The Great Canadian Transit Thread

[SteelTown]

Work has begun on Hamilton's LRT, demolishing time. However, it appears the Ford government might pull the plug, there's an unexpected 2 pm announcement today by the Transportation Minister.

Originally Posted by thomax

It's mentioned in the project update that demolitions of purchased properties will begin in the new year.

Properties where the purchase has been completed have been boarded up with painted plywood.


Vacant Houses on LRT Property by Joe, on Flickr


Vacant Houses on LRT Property by Joe, on Flickr


Vacant Houses on LRT Property by Joe, on Flickr


Vacant Dunena Apartments (built 1931) on LRT Property by Joe, on Flickr

[TorontoDrew]

Doug Ford and his late Brother Rob were "Streetcar" haters. A sad day for Hamilton if Doug Cancels it. The new LRT will have a massive impact for Hamiltons core.

source: https://tayloronhistory.files.wordpress.com

[CityTech]

Originally Posted by Aylmer

Actually, we're not far off Europe's transit mode share. Toronto and Montreal have a share about on par with Berlin's, for example. Where we really differ is active mode share - walking and cycling. Whereas your average large European and Canadian city will have about 20-30% of work trips on transit, Canadian cities will have a very low proportion of people on foot or bike (5-15%) while our European counterparts will be roughly on par with transit (20-30%).

Actually, there are some European cities where transit mode shares are way higher. IIRC, in Prague and Vienna transit mode share is over 50%. Another factor is that some European cities have way more off-peak transit use.

Prague and Vancouver have about the same metro population, yet Translink has 430M rides a year, and Prague has 1.2 billion.

[GreaterMontréal]

Actually, we're not far off Europe's transit mode share. Toronto and Montreal have a share about on par with Berlin's, for example. Where we really differ is active mode share - walking and cycling. Whereas your average large European and Canadian city will have about 20-30% of work trips on transit, Canadian cities will have a very low proportion of people on foot or bike (5-15%) while our European counterparts will be roughly on par with transit (20-30%).

Montréal 17%, Vancouver 16%, Toronto 12%. That's the active core population.
We need more Metro/Subway transit projects in our largest cities to grow the active population into the 20%-30%.

[SteelTown]

Shit Andrea Horwath is at the annoucement, this isn't good if the Leader of Opposition is present. Looks like Ford is going to kill Hamilton's LRT.

[SteelTown]

Looks like Mulroney, the Transportation Minister, was too chicken shit to announce that there will be no provincial funding for the LRT. They canceled the announcement at the last moment.

Looks like 40 or so employees got the pink slip, Merry Christmas from Doug Ford.

[SteelTown]

No provincial money for LRT, mayor calls move a "betrayal" of Hamilton
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/transportation-announcement-1.5397519

The province has pulled funding for Hamilton's light-rail transit system, according to mayor Fred Eisenberger.

The mayor told reporters the announcement came as a surprise and he only met with the province about an hour before transportation minister Caroline Mulroney was supposed to announce the decision.

That update did not happen at its scheduled time of 2:30 p.m.

Eisenberger said he was told the province has estimates showing the cost of the project is "higher than expected" and that Ontario won't be paying the $1 billion it pledged.

"In my view that's a betrayal of the city of Hamilton," said the mayor. "That is not working in good faith with a partner."

He added three international bidders vying for the project have been told to "park their pens" and about 40 employees being funded by Metrolinx will be told they no longer have a job just before Christmas.

"In my mind it says the province isn't open for business, they're looking to close down businesses across the province," said Eisenberger.

A large crowd, including the mayor, members of council, business owners and representatives of Environment Hamilton gathered at Sheraton Hotel ahead of the announcement.

[CityTech]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Shit Andrea Horwath is at the annoucement, this isn't good if the Leader of Opposition is present. Looks like Ford is going to kill Hamilton's LRT.

Seems a little odd to do this 1.5 years after taking office, and also given that Metrolinx moved forward with all the project steps during those 1.5 years. If they wanted to scrap it, the time to do was 1.5 years ago.

[SteelTown]

@JohnPaulDanko

LRT has been cancelled - tender process terminated, property acqusition stopped, 40+ staff terminated. @C_Mulroney
ran out afraid to face the #HamOnt public, Mayor & councillors. How any voter, business owner or investor could trust @fordnation
for anything is beyond me #LIAR

[Dengler Avenue]

Truly Mike Harris style

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

Agreed 100%.

You don't see how off-putting it is until you step outside for a minute.

It doesn't matter if it's true. All countries have some shit with their neighbour, and there's often a kernel of truth.

But you can't be weird about it like this. Everyone knows the US has violent cities, hyper-individualism, cars, all that. It's their brand.

You can't pre-emptively bring it up when describing things in Canada because it makes you look obsessive and distracted.

I know we're in kind of a Ukraine situation but we have to be a little more self-possessed.

Yeah... not buying it. The only thing weird is those who seem obsessed with cultivating some cool, dispassionate, cosmopolitan image to the point of insisting people artificially alter their behaviour to create a more favourable perception. Just seems like a mild version of the classism of bygone eras where people governed their behaviour with complex systems of etiquette to make themselves seem more elegant and dignified. And of course they viewed anyone not going through these pretentious performances as being utterly uncouth and totally off-putting. **gasp**

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Looks like Mulroney, the Transportation Minister, was too chicken shit to announce that there will be no provincial funding for the LRT. They canceled the announcement at the last moment.

Looks like 40 or so employees got the pink slip, Merry Christmas from Doug Ford.

Sorry guys that's really horrible. I wonder if it has to do with them trying to scrape together funds for the Ontario line.

[SteelTown]

What the hell is Hamilton going to do with all of the abandoned housing now? you can see from the top of the page. There's about 100 of them like that.

The province put Hamilton in a terrible spot.

[Aylmer]

I can't imagine how disappointing and frustrating... What an utterly shameful backstab.

[GreaterMontréal]

they cancelled the project because of $1B ? For Ontario $1B is nothing. even $3B is nothing

London's transit project is in trouble ? Ottawa ?

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[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

@JohnPaulDanko

LRT has been cancelled - tender process terminated, property acqusition stopped, 40+ staff terminated. @C_Mulroney
ran out afraid to face the #HamOnt public, Mayor & councillors. How any voter, business owner or investor could trust @fordnation
for anything is beyond me #LIAR

Ford is a Fraud. How the hell did he get elected. I wish the NDP and Liberals would stop vote splitting. We need to change this first past the post voting set up we have. It's not right that a party can win only 39% of the vote and get a majority government.
Both Toronto and Ha,ilton didn't vote for that party so now it's payback time from DoFo.

source: https://pbs.twimg.com

[SFUVancouver]

That's awful news for Hamilton. Hopefully this is posturing and a deal to still make the project move ahead can be reached, but what a terrible turn of events. For the laid off staff, my heart goes out to them for the layoff just before Christmas. For the countless people who would have been employed in the new year, not to mention the suppliers and induced economic activity, this is a body blow.

[SteelTown]

^ yeah fraud! liars!

[SteelTown]

https://twitter.com/HamiltonsMayor/status/1206675254543818754