SaugeenJunction
Senior Member
Was at Sloane/Eglinton for a while around noon, no trains testing. The green track is also getting really overgrown, they need to cut it.
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dowlingm
Senior Member
TTC bosses presumably didn’t have access to a time machine like yours did.
The only other bosses who successfully get demands for things “yesterday” are the ones too clueless to realize their team is getting things done despite their “guidance” but assuming they are bone lazy.
Have I used “yesterday”? Sure: in answer to “when is this expected by the powers that be” I have been known to answer “Yesterday, but that’s not happening, so let’s talk about what would prevent it being done today/this week”
As for the Chair, all he seems to be doing there is perpetuating the same old nonsense. If we are past the point where service can be turned on, and he knows that, he should answer “no, we are not close enough yet” to a query about service being possible in September. If he doesn’t know, he should say “I don’t know, but the commission will follow up with you to ensure you are giving people accurate expectations through your paper/channel”. But given the situation TTC is in, he should know if it’s already a hard no without having to check
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dowlingm
Senior Member
I don’t think China would care for another round of how their countrymen built the Canadian railroads.
Even setting aside the grim historical comparator, if we can’t manage having Deutsche Bahn run GO trains, we’re not building transit using contemporary Chinese norms
Northern Light
Superstar
I'm sure this is an old one that's been posted before, but it just appeared in my social feed and made me smile:
Did not see a credit.
Did not see a credit.
urbancog
Active Member
The image suggests the delay is due to the line being converted to maglev.
marko16
New Member
Eglinton Crosstown in the year 2200 be like:
LRT vehicles fly between Pearson airport and Mount Dennis (west extension is still under construction). Then they go under ground into maglev mode between Mount Dennis and Laird (rails had to be removed they were all 1mm misaligned). Then they go above ground into rail mode between Laird and Kennedy and proceed to stop at every traffic light.
LRT vehicles fly between Pearson airport and Mount Dennis (west extension is still under construction). Then they go under ground into maglev mode between Mount Dennis and Laird (rails had to be removed they were all 1mm misaligned). Then they go above ground into rail mode between Laird and Kennedy and proceed to stop at every traffic light.
Jonny5
Senior Member
Deustche Bahn seems to have much troubles of its own lately. Their CEO was fired a few weeks ago.
This all sounds very familiar, doesn't it?
Germany’s train chaos: How did Deutsche Bahn go off the rails? - Monocle
Germany’s railways are in crisis. Trains run late, tracks crumble and management looks away. Rail expert Christian Böttger explains how...
monocle.com
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Rainforest
Senior Member
Deustche Bahn seems to have much troubles of its own lately. Their CEO was fired a few weeks ago.
This all sounds very familiar, doesn't it?
Germany’s train chaos: How did Deutsche Bahn go off the rails? - Monocle
Germany’s railways are in crisis. Trains run late, tracks crumble and management looks away. Rail expert Christian Böttger explains how...
It is true that they need to sort out their own mess, before we can ask them to fix ours.
That said, their rail is still a lot more usable than our rail. Over there, the locals are annoyed when their train is late or cancelled; they remember the times when everything was much more reliable. But if you are a tourist or a business visitor, you can still use DB for a lot of trips. Just add more padding to your schedule.
Over here? A lot of places have no train service at all, or no train connection you need. Even if you are lucky to have a train that connects your origin and destination, those trains are so rare they hardly fit anyone's schedule. Unless you are commuting for work to/from Toronto downtown (then you have a half-decent frequency on some of the lines) or travelling within the Corridor, you can't really use our trains for pretty much anything, even if they run perfectly on time.
Thaboss
Active Member
Ding ding ding.
No transit system is perfect.
I hear pll in singapore, the netherlands, paris, Tokyo etc. Complain all the damn time. So yea if you're interested in hiring expertise from only perfect systems in this world you'll be looking for a ling time.
Ontarios problem atm isn’t creating perfection, its creating a good system..
db is perfectly suitable for that, if given the right tools and time. Anyway. There's no point in rehashing this subject. Metrolinx is moving on and nothing we say or do is going to turn back the clocks on that decision.
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Steve X
Senior Member
The problem with ML isn't because they have problems but they are not willing to overhaul the working cultural within the system. DB wanted to convert GO into a subway like system with frequent service probably on EMUs instead of the current locomotive trailer system. ML seems to want to keep the current equipment in place with new electric or hydrogen locomotives and continue the current "commuter" style scheduling on a maximum best frequency of 15 min.
Personally I think there is so much the current setup can handle. You can't improve ridership if you constantly prefer to have hundreds of riders flood out a station all queued up every 15 min. The current coaches are nice and comfy but they really restrict customer flow. The lack of doors and standing space makes them not suitable for a metro-like system. Finally if they continue with the current commuter parking lot and making terrible long walks in non-weather protected environments, it will never integrate into the local network. Nothing is pointing to them willing to make these changes.
Let's take Weston GO. If they want to integrate this station and make it easy to commute from Etobicoke to downtown, they would need to run much more frequent (shorter) trains every 5-10 min for most of the day in both directions, not 15-30min. They should convert parts of the parking lot to bus loop allowing the 52, 89 and new routes connecting GO station walkway. Riders could walk from TTC bus stops to the GO platform within less than a minute. With frequent trains, they could connect to Line 5 within 10-15 min of getting off the bus.
We can only hope ML wakes up.
ownthesky
Active Member
Not to further derail the thread, but I've been wondering lately if the oldies at ML were balking at the massive labour and station overhauls that would need to happen over a short time period. The only way to affordably get to the level of service DB wanted is to have less staff on the trains, the only way to get less staff on the trains is to commit to a level boarding strategy, and the only way to commit to a level boarding strategy is to overhaul every station to bring everything level to the accessibility platform. It's a tough pill to swallow for an organization that is very conservative in its strategy. Refurbishing stations already takes years, I can only imagine the contractor drama it would take to get every station on say Lakeshore East/West to that level and the labour conundrum of transitioning many customer service ambassadors into conductors/engineers.
jordanmkasla2009
Active Member
Level boarding is already in GO Transit's long-term plan. Much of the station refurbishment projects they have been doing the past 10 years has been integrating the ability to raise the platforms in the future. DB and Alstom already had a plan on how they were going to handle the labour shake-up since there was already going to be a need for a training program with the new bi-mode and electric locomotives they were going to be getting with the expansion program. The construction and infrastructure partners were already planning all the work they were going to do to get the system to where it would need to be for the plan. My best guess was that someone high up in the PC Government was unwilling to shell out the money that would be needed to move forward with the expansion plans at the pace the ONExpress partnership proposed to move at and so they ordered that plan scrapped in favour of a slower pace of expansion that would cost less in the short term (but ultimately more in the long term). IMO it was a short-sighted decision as everyone knows that GO needs to expand rapidly to help alleviate the congestion problems plaguing the GTHA. Ultimately, this is yet another example of why politicians need to get out of the way of transit planning and growth management because they make short-sighted decisions like this. Especially considering if it was about the cost of the plan, they could have asked the Feds to kick in some cash to alleviate the budget pressures as the federal Libs have been more than willing to support large projects of this scale.
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Thaboss
Active Member
This has been my suspicion for a couple of reasons.
- Anyone who has worked in government or with an agency knows that major decisions are ultimately sanctioned or directed by the government of the day. While ideas can come from bottom up, decsions flow from the top down. Publicly executives often take the blame for negative outcomes, even when the final decision was beyond their perview.
- For such a massive decision, the Ford government has not addressed the change at all, acting as though everything is business as usual. Ford is many things, but silent when it comes to large transit projects he is not. He’s been more than willing to push a narrative in the past (see his “impromptu” comments on Line 5 that had zero chance of being accurate or his announcements about various train stations that won't exist for several years). Yet here with what was the agencies biggest and possibly transformative project in Metrolinx’s portfolio, he has been noticeably silent… hmmm.
- The leaks describing Metrolinx’s conflict with DB are, I’m sure, real. But I find it hard to believe metrolinx would ever have the authority to cancel such a massive contract, volunteerly descope the project, and keep the public from truly understanding the new plans, to such a massive financial and politically sensitive decision without at least seeking permission, input, or guidance from the minister.
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smallspy
Senior Member
No, the parallel would be if SNCF started to suggest and plan for things that were anywhere from against the regulations to downright dangerous. That's why ONxpress was booted from the operations side of the contract.
Dan
crs1026
Superstar
It was pretty obvious when Ford advanced his four signature subway projects and then cut various revenue streams (while sending tax rebate cheques) that something had to give in the province’s cash flows. There have been similar quiet cuts in other areas eg health care, so transit is only one aspect of this. There is little or no transparency, but Ford’s poll ratings are high. Go figure.
- Paul
- Paul