The Great Canadian Transit Thread

[Innsertnamehere]

^ same situation with me, my MPP is a PC, so contacting him would be rather pointless.

[SteelTown]

My MPP is Andrea Howarth (NDP Leader), she said she won't support any new taxes for transit unless the Liberals drop the corporate tax breaks and use that money towards transit instead.

[Innsertnamehere]

Which I have a feeling will happen, truthfully. I think that's largely why Wynne put together another study to look at the possible taxes, the Metrolinx recommendations weren't politically feasible.

[Chadillaccc]

What reprecussions could dropping the tax breaks have on the Ontario economy, if any?

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

What reprecussions could dropping the tax breaks have on the Ontario economy, if any?

Which tax breaks? "Corporate tax breaks" is a pretty broad term. Are we speaking of the corporate tax rate?

[Chadillaccc]

I'm not sure. It was mentioned by a poster on the previous page.

[Innsertnamehere]

The NDP want the HST raise dropped from the planned transit taxes and have it replaced with a 1% corporate tax hike. Considering the Liberals cut corporate taxes heavily during the recession, I don't see it being that big of a deal.

[miketoronto]

So Gatineau has opened their busway, and no mention here of it.
One thing that surprises me, is that the busway does not have full priority. Buses actually have to wait for red lights sometimes. Where in Ottawa, the transit way is basically grade separated outside of downtown, and does not pass through intersections.

This grade crossing scheme, already led to a bus-auto collision during the first morning rush hour of the new Rapibus service.

We will have to see how it goes and if the kinks get worked out over the next few weeks.
But it is a shame cities across North America just can't seem to do rapid transit right anymore, and do not fully separate transit corridors, etc.

[Aylmer]

To give you an idea of how it went:

The system cost near double the budgeted cost; the best-case scenario as proposed by the STO is that as many as 80% of trips will be roughly the same (the other 20% will be much longer); the first day or work-week service started with a freak crash between a bus and a car; pictures of jam-packed buses passing stations after just the first one caused the transit agency ridicule for poor foresight; the reserved lanes have to cross two lanes of downtown traffic from the right side to the left side and the articulated have blocked traffic for minutes at a time and a group of transit riders angry with commutes of 20-40 minutes longer threatened to barricade the system to demand better service.

On the upside, the stations are nice. And it has a Tumblr account! rapibus.tumblr.com

[Aylmer]

Oh, and I just heard on the radio that nuts, bolts and other nice things are falling from a rehabilitated bridge that the system uses. The STO's response? "We didn't need them anyway."

[Beedok]

Originally Posted by Aylmer

Oh, and I just heard on the radio that nuts, bolts and other nice things are falling from a rehabilitated bridge that the system uses. The WTO's response? "We didn't need them anyway."

[Beedok]

I can hardly wait for Hamilton's bus lane to be an issue on Canada's Worst Driver.

[goodthings]

Originally Posted by Aylmer

To give you an idea of how it went:

The system cost near double the budgeted cost; the best-case scenario as proposed by the STO is that as many as 80% of trips will be roughly the same (the other 20% will be much longer); the first day or work-week service started with a freak crash between a bus and a car; pictures of jam-packed buses passing stations after just the first one caused the transit agency ridicule for poor foresight; the reserved lanes have to cross two lanes of downtown traffic from the right side to the left side and the articulated have blocked traffic for minutes at a time and a group of transit riders angry with commutes of 20-40 minutes longer threatened to barricade the system to demand better service.

Did these things also happen in Winnipeg when they opened theirs?

Hopefully that won't happen in Mississauga in the spring.

[Innsertnamehere]

Video of the Viva Rapidway in operation..

• Video Link

[goodthings]

Mississauga and Hamilton, (which includes me), be prepared to say bye-bye to (y)our LRTs once Hudak becomes premier, all to fund the DRL, as well as the Yonge Line extension to Richmond Hill.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toro...es-spar-over-light-rail/article15129578/

[caltrane74]

Hudak is so full of Hot Air even a Butch Gay chick from the corner of Church and Wellesley would beat him in a provincial election.

Thankfully, Katherine Wynne is from Snooty York Mills-Bridle Path, should make quick work of him.

Don't take what Hudak says at face value, he might as well change his name to flip flop fudak.

[SteelTown]

Hudak said he rather build the Mid-Peninsula Highway for Hamilton instead of LRT.

The proposed highway would cross along his riding. Mike Harris funded the highway (Brad Clark was Transportation Minister and currently a councilor at Hamilton City Hall) but Premier McGuinty cancelled the funding for the highway.

[flar]

Originally Posted by Aylmer

To give you an idea of how it went:

The system cost near double the budgeted cost; the best-case scenario as proposed by the STO is that as many as 80% of trips will be roughly the same (the other 20% will be much longer); the first day or work-week service started with a freak crash between a bus and a car; pictures of jam-packed buses passing stations after just the first one caused the transit agency ridicule for poor foresight; the reserved lanes have to cross two lanes of downtown traffic from the right side to the left side and the articulated have blocked traffic for minutes at a time and a group of transit riders angry with commutes of 20-40 minutes longer threatened to barricade the system to demand better service.

On the upside, the stations are nice. And it has a Tumblr account! rapibus.tumblr.com

It's too bad they didn't find a way to route it right into Hull. I'm sure it would have huge ridership if the terminus was within walking distance of Place du Portage and les Terrasses de la Chaudière.

[SteelTown]

Ontario to issue ‘green bonds’ to help fund public transit expansion

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/418220...s-to-help-fund-public-transit-expansion/

TORONTO Premier Kathleen Wynne says the Ontario government will issue so-called green bonds next year to help fund public transit expansion.

Wynne says the program will be unveiled in next week's fall economic update, and will allow people to invest in Ontario's future.

It's the first of the so-called revenue tools Wynne has promised to help raise the billions of dollars needed to expand public transit in the heavily congested Toronto-to-Hamilton corridor.

Wynne says green bonds are a great tool to raise capital for projects with specific environmental benefits.

She says the global market for green bonds doubled in the past year to US$346 billion.

Finance Minister Charles Sousa says the green bond program will help to fix Ontario with fixed returns.

[ScreamingViking]

Congrats to Hudak for finally talking about what he is "for", rather than just what he is "against"

The nucleus of a platform is born... the full version should be ready in time for the 2030 provincial election.

Ontario's politics will continue to be facked up for a while, methinks.