. Would NYC or Paris worry that a new subway line wouldn't reach capacity for another 20-50 years? I doubt it.

 

[Edward Skira]

New York hasn't built a new line since the 40's. Its only now, after starting to plan in the 1920's, that the Second Avenue line is underway. They actually started to build it in the 70's but ran out of money. Today things are tough financially and so they've recently had to scale back from three tracks in certain areas to two. Transit geeks aren't happy about this as it will restrict the line to less capacity than planned. And because of the lack of financing they are only building a 4 station line from 63rd street to 96th. This is not unlike the Sheppard line, though being Manhattan, it will be busy from day one. The full line is not financed and there's no reason to believe it will be finished anytime soon.

We're not doing so bad as some of you think.

 

[Whoaccio]

This may be a bit off topic....it is a legitimate question, however.

So, what are the definitions of these "worlds".....I once asked a Poly-sci professor and his explanation was:

First World ------ The old European civilizations/empires who set about exploring

Second World ---------- Really wasn't an area called that but when they discovere North America and all of its riches it was called "the New World"

3rd World --------- Everything else that is not part of the above and is generally thought to be less developed (financially mostly).

is that close? does someone have a better set of definitions?

The definition I have always thought to be true was:

First World: Wealthy, industrialized, market economies with representative governments and civil liberties. (Japan, USA, Holland ect...)

Second World: Centrally planned communist societies with low levels of social, economic and political freedom. Has a functioning and effective government (USSR, GDR, North Korea ect...)

Third World: Former colonies that failed to develop into either effective authoritarian or liberal states. Exceedingly limited government, poorly organized economy and few social protections. (Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Haiti).

Following the fall of the USSR and the general death of communism & the "second world" most pol-sci junkies have switched to MEDCs (More Economically Developed Country) and LEDC (Less Economically Developed Country) with the possible inclusion of NICs (Newly Industrialized Country; China, Mexico, Indonesia).

 

[rbt]

Rough math, yes, but only with a longer/finished Sheppard subway would you be able to start factoring in savings from having bus riders on routes like Finch or York Mills shift to the subway (precious few riders have shifted so far because the line isn't long enough...we know that virtually all the ridership growth has come from the Sheppard corridor, both along the subway and along Sheppard east of Fairview, like the 190, etc.).

I'm not actually convinced Finch ridership would transfer to the Sheppard line once the various LRTs are in place, and I do believe LRT along Finch serves riders between Finch and Steeles better than subway along Sheppard.

 

[Dichotomy]

I remember once a guy from Alberta saying that the streets of Toronto were starting to look like Somalia. What you just said is just as idiotic. You say you've been to Sao Paulo yet you don't see a difference? Show me one favela in Toronto where police are too scared to set foot for fear of angering the drug lords. You know the gang violence is so bad there that more people are killed than any other conflict the world over. Get a grip on reality please and realize that Toronto is not the worst place in the world.

We have our problems, but so does everywhere else. You want to be more like Berlin, but at least in Toronto we don't have Neo-Nazis marching around intimidating immigrants. Or maybe we should be more like a city in the U.S. with racial tension and exponetially greater rates of murder. Every place in the world has its strengths and its weaknesses. Try looking at ours. At least here we're talking about transit seriously even if it's not going that well.

A few job losses? Really?

You've been watching too many National Geographic specials. I"ve been to Sao Paulo (and Rio, and Joao Passoa and Florianopolis and Salvadore and Recife and Camboriu) many times: the only place I felt unsafe was Recife and that was because we got lost downtown after dark.
I challenge you to walk around parts of Jane/Finch or Scarborough after dark.
I"ve never claimed Toronto is as bad as some of those cities mentioned - but do you think Detroit or other 'bad' cities became that way over night? It's death by a thousand cuts, my friend. Having lived in this city for the better part of 37 years, I can SEE the slow, gradual degradation of quality of life.
Wouldn't it be smarter to close the barn doors before the horses have bolted?