Orion VII artic's do no exist now nor in 2008 unless they come off shore.
NFI is the only on in Canada that produce an artic bus now, but Nova has just built a prototype and is testing it in various cities in Quebec at this time. Not sure if there is a plan to bring it to Ontario this year since it has the largest market in Canada for Artic’s now. OC is planning to have 780 of them by 2021. Mississauga needs 100 now with another 150 by 2021. TTC needs closed to 500 of these buses by 2021.
TTC has looked very close at the VanHool buses that VIVA has now and they like what they see, but unless North America parts can fit this bus, it’s a no buy and that is a big mistake. As to cost now that NFI has gone stainless for their artic's, it will be close, but VanHool should come out the winner.
I know back in 2002, Translink was buy stainless double deck buses then that seated 82 riders from England along with a 20 year warranty for $35,000 less than NFI buses that were made of alloyed material and only comes with only a 12 year warranty. Going to England save Translink a lot of money over the 20 years compare going to NFI. There are 11 of these double deck buses coming this year for GO 407 service.
There are supposed to be 150 artic's order this year for TTC with delivery starting 2008.
If it wasn’t for Steve as well a few other people, there would be no streetcar lines in Toronto now. Steve has a great resource to draw from considering he has being doing this for 30 years compare to our years. I have being doing this for 5 years.
I stated at June 2005 TTC meeting that there was a need for 30 LRT routes in Toronto and most of them will go out into the 905 area serving Mississauga, Pickering, Brampton with York region seeing the most of these lines.
By right, Toronto needs 150 km of new subway that includes 5 new lines. York Region would see 4 lines running into it, Pickering would see one and Mississauga would see 3 lines.
Then TTC needs to build a few BRT routes also.
Most of all, 400 additional buses are needed to bring the system up to what it had back in the 80’s when it carry 450 million riders and this is on top of 256plus LRT’s to replace the current CLRV’s and ALRV’s fleet. 196 CLRV’s are due for replacement starting with 4 in 2008, 11 in 2009, 75 in 2010 and the balance in 2011.
A full EA will start this year to replace the SRT with either an LRT’ system or extending the BD to Sheppard and Markham Rd by STC as stated in November 2005 at a TTC meeting.
Also, The Sheppard line will have to be revisited with an EA added on to it to remove the approved EA for present line out of STC and keep it on Sheppard as well going east to Meadowvale Rd. Most of the high ridership comes from the north area of the proposed Sheppard extension. Again this was brought up at TTC meeting and I have call for this since day one.
If the Ontario Government is seriously on getting people out of there cars and onto transit, then they have to come up with $60 Billion over the next 20 years to do this. That is $3 billion a year and what does transit gets today?
This means rebuilding the existing GO system to electric so trains can travel at 150km speeds, running with 10-20 minutes service on all the lines all days, making more stops within the Toronto area, having 2 tracks for itself, using 4-6 car unites for off peak time, offering 30-60 minutes service from 1.00 am to 6.am.and running within 150 km radius of Union Station.
As to the Finch ROW, there are a number issues facing TTC for putting an LRT down there now and some of them cannot be over come at all.
First of all, how do you deal with those overhead wires as I am not willing to fry 1,000plus riders if one of those wires broke and fell onto the LRT system? There are many environment issues that need to be resolved before an EA can start in the first place.
Now what do you do for the roads that cross this ROW path as you cannot make changes to the roads in the first place to get this LRT across them in the first place?
Do you run the tracks across the roads with platforms on opposite sides of the roads using traffic signals?
Do you build an overpass over the roads with station in the middle of the roads that are elevated?
Do you build an underpass under the roads with a centre platform knowing the cost will be higher than an overpass?
Now back to the Spadina issue.
How many of the current parking spots at Downsview Station are going to use the plan 3,000 spots for Steeles and Finch Station? If they all come from the 905, then those spots are lost for any new riders.
How many Jane St riders who live in the Jane-Finch area will use this extension and will it be any faster than their current method of travel?
How many riders using YRT will use this extension?
How Many riders using Finch buses are going to use this extension that carries 37,000 riders a day?
How Many riders using Finch buses are going to use this extension that carries 22,000 riders a day?
If there is a 100,000 riders for this extension, how do you justify spending $1.5 Billion for this extension compare to $300 million for an LRT Line which still handle more riders in the first place?
How do you force the developers to build high density residential builds in place of low density that was built south of York that was designated for high in the first place?
How do you build medium density projects next to the tank farm as it is not going to move?
Do you think all the light industries in this area are going to be better server with this extension?
How many new people will live and work along this extension?
Are you aware that you need 350,000 living along this extension to pay for this extension in the first place?
Is it fair that 50,000 have great service well 500,000 don’t cause by this extension?
