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Ontario Budget Cut and Transit Expansion

I think it's a great opportunity to take some time to re-think how transit is getting built. Sure they slowdown is a setback. But it also forces Metrolinx and other authorities to re-think the shotgun approach to transit construction. A greater focus on steady, incremental expansion is not necessarily a bad thing. I'd rather get a 2 km subway extension every year than a 15 km LRT in 3 years and then nothing for another 6 years.
 
Coruscanti Cognoscente said:
I really wouldn't mind one bit if both the Sheppard East LRT and the Scarborough RT/LRT conversion were cancelled.
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I strongly disagree with that sentiment. I am no fan of either project. But transit in Scarborough is significantly lagging behind the rest of the 416. If plans aren't going to be altered or change, cancelling these and not replacing them with alternatives could mean Scarbororough would be behind for another decade. Of the two though, at the very minimum it would be severely damaging to drop the SRT conversion/extension. The SELRT, I agree, is not absolutely necessary (as long as the SRT is hitting Sheppard).
 
The SRT conversion is dumb because it takes it out of service anyway. Just run the SRT into the ground while the subway is extended to STC.
 
kEiThZ said:
I think it's a great opportunity to take some time to re-think how transit is getting built. Sure they slowdown is a setback. But it also forces Metrolinx and other authorities to re-think the shotgun approach to transit construction. A greater focus on steady, incremental expansion is not necessarily a bad thing. I'd rather get a 2 km subway extension every year than a 15 km LRT in 3 years and then nothing for another 6 years.
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You're incredibly optimistic! I think at this point we're likely to get nothing (or very little) for a long while.

We're at a point where costs (particularly healthcare costs) are very high and getting higher, while the general public is not at all receptive to any kind of tax increase.
 
Coruscanti Cognoscente said:
The SRT conversion is dumb because it takes it out of service anyway. Just run the SRT into the ground while the subway is extended to STC.
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Subway would cost more money and nobody has any to begin with. If it's a bit of a dumb plan, it's an affordably dumb plan.
 
Get a PPP for Monorail and have a great system by 2016 like Sao Paulo. It is not proprietary, works great in any weather {just ask Moscow} and begin a real rapid transit system. People will say it's not that simple but the whole point is that easy except in Toronto.
 
ssiguy2 said:
Get a PPP for Monorail and have a great system by 2016 like Sao Paulo. It is not proprietary, works great in any weather {just ask Moscow} and begin a real rapid transit system. People will say it's not that simple but the whole point is that easy except in Toronto.
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The Moscow monorail seats only 48, goes less than 5km, is elevated requiring stations, and applies the aesthetics of the Gardiner Expressway to the neighbourhood. Finch East LRT has vehicles seating triple that amount, going triple the distance, doesn't require stations beyond a concrete pad, and doesn't make the neighbourhood look like there is a freeway passing overhead.
 
TOareaFan said:
I wasn't making an argument for any particular type of transit.....I was just pointing out that if you raise the funds via a sales tax over the entire GTA that there will be an expectation/demand that the funds are spent, relatively equally, over the GTA and not just within the "borders" of the city of Toronto.
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If by "relatively equally" you mean by demand, that's not a bad thing. The biggest need for rapid transit is downtown, but improvements to regional transit is needed in the suburbs as well. I don't think the RTP would be any more weighted to the suburbs if there were a regional sales tax, or some other revenue tool that's GTA-wide.
 
Korea {not a low wage country} is building a Monorail using the new Urbaunt technology. Urbanaut has so much potential that Rowin { a large subway train manufacturer which supplied the Canada Line subway cars} has bought out the technology as it sees it long term potential. It small system will be just 6 km which includes 5 stations for................get this.......just US$60million!!!! The trains and stations are small {the trains only carry 70 passengers} but if you even triple the costs for the trains and longer station it would still come out at less that $20/km for rapid transit Monorail. Why is Toronto not demanding a comphrhensive Monorail system??!!
 
W. K. Lis said:
Maybe someone will pay the government for their shcare of ownership in GM and Chrysler, to cover the cuts in transit projects.
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Why bother, didn't you hear? Monorails can be built for $20/km! {That's less than the price of two pizzas.} It's so obvious..... that's the answer.......... to all of our problems!
 
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