Shift: London's Rapid Transit Initiative

[inimrepus]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

And with a rail crossing in the middle of it, nobody is going to those places any quicker than just using regular transit.

And currently there is no way to change that, but moving the buses to a route that wouldn't be used isn't a valid alternative. Yes, the train slows traffic down, but BRT would still be a significant improvement over what we have now there.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by inimrepus

And currently there is no way to change that, but moving the buses to a route that wouldn't be used isn't a valid alternative. Yes, the train slows traffic down, but BRT would still be a significant improvement over what we have now there.

I don't think that it not going to St Joe's or the Ceeps means it wouldn't be used. It would still be going to the part of campus all the students go to, and follow the original route from there to the north.

[haljackey]

Interesting article in the Freep by councilor Stephen Turner

Turner: Council's post-BRT road will need a bit of paving
https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/turner-councils-post-brt-road-will-need-a-bit-of-paving

[Stevo26]

Originally Posted by haljackey

Interesting article in the Freep by councilor Stephen Turner

Turner: Council's post-BRT road will need a bit of paving
https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/turner-councils-post-brt-road-will-need-a-bit-of-paving

I thought it was an interesting article too. One thing that really jumped out at me was Turner's statement that upcoming road maintenance, improvement and widening over the next 10 years will result in the same disruptions that BRT construction would. And the kicker is that the city's piecemeal, half-arsed approach to transit will end up costing us $27 million more than it would if we had gone through with the whole BRT plan and not left $94 million of upper-tier government money sitting on the table.

Amazing, when you think about it. That city council would deliberately do half the job on transit, just so they can avoid the ire of the Old North people, the NIMBYites, the business people who are absolutely sure that BRT will permanently kill their businesses, with little proof of said contention, the 'my taxes will go up if you build it' crowd and so on.

[MrSlippery519]

Originally Posted by Stevo26

I thought it was an interesting article too. One thing that really jumped out at me was Turner's statement that upcoming road maintenance, improvement and widening over the next 10 years will result in the same disruptions that BRT construction would. And the kicker is that the city's piecemeal, half-arsed approach to transit will end up costing us $27 million more than it would if we had gone through with the whole BRT plan and not left $94 million of upper-tier government money sitting on the table.

Amazing, when you think about it. That city council would deliberately do half the job on transit, just so they can avoid the ire of the Old North people, the NIMBYites, the business people who are absolutely sure that BRT will permanently kill their businesses, with little proof of said contention, the 'my taxes will go up if you build it' crowd and so on.

Wish council members had more of a back bone to tell some of these NIMBY'ers to step off. I certainly appreciate having community involvement and taking things into consideration but at the end of the day doing the right thing for the city should take a precedence over making a few people with too much money happy.

It still pisses me off the old council seemed afraid to ask for money for LRT, the government very well could have said yes go ahead here is your fair share. But to not ask at all is confusing to me.

[haljackey]

Province approved the 3/5 legs. Waiting on the feds now which may come before or after the Oct election

https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/wate...her-projects-get-103m-in-ontario-funding

[Djeffery]

I'm thinking the Feds use this as a pre-election campaign style announcement.

[jammer139]

Oops we didn't know! BRT - Shift-minus the f plan orbits the bowl

https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/m...-ominously-on-londons-transit-apple-cart


On brighter note:
Smart traffic light systems are being installed around north america. Would be a major improvement for little investment and improve transportation times for all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeygJZlUnCw

[BIGGUY2891]

https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/fede...s-123-million-to-london-transit-projects

[jammer139]

Ottawa's LRT first day.


https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...m-faces-busy-monday-rush-hour-test-drive


Greater Ottawa area is nearly 3 times the population of London.

[ssiguy]

Great news for Ottawa. I lived there in the 80s when they were just finishing the bus Transitway which was a great piece oif infrastructure. I hope London getès off itès ass now that all levels of gov't have committed funding and get the BRT shovels in the ground.

[Dupcheck]

Originally Posted by jammer139

Ottawa's LRT first day.


https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...m-faces-busy-monday-rush-hour-test-drive


Greater Ottawa area is nearly 3 times the population of London.

True for now, but Ottawa is in the middle of nowhere, and they mostly employee government workers, which mainly spend money collected from taxes. London is located strategically in the main transport trade corridor between US and Ontario and it is growing economically and geographically everyday!

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by Dupcheck

True for now, but Ottawa is in the middle of nowhere, and they mostly employee government workers, which mainly spend money collected from taxes. London is located strategically in the main transport trade corridor between US and Ontario and it is growing economically and geographically everyday!

If high speed rail is ever built between Toronto and Windsor/Detroit, having an LRT link between a high-speed station in London and various points in the city will be important. Ottawa's LRT connects with that city's VIA station.

There was a recent report from TD Economics that showed that 70% of all tech jobs in Canada are located in cities that together make up only 43% of Canada's population - Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, and Vancouver. This report also applauded Kitchener-Waterloo for a high amount of growth in this sector, and it specifically credited that city's LRT investment with helping to increase tech employment. The report goes on to say that other cities need to make similar investments if they don't want to get left behind, as has already happened in the United States where tech jobs are even more heavily concentrated in only a few cities and the rest of the country is stuck with low-paying service jobs. London has been moving in that direction for the better part of 15 years, but it's not too late for the city to embrace change and avoid becoming an economic backwater.

At least London is taking a positive step with BRT, but it's going to have to be upgraded to LRT in the future. London isn't going to have a choice.

[jammer139]

So what is stopping Canadian Transit Authorities from making a 100% EV only purchasing policy going forward to replace their entire fleets incrementally as they retire the oldest buses with their annual new capital purchases?

The premium on EV buses has come down considerably and will continue to decrease.

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-largest-electric-bus-manufacturers-in-the-world

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by jammer139

So what is stopping Canadian Transit Authorities from making a 100% EV only purchasing policy going forward to replace their entire fleets incrementally as they retire the oldest buses with their annual new capital purchases?

The premium on EV buses has come down considerably and will continue to decrease.

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-largest-electric-bus-manufacturers-in-the-world

Cost. The premium has come down. But there is a premium. And cold weather performance.

https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2...harge-new-flyer-byd-proterra-beb/577954/

The cheaper Chinese BYD buses seem particularly ill-suited to our climate.

[HillStreetBlues]

Originally Posted by Dupcheck

True for now, but Ottawa is in the middle of nowhere, and they mostly employee government workers, which mainly spend money collected from taxes. London is located strategically in the main transport trade corridor between US and Ontario and it is growing economically and geographically everyday!

Ottawa and London are growing at roughly the same pace population-wise. If you can point to a source saying that London's economic growth is significantly faster than Ottawa's, I'd like to see it. You make it sound as though having a base of consumer spending underpinned by the ability of the federal government to tax across the country is a bad thing...

The only thing I think you're definitely right about is that London is growing geographically. Ottawa hasn't exactly done an excellent job keeping its sprawl in check, but it's not as egregious as London's.

[ssiguy]

I don't think London's external growth is any worse than any other city in the country. Ottawa is more than twice the size of London, has a more concentrated workforce downtown due to the government office buildings, and most importantly Ottawa, unlike London, is a very linear city.

Ottawa spreads east/west along the Ottawa river while London has no such geogrphical barriers so spreads out from the downtown in all direction. This means in Ottawa there are fewer, longer, and more congested routes as there are fever ways to get downtown making fast transit a more appealing option. It is far more efficient to serve a city with transit in one that is rectangular like Ottawa as opposed to a square like London.

[jammer139]

Interesting trackless tram train goes live in China. Wonder how it would do in snow.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/...0million-autonomous-trackless-train.html

[jammer139]

Hamilton LRT cancelled. Cost estimates ballooned for 4X. City still to get $1B from the province for transit projects.

[MrSlippery519]

Originally Posted by jammer139

Hamilton LRT cancelled. Cost estimates ballooned for 4X. City still to get $1B from the province for transit projects.

4x the cost seems crazy to me, but this is exactly why you ask for more and hope you get it, the fact London did not even ask for more has always bothered me. Even if they knew building LRT would not be feasible get the extra money from the government.