The Great Canadian Transit Thread

[someone123]

VIA rail has apparently submitted an unsolicited proposal to Halifax's municipal government to operate commuter rail there. They've also suggested that they intend to bring back some inter-city trains within the Maritimes; maybe there will be Halifax-Moncton-Saint John service in the near future. That corridor has around 1 million people along a 400 km stretch and is barely served at all right now by passenger rail.

[isaidso]

Wow, that's terrific news if it happens. Halifax - Moncton - Saint John makes a lot of sense. Maybe continue on from Saint John to Fredericton. They're much stronger together.

[Taeolas]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Wow, that's terrific news if it happens. Halifax - Moncton - Saint John makes a lot of sense. Maybe continue on from Saint John to Fredericton. They're much stronger together.

Freddy is completely off the rail network now sadly, so a Via link to Freddy won't happen any time soon.

But I'm sure Maritime Bus will be willing to work with Via to arrange bus connections to the Via stations to make sure there's a good synergy between the transit networks.

Train service between the 3 Maritime cities is long overdue; I wish them well in pulling this off.

[1overcosc]

The Maritimes are a good spot for a rail network. Even though the population is low, the cities are close together which puts them in the sweet spot for rail.

Beyond the Maritimes and the traditional QC-Windsor corridor, a network in the Prairies could be viable. Yes the distances are large but not ridiculously so; the distance from Edmonton to Saskatoon is about the same distance as Ottawa to Toronto, for example. Only problem is passenger rail in the Prairies would require massive capital upgrades to be time-competitive.

[esquire]

I'm not optimistic regarding the prospects of intercity rail on the prairies. The distances are vast, and the infrastructure is not really good enough to allow rail to be time-competitive. The marketplace spoke loudly in the 80s, and that was a time when the highways were relatively primitive compared to now... they've only gotten better.

As ever, Calgary-Edmonton is still the only realistic prospect.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by esquire

I'm not optimistic regarding the prospects of intercity rail on the prairies. The distances are vast, and the infrastructure is not really good enough to allow rail to be time-competitive. The marketplace spoke loudly in the 80s, and that was a time when the highways were relatively primitive compared to now... they've only gotten better.

As ever, Calgary-Edmonton is still the only realistic prospect.

And even then, it means a massive investment in order to make it attractive enough to gain a significant number of passengers. The model now being followed on the new service presently under construction between Miami and Orlando is really what is needed in order to be successful. You need time competitiveness and frequency in this day and age.

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by esquire

I'm not optimistic regarding the prospects of intercity rail on the prairies. The distances are vast, and the infrastructure is not really good enough to allow rail to be time-competitive. The marketplace spoke loudly in the 80s, and that was a time when the highways were relatively primitive compared to now... they've only gotten better.

As ever, Calgary-Edmonton is still the only realistic prospect.

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

And even then, it means a massive investment in order to make it attractive enough to gain a significant number of passengers. The model now being followed on the new service presently under construction between Miami and Orlando is really what is needed in order to be successful. You need time competitiveness and frequency in this day and age.

There is so much freight in the Calgary-Edmonton corridor, the upgrades needed to be competitive with the bus are north of two billion iirc, that the further upgrades to high speed actually pays for itself in extra passenger fares alone according to the government's modelling.

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by osmo

The Scarborough residents have been taken as fools. That packed and cramped bus they sweat in just to reach STC to hop on the RT. Well. They still have to ride that packed and swamped bus to get to that Subway stop. Only now with even more riders as bypasses on the RT further along the line are no longer there. So now everybody has to ride that bus to STC.

Yes they have but they've also acted like fools by not figuring that out for themselves. Rob Ford really screwed over Scarborough by feeding them a pack of lies while he was mayor to the point where everybody from the municipal level right up to the federal level said they would support the subway just to get votes. Now the rest of the TTC network will suffer as we build their one stop $3 billion+ subway expansion.

I don't blame John Tory, Kathleen Wynn or Justin Trudeau for standing behind the current plane because lets just say they cancel it, another government may come along and restart it. What we need are government regulations that don't allow this to happen in the future. If the TTC says it needs the DRL next then that's wheat gets built first. If the TTC says (which it did) that an LRT in Scarborough is the best option to move more people faster than that's what should be under construction today.

But hey at least the Scarborough voters get their new one stop now, I hope they enjoy their longer bus trips as well.

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by someone123

VIA rail has apparently submitted an unsolicited proposal to Halifax's municipal government to operate commuter rail there. They've also suggested that they intend to bring back some inter-city trains within the Maritimes; maybe there will be Halifax-Moncton-Saint John service in the near future. That corridor has around 1 million people along a 400 km stretch and is barely served at all right now by passenger rail.

Where did you hear about the commuter rail?

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

Where did you hear about the commuter rail?

The story was more of a rumour and on twitter last night but now there are some normal newspaper articles: http://www.metronews.ca/news/halifax/201...ter-rail-via-eyeing-service-for-hrm.html

[someone123]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

The Maritimes are a good spot for a rail network. Even though the population is low, the cities are close together which puts them in the sweet spot for rail.

Compared to other parts of Canada a much larger proportion of the population in the Maritimes is in small towns. The string of towns and clusters of villages/suburbs in between Halifax and Moncton makes up a pretty significant portion of the population that would ride a train. Enfield/Elmsdale, Truro, Amherst, and Sackville are the sort of places I am talking about. Then just off the main route there are areas like PEI and Pictou County. People could easily drive from those places to a train station. One estimate I saw for the Halifax-Moncton "corridor" population was 900,000 for a 260 km route. This includes the commutershed of the two cities plus whoever lives near the highway and rail lines in between.

It is similar to what Southern Ontario looks like outside of the GTA, or Southern Quebec looks like outside of the Montreal metro area. Usually the larger towns are built one or more industrial plants or are in a farming area. There actually aren't many people dispersed in fishing village type settlements in the hinterland. Guysborough County NS is one area that is like that to take one example but it has only 8,000 people or so and is not near any major transportation routes.

It is not the Rhine-Ruhr area but it's well above the level of population density where passenger rail can be justified. There just needs to be useful service.

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by someone123

The story was more of a rumour and on twitter last night but now there are some normal newspaper articles: http://www.metronews.ca/news/halifax/201...ter-rail-via-eyeing-service-for-hrm.html

Holy shit

[GreaterMontréal]

• Video Link

[Kokkei Mizu]

Metro Line from driver's POV:

• Video Link

[milomilo]

Was that video slowed down x4?

[Kokkei Mizu]

Nope, that's real time. The trains are still not running up to speed, but they're faster than they were when it first opened, if you can believe that.

And here's second and third video, covering the entire Metro Line spur. I will be uploading videos all the way to Century Park, but won't post them here. Subscribe to me on YouTube if interested

• Video Link

• Video Link

[GreaterMontréal]

Taxi Diamond sold, creating new giant in Montreal taxi industry

With its existing stake in Taxi Hochelaga and Téo Taxi, Taxelco will now control roughly 40 per cent of the Montreal taxi market.

"It's hard to get a taxi in rush hour, and we quickly understood that we needed around 1,500 to 1,600 vehicles to meet the expectations of Montrealers."

That process will continue under Taxelco, which wants to have 2,000 electric taxis on Montreal roads by 2020.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/t...iant-in-montreal-taxi-industry-1.3713307

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by GreaterMontréal

Taxi Diamond sold, creating new giant in Montreal taxi industry



http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/t...iant-in-montreal-taxi-industry-1.3713307

And they wonder why people are switching to Uber. Less competition means less desire to be a quality taxi service.

[GreaterMontréal]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

And they wonder why people are switching to Uber. Less competition means less desire to be a quality taxi service.

Uber is illegal in Quebec.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by GreaterMontréal

Uber is illegal in Quebec.

"Illegal"

When has that stopped anyone?