[Hipster Duck]

From an urban planning perspective, you could say that Calgary is the last, great railroad city built in North America. Calgary's growth pattern is very reminiscent of Chicago circa 1900, where commercial space is centralized in an extremely dense downtown cluster surrounded by a rather low density blanket of homes that radiate out along rail corridors. Just as all elevated trains met up in the "Loop", Calgary's C-train lines join up and share the 7th Avenue transit mall that is at the heart of this dense highrise downtown that is unparalleled by any city of 1 million people in North America. Frankly, I do not know how they achieved this level of centralization (it could be that the energy industry and their supporting businesses have a penchant for aggregating in a concentrated spot) and LRT is only partly the cause - Edmonton built a similar LRT line at a similar juncture in its history but that hasn't stopped the city from being incredibly decentralized. It's true that this level of centralization could not have been facilitated without the C-train but, at the same time, the C-train owes its success to Calgary's development pattern.

 

[kronkie]

so what is the deal? are we getting new subways, street cars and the new LRT? or is everything once again delayed. There has to be some sort of ralley because all the politicians take is money and spin our heads round with their stupid ideas. Toronto is soooo far behind and ppl are suffering!

 

[rbt]

so what is the deal? are we getting new subways, street cars and the new LRT? or is everything once again delayed. There has to be some sort of ralley because all the politicians take is money and spin our heads round with their stupid ideas. Toronto is soooo far behind and ppl are suffering!

Only Transit City/VIVA funding is being adjusted as best as I can tell.

Current subway and streetcar orders are not impacted. Future bus orders will be impacted but those will be minimal in the short-term as some of Transit City will still go ahead.

Georgetown GO is still on as are all of the Union Station modifications (including second platform and streetcar loop expansion as best as I can tell). East BayFront and West Donlands streetcar expansions are still to be completed by Waterfront Toronto.

Spadina Subway is still going ahead.

Quick wins do not seem to be impacted as I believe they were already funded; so ATC for the subway is still going ahead.

Finch, Sheppard, SRT rebuild, VIVA phase 2, and Eglinton will be impacted in some way or another. About half of this list needs to be cut. That could mean truncating all lines or building half in full and cancelling the other half.

If we cancel Finch, terminate the SRT at Progress Avenue & Sheppard, then Eglinton could possibly be built to run west of Eglinton station to the airport or certainly from Eglinton West to the airport.


Even with this cancelled funding quite a bit of work will be completed over the next 3 to 4 years. A GTA+Hamilton specific road toll, sales tax (1%), or income tax (1% on top two backets) would be enough to put the remainder plus some back into play provided it is earmarked for transporation capital.

The truely interesting questions are will GO try to achieve 100% operations funding or beyond from the farebox? Will TTC be required to achieve 80% operations funding from the farebox again?

 

[M II A II R II K]

Transit City should have gone with something more like this, and the St. Clair Streetcar has poles going along the middle of the tracks anyway.

 

[Justin10000]

Eww.

Enough with Monorails. Monorails are not a viable transit option in North America, and never will be. They are good only for airport circulators, and theme park rides.
Putting your post in bold does not help your case either.

 

[Eug]

I don't know anything about Calgary's C-Train, but my recollection of Calgary the few times I've been there is that even relatively near the core, the available space is more like north Scarborough as opposed to anything like the core of Toronto. Is that correct?

EDIT: Oops, missed this post:

From an urban planning perspective, you could say that Calgary is the last, great railroad city built in North America. Calgary's growth pattern is very reminiscent of Chicago circa 1900, where commercial space is centralized in an extremely dense downtown cluster surrounded by a rather low density blanket of homes that radiate out along rail corridors. Just as all elevated trains met up in the "Loop", Calgary's C-train lines join up and share the 7th Avenue transit mall that is at the heart of this dense highrise downtown that is unparalleled by any city of 1 million people in North America. Frankly, I do not know how they achieved this level of centralization (it could be that the energy industry and their supporting businesses have a penchant for aggregating in a concentrated spot) and LRT is only partly the cause - Edmonton built a similar LRT line at a similar juncture in its history but that hasn't stopped the city from being incredibly decentralized. It's true that this level of centralization could not have been facilitated without the C-train but, at the same time, the C-train owes its success to Calgary's development pattern.

 

[M II A II R II K]

Enough with Monorails. Monorails are not a viable transit option in North America, and never will be. They are good only for airport circulators, and theme park rides.

Any why is that exactly....

And what disqualifies them in North America? If they're elevated above the road that's better than a streetcar ROW in the road, and the suspended version would be far less unsightly than monorails running above the tracks.

 

[leopetr]

Transit City should have gone with something more like this, and the St. Clair Streetcar has poles going along the middle of the tracks anyway.

Shadows cast by the monorail are left as an exercise for the reader.

Those trains look really narrow. They are narrower than the car underneath, let alone the bus. What's their capacity? 5 people per car?

What's the evacuation procedure in case of emergency? Inflatable ramps?

 

[M II A II R II K]

They have a lowering mechanism for the whole train which activates when it reaches the stops, so that can be used. But yea they can make wider cars.

 

[Fresh Start]

Any why is that exactly....

And what disqualifies them in North America? If they're elevated above the road that's better than a streetcar ROW in the road, and the suspended version would be far less unsightly than monorails running above the tracks.

But it is still unsightly, that's why. And you'd more than give reason for NIMBYs along St Clair and elsewhere to mobilize since those carriages are high up enough to literally have its occupants peer into one's backyard.