Canadian Transit Thread II

[WhipperSnapper]

One possibility is a new crosstown line connecting the green with the blue through the airport. It's just not a direct shuttle but, it will advance C-Train as more than a commuter downtown route.

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

So a bit Toronto-centric, but the TTC will replace the 510 Spadina streetcar with buses starting June 23 while it does repairs.

The 510 streetcar was slow, but it was reliable. You could expect it to arrive every couple of minutes and it had the ridership to show for it. I'd actually argue that, unless they had special constables positioned at key intersections to keep the King (504) streetcar moving, that the Spadina streetcar was the only reliable streetcar route in the entire city. Now that it's out of service, the TTC streetcar system is a dog's breakfast of short turned routes, bus-substitutions, detours and unacceptable wait times. It's very difficult for anybody to keep track of what's in service and what's not. Reece Martin was right in this video when he said that the streetcar system is the worst thing the TTC does.

Could only think of this after reading the above.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZnLjRi_g9o

[Airboy]

Working on a couple of proposals right now. All have a large component of federal funding.

And All have a line that states must take into account Future Fuels.

[Doady]

Should get rid of streetcars altogether. They're expensive to maintain, damage the roads ... go with electric trolly's, hybrids, or electric busses.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Doady

Should get rid of streetcars altogether. They're expensive to maintain, damage the roads ... go with electric trolly's, hybrids, or electric busses.

Because buses aren’t heavy and damage roads?

[DirectionNorth]

Originally Posted by Doady

Should get rid of streetcars altogether.

I cannot understand how you manage to be so wrong about so many transit issues.

Originally Posted by Doady

They're expensive to maintain

Compared to operating 3x the buses (meaning 3x the drivers, by far the largest driver of cost in most surface transit operations) with bunching, loss of ridership due to passbys?

Also, consider that buses typically last 12 years, maybe 18 if you refurbish (another cost) compared to 30-40 years for the CLRV/ALRV fleet.

No thanks.

Originally Posted by Doady

damage the roads ...

This may be news to you, but buses damage the roads too. And when you run multiples of what currently exists today, you'll get more damage, not less.

Originally Posted by Doady

go with electric trolly's, hybrids, or electric busses.

You'd still need to maintain overhead infrastructure for trolleybuses. Besides, conversion of the existing diesel bus fleet to electric will suck capital out of other needed priorities, let alone a foolish streetcar conversion .

[Nouvellecosse]

Guys, Doady just likes to say outrageous-sounding stuff to get a rise out of people. He's been doing it for years and has no reason to stop since people keep reacting to it.

[Doady]

Yeah, sorry guys I was just posting a comment from the article, I should have made that more clear. It's the kind of thing I hear often, even with modern LRT. Buses every 3 minutes is not enough to justify conversion to light rail, why not just increase the frequency to 2 minutes, that sort of thing.