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Monorail for Toronto

ssiguy2

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While Toronto sits on its ass the rest of the world leaves here in her wake and all she can think of to improve the situation is some streetcars. Its pathetic, laughable, and downright embarrasing. How a great city can go mickey-mouse in one generation is a depressing state of affairs.
Now Toronto is bitching that it can't even do a very slow moving, expensive, disjointed streetcar system. At least the Spadina Ext is a go so Toronto can hold it's head up high and brag about another decade with a whopping 6km subway expansion. How bold! How radical! How Toronto! All this touchy-feely talk about a "green" Toronto but after the talk Torontonians are continually having to deal with clogged roads and more "smog alert" days.
Toronto use to be a true city of the future, "the city that works" just 30 years ago and now due to her inertia, myopic city hall, lack of vision and opportunity she goes kicking and screaming into the new millenium. Renaisance through visionary change and new ideas is what Toronto was post-war and now the years roll on and Toronto is bound and determined to stay right where it is.
Toronto needs to regain its stature and vigour by being a daring city once more. In the 60's and 70's Toronto had the fortehought of bucking the world wide trend and keeping her streetcars downtown. Stopping the Spadina Expressway and keeping the streetcars was Toronto at its finest.Its time for Toronto to regain it's lost momentum and be bold yet again.
This, of course, includes transit. Toronto needs to try innovative yet proven technology and for the new millenium that a comprehensive Monorail system. Fast, convienient, affordable, green, no ugly streetcar wires, a smaller footprint than LRT, can be built very quickly, and a technology that is literally exploding all over the world. Toronto should be at the forfront of this new 21st century rapid/mass transit. Other cities worldwide have seen and grasped the Monorail revolution for an integral part of their transit needs and even with all the Monorail completed this decade is going to be the best with atleast 500km worldwide already set to begin construction within the next 3 years. This is Toronto's opportunity to again show NA the boldness required to make a city a TRUE TransitCity for the 21st century.
 
To propose a monorail system and call our current system "mickey-mouse" is quite ironic.

As "innovative" as you claim them to be, they aren't the best winterized technology.
CnstMM10.jpg

Poor Pedestrians.
 
Someday I too hope Toronto can join the ranks of world-class cities using monorail, like Ogdenville, North Haverbrook and Brockway.
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While Toronto sits on its ass the rest of the world leaves here in her wake and all she can think of to improve the situation is some streetcars. Its pathetic, laughable, and downright embarrasing. How a great city can go mickey-mouse in one generation is a depressing state of affairs.

Toronto needs to regain its stature and vigour by being a daring city once more...Its time for Toronto to regain it's lost momentum and be bold yet again... and for the new millenium that [means] a comprehensive Monorail system. Fast, convienient, affordable, green, no ugly streetcar wires, a smaller footprint than LRT, can be built very quickly, and a technology that is literally exploding all over the world

sigh.jpg
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I like your moxie, kid, but let's ramp this up a notch. Here's what I'm thinking - a network of concrete right of ways, built in a grid all throughout the city. Riders buy or lease gasoline-powered transports that they then use to get from Point A to Point B.

Users won't pay any direct fees to use all this infrastructure and the whole thing is bound to lose billions of dollars per year, but the government is bound to fund the shit out of it!
 
Ever wonder why this guy's criticisms are so generic and pointless?

Perhaps a bit of disclosure here. ssiguy2 has never lived in Toronto, or even Ontario. He is from B.C., and he loves to whine about whatever the TTC (which he has used less than twice in his life) does. He read a pamphlet about Toronto at the airport, so he is basically an expert on this city.

But don't worry, that won't stop him from throwing out blanket statements about the decline of a great city, and vague allusions to city hall, which he knows nothing about. And here he goes on about how aesthetically superior giant concrete columns are compared to those unsightly streetcar wires!!
 
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Now Toronto is bitching that it can't even do a very slow moving, expensive, disjointed streetcar system.

In the 60's and 70's Toronto had the fortehought of bucking the world wide trend and keeping her streetcars downtown. Stopping the Spadina Expressway and keeping the streetcars was Toronto at its finest.Its time for Toronto to regain it's lost momentum and be bold yet again.

So Toronto expanding streetcar system is "slow moving, expensive, disjointed" while keeping the old streetcar system was "Toronto at its finest."

I don't see how I can debate you, when your arguments seemingly debate themselves.
 
I heard an interesting thing today. It was claimed that TransitCity was Mayor Miller's big idea and Metrolinx would as soon be putting in subways. But on to monorails.

Like electrification of surface rail, monorails aren't the great green champion that they claim to be. Electricity generation still has signification greenhouse gas emmissions. If fact, until the ban on coal burning plants in Ontario takes place, diesel is the cleaner option.

Next is the right of way issue. Will it be elevated, like the beautiful Garnier, at-grade like the lemented TranitCity, or sub-grade and the new subway extension? Mag-lev is just a different locomotive power source, not some revolutionary idea. The biggest reason/expense inhibiting expanded transit projects is limited right of way width/property aquisition.

If you want a tested, but relatively unadopted transit techonology that'll transform the region, try double-decker tunnels.
 
If you want a tested, but relatively unadopted transit techonology that'll transform the region, try double-decker tunnels.

They looked at that with Eglinton actually; a single tunnel bore with westbound above eastbound.

If I recall correctly, the issue was the soil around the tunnel is not stable enough to allow a shallow bore and a deep single tunnel bore was going to be more expensive than a shallow twin tunnel bore due to increased station costs.
 

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