Why I’m Less Excited About Trams Than You youtu.be/JLzkcfGfnDg

If we are EVER to learn from the disastrous Line 6 opening and (incoming) Line 5 disaster, Toronto must objectively reflect on their history & conception. @jrurbanenetwork.bsky.social latest piece does exactly that. These are 2 badly planned, politicized ideas choked by poor delivery & discourse.

I have not been shy on my coverage of transit issues in Toronto. With the disastrous opening of the Finch West LRT in early December, I have some thoughts from Hong Kong using my historical experiences with Toronto in this longform post.

TTC Planning & Engineering has been proposing and implementing exactly this type of infrastructure for decades but they face opposition from the City. Queue Jump Lanes constructed by the TTC include: WB Lawrence & Dufferin EB Steeles & Don Mills WB Finch & Yonge EB Finch & Markham

I do think this type of approach of identifying and fixing bottlenecks with targetted cheap transit priority, is the most best thing the TTC could be doing and blows away basically everything in the TTC's capital budget from a value perspective.

I need to update my map after the new lines opened last week. Chengdu has opened 722km of metro lines in 15 years.

Only Toronto would spend 220 million INT$/km (the cost France or China builds an underground city center metro line) on a tramway that is significantly slower, less frequent and more unreliable than the bus route it replaced.

Rode Line 6 again off-peak as an experiment to see how much faster service could be with optimisation. Trip time: 41 min Dwell from lights: 11 min Dwell from schedule padding: 4 min Actual run time: 26 min Increase the speed limit, and I'd say we could safely do 25 min off-peak/30 min peak.

just took line 6 this evening, two weeks since opening. a smooth 8 min to jane, and then an 8 min ride back (faster than scheduled). -dwell times average 20s per stop -in both directions, my train never hit a red light except at jane st -green transit phase insertion/rotation being tested 1/2

to inaugurate the new blog, i've written about a local and contentious topic that's been on my mind for years. at its heart, it's about understanding the information that transit riders need. the case for splitting TTC Line 1:

Today Futian HSR Station in Shenzhen just installed a dual layer PSD system. Similar to the one I visited in Osaka, Japan; two layers of PSD units can shift around to match the door positions of any train. China has over 50 different HST models with a bunch of different door locations...

People defending the slow speeds on the grounds of social equity have no legs to stand on. Transit (including on Finch) being faster is exactly what delivers big equity gains. It closes the gap with the car for people who *don't* drive.

Speed Matters. Some thoughts about transit and speed, life, space and time. open.substack.com/pub/marcochi...

The suburban centres of Sydney are MUST SEE TV! - Masterful urban integration between indoor/outdoor space - Small retail units for street activation & entrepreneurship - Centered on fast & frequent suburban rail We’ve got much to learn from Australia… (📷 Chatswood, Parramatta, Hurstville)

The results from Toronto's Finch West project suggest it will be very important for the function of Muni Metro's on-surface CBTC system to be worked out well before it is installed.

Places that do not understand tram operations: let's run them with train-like positive protection. Places that do understand tram operations: let's build a 100 m-long platform at our busiest stop so both trams and buses can board simultaneously. We trust trained drivers to handle this. (Ulm HB)

Q: how can we make the street below safer for people outside of cars? toronto transportation services: 💡 force the LRT to operate 20 km/h slower than the adjacent traffic! vision zero! 🥰

For people not familiar with the matter: any tram line I'm aware of globally works in so-called "line-of-sight", i.e. it's 100% manually operated by the driver with some protection for single track and switches None use PTO signaling (i.e. that enforce max speed), except on off-street sections

if the city truly believed in "vision zero" for finch avenue it would make transit the fast, compelling option to get people out of cars. also, ban a bunch of left turns. also, force tankers to use keele to access the oil terminals. but instead we get the dumbest idea: slowing down the tram

Not Just Bikes vs. Montreal (Two Years Later)

Thanks to the signaling system, Line 6 drivers can hardly ever drive faster than 30km/h all in the name of safety. The vehicle on a fixed guideway in the middle of the street needs to travel at half the speed limit. Meanwhile cars and big trucks close to the curb can travel at 60km/h.

Vision Zero for motorists, who regularly injure or kill pedestrians and other vehicle occupants 👎 “Vision Zero” for trams, on fixed guideways, keeping them moving at half the speed of motorists 👍

It’s great that stronger TSP is now a political priority. Unfortunately, our $3B+ tramway will STILL take 46-min to go 10km, slower than the bus. This is due to: - “Vision Zero” speed limits of 35 midblocks, 25 intersections, 15 platforms - speed limits and gradients enforced by unnecessary CBTC

The TTC Finch W Tramway is a walking disaster and the Montreal REM is a runaway success.

A new video from Paige Saunders on Canadian High Speed Rail landing on the day we announce the first phase from Ottawa to Montreal? This is amazing. www.youtube.com/watch?si=hyy...

I wanted to compare what I saw on Seattle's Line 1 LRT with Toronto's Finch LRT. In Seattle, you can see left turning cars waiting while fast-moving transit gets priority. Help TTCriders make it happen in Toronto: www.ttcriders.ca/greenlight 📸: @wk1998.bsky.social / @kevinrupasinghe.bsky.social

Absolute firecracker of a piece in the Globe. Transit needs to be fast, and agencies need to show respect for riders by showing that they care about speed and efficiency. Nobody is dismissing the importance of safety

i grew up in jane & finch as a kid. i remember being there when they were initially planning this line and promised a fast, new train to replace the overcrowded finch bus. i was excited back then. all i can say is i feel insulted this whole project feels like an insult to communities along finch

What a coincidence, the map of higher-income areas of Toronto lines up with the map of shorter commutes. And the lower-income areas (Scarborough and northern Etobicoke) have longer commutes! Someone should do something about this.

Opening of Finch West LRT was very exciting. I love seeing the new infra, beautiful trains & people excited to ride! But we're clearly not done yet. Scheduled travel time of 46 minutes & often over 50 mins in reality just isn't okay when the local bus was scheduled at 38 off-peak and 53 at peak. 1/

Your daily reminder that the most effective transit priority strategy at intersection is... not having an intersection at all.

Would media show up for me to race the Finch LRT on foot?

Sometimes you come across a stat that stops you in your tracks. Today I learned that TransLink's 555 has the 8th highest rate of boardings per hour, which is mindblowing. Why? Highway express routes like this aren't supposed to do well on that metric. They usually don't have a lot of ons and offs

I constantly hear in some planning circles that "speed isn't a big issue for new transit", downplaying issues with our new LRTs. and yet today i heard sooo many riders, young and old, ask "why is it so slow?" "transit should be frequent, reliable, and FAST" shouldn't be a hot take!

Line 6 late evening maintenance replacement bus is scheduled for a 34 min runtime, about 26% faster than the train (46 mins). Kinda bad. In reality, the replacement bus can make the trip in ~24 mins, about 54% faster than the on-street runtime I experienced on the train (~53 mins). Really bad.

Updated TTC Subway reduced speed zone map.

Except one of them was built at the cost of an underground full metro line.

Northwest Toronto just got a transit investment that actually lengthens their commutes. They deserve better.

Okay enough negativity about Finch West LRT, here are some cute pics of me having an awesome time today with friends & the wider transit community!! Y’all make me so happy :)))) Highlights: - Regional transit maps finally on local transit! - Being first of 50 ppl to get a commemorative coin!

as advocates we owe it to the public to be honest about what riders will experience with new transit. someone once told me - it'd be a discredit to any transit advocacy group to go around celebrating new projects without also pushing for them to be *best* for the people who will rely on them (2)

passing through jane and finch on the new line 6. i'm going to need a patience transfusion. just watched a bus speed past us. i'm livid for the people who have endured years of buses held up by construction only to depend on this goddamn streetcar. we're only two kilometres in. 😭

We’ve gotta talk about the Finch West megaramp… There’s no way that the additional excavation required for all that station volume isn’t more expensive than a simple elevator. It’s also such an insult to force anyone with mobility issues to walk 3x the distance!

Toronto just opened the 10km Finch W tram today. The total cost of the project with 30-year Ops & Maintenance is 3.7 billion CAD. Assuming 30-year O&M is 1 billion CAD, the project costs 230 million INT$/km to build. That's the same per km unit cost France or China builds an underground urban metro.

I'm repeating myself ad nauseam, but this totally stupid nonsense of all identical traffic lights with written signs to indicate what they are meant for is so absolutely insane that has come to symbolize the hyper-provincialism of Ontario and why it fails so miserably at transit construction.

Had the pleasure of short turning on the new Line 6 Finch West LRT with @rmtransit.bsky.social @englishrail.bsky.social @jedwinmok.com @nottaylorx.bsky.social @anthonyluo.bsky.social

Toronto just opened a new rail line, Line 6 Finch West. It cost C$3.5 billion to build for 10.3 km of route, from which I conclude it must be a 100% underground city center line and the picture of a tram in the article is unrelated. www.thestar.com/news/gta/fin...

Finch West LRT, day one

fun fact: you can get from Kipling to kennedy on line 2 (across the whole city!) in the same amount of time you'll be able to get from humber college to finch west when line 6 opens tomorrow. even though it's under half the distance. our first new "rapid" transit line in 23 years 🥲

Two years ago, Montreal’s bike share stayed open over winter for the 1st time as a limited pilot project (150 of ~1,000 stations). Last year it expanded to 200 stations. This year it’s up to 234 stations, mainly in off-street locations that don’t disturb snow plowing/removal. See the progression!