Toluu

Steve Munro's Web Site

Transit, Politics, Reviews

Will the Long Branch Car Live Again?Today

Updated January 8:  A regular correspondent reports that the Service Assistance Crews are back at work at Russell Carhouse.  I am awaiting further info on other points raised in this post.

Original post:

There are days when I receive the electronic equivalent of a “brown envelope” with information that is tantalizing and, if correct, quite interesting news.  Here are the main points.

• The Service Assistance Crews (SAC) have been invisible and the supervisors simply have not been outside at Russell for the last two weeks.  Crews were actually there throughout the holidays with no supervisors to tell them where to go and when.
• Today, the new Board Period started with the January schedules, and SAC has been cancelled for the upcoming two weeks.
• The entire SAC system is going to be cancelled because of cost.
• The 507 is coming back between Humber and Long Branch. Obviously the earliest this could happen is at the next board period which falls in mid February.

If anyone “in the know” cares to comment (anonymously if you want), please confirm or deny the info here.

Yesterday, I myself was riding the 501 and overheard a conversation with a Supervisor who was collecting data on delays.  It was a quiet day, and the car had no trouble staying on time.

This is the sort of thing that should leave me rolling on the floor if this were not the “greatest transit system on the

Front Street Extension: Going, Going …Today

This morning, the Planning and Growth Management Committee adopted a report recommending that the Front Street Extension be removed from Toronto’s Official Plan.

Soon, soon, the FSE will be officially dead.

Now if we can only get a sensible look at the Waterfront West LRT line rather than the piecemeal approach of past years.

For the record, I do not agree with schemes to bring transit into downtown via Front Street because this will run into severe problems in front of Union Station where current plans call for considerable increase in pedestrian space.

Urban Goddess: Jane Jacobs ReconsideredYesterday

As many of my readers know, I was fortunate and honoured to win the Jane Jacobs Prize in 2005 for my long-standing advocacy of transit improvements in Toronto.  This was the last year the prize was awarded while Jane was still alive.

I remember, warmly, sitting beside her on the stage with other prizewinners, John Sewell and David Miller as Jane spoke so warmly of our “new Mayor” (Miller), but scathingly about the dysfunctional Planning Department so dominated by the suburban, North York mentality.  Paul Bedford, then recently-retired as Chief Planner, was in the audience nearby and in her sights.

A documentary on Jane Jacobs will appear in mid-February on TVO.  Here is their press release.

The View From Here:
Urban Goddess: Jane Jacobs Reconsidered - World premiere

Airs on TVO Wednesday February 18, 2009 at 10 pm.  (Repeats Sunday February 22 at 10:35 pm and Wednesday morning — i.e., late night Tuesday — February 25 at 1 am)
52 minutes

Produced by Bliss Pictures Inc. in association with TVO, Knowledge Network and SCN

When Jane Jacobs died in 2006, Canada lost one of its loudest and most persistent urban voices. What Jacobs advocated is well known: short blocks, mixed-use buildings and diverse neighbourhoods. Urban Goddess: Jane Jacobs Reconsidered considers the livable city: an issue that directly impacts the quality of life of the

GO Transit’s Relief Line: The 1986 StudyJanuary 3

This post continues a series looking at old proposals for ways to get commuters into downtown Toronto.  This isn’t a new problem, and as we have already seen, the TTC and Metro Planning were contemplating various alternatives four decades ago.

In response to the proposed Downtown Relief Line and other subway schemes, GO Transit commissioned a study of the possibilities for GO Rail service.  This study recommended frequent, all-day service between Halwest (the point where the York Subdivision, CN’s Toronto bypass, meets the line to Brampton) to Doncaster (the point where the CN Bala Subdivision, used by the Richmond Hill train, crosses the York Sub).

As is quite evident from any GO timetable, this didn’t get built.  One reason was that interest in the DRL waned as the political dynamic and planning focus turned away from downtown to the so-called “centres” that would grow within Toronto’s suburbs.  Travel into downtown continued to grow, and the GO Lake Shore service handled much of the transit-based increase.

A few points worth noting:

• The option of using the connecting track from the CN to the CP between Oriole and Leaside was considered to be the superior route, although it had its problems including a potential conflict with the proposed Leslie Street extension.
• For reasons that are not explained, the equipment cost for the most limited of services is higher than for all-day service.  In general, I would treat t

Is There Hope For Transit In 2009?January 1

The new year brings a dark economic climate, worries about job losses, falling revenues for all governments and a pervasive sense that we have not yet seen the worst.  Whether this is media disaster-mongering, a realistic view of the future, or something in between remains to be seen.

What is quite clear is that an economic model that underpinned the past decades has run its course.  Can the same level of activity — jobs, travel, government investment — be sustained into 2009 and the next decade?

Transit is only a small part of this, and yet decisions made about transit funding have long-lasting effects.  Through my “career” as a transit activist, I have seen the boom-and-bust cycles of funding and watched as grand schemes for transit investment disintegrate when the economy falters and governments lose interest.  Too often, transit was something everyone wanted to champion, but nobody wanted to pay for.

A major problem throughout the North American transit industry, not just in Toronto, is that transit capital spending is viewed as an economic stimulus, a job creation (or preservation) mechanism, not as an essential part of what makes urban economies work.  The dominance of auto travel (and the lack of transit alternatives) puts transit down many voters’ priority lists.  People are comfortable in their cars which, for all their problems and costs, work.  The same cannot said for transit.  You cannot get to work on a press release.