I've spent a lot of time monitoring train movements and the track owner whose dispatching seems the most hostile to Via is not CN or CPKC, it's the Government of Ontario. Others are noticing this as well:

Surely if Light Duty Trucks don't meet the standards of passenger cars we should at least mandate automatic speed enforcement on them to minimize their harm. Light trucks are theoretically for tradespeople, why do they need to go more than 110 km/h?

Happy construction season to those who celebrate!

@viarailcanada.bsky.social This is not an acceptable situation for paying customers on a 5-hour journey. If there's no window, don't put seats there. How about putting a luggage rack so you can relax the baggage limits?

Line 5's top speed is now 80 km/h in tunnels! Removing unnecessary speed restrictions is 3️⃣ on our ten-point plan, and a great first step to put #Eglinton on the fast track! Now it’s time for the surface section of Line 5, Line 6 and the #streetcars to follow suit. See more here:

This raised crossing is extremely effective at reducing speeds where pedestrians cross. Speed limit is 30 km/h on this local street but traffic slows to maybe 15 or so at the ped crossing. Draper Street, Toronto

a great plan. the big takeaway here is that the plan needs to be implemented in full along entire routes to make a real noticeable impact on commutes and win public favour there is no one singular silver bullet. this will be one of *the* election issues going into the october mayoral race.

I checked my copy of the 2022 Streetcar Rule Book (my employer has an electronic copy because of a project). There are a lot of speed restrictions. For intersections, pedestrian crossings, switches, even passing streetcars. And Queensway, one of the best RoWs has a 10km/hr intersection limit!

With lagging left turns, the left turn phase follows the streetcar phase every cycle. This makes no difference to streetcar delay, and thus, minimal benefit to riders.

In this article, the City reveals that the Transit Signal Priority on the Eglinton LRT only allows green extensions up to 16 seconds, which is far less than the 30 s maximum that's programmed on streetcar lines and on Finch toronto.citynews.ca/2026/02/17/l...

Ottawa's downtown protected cycling lanes may be cleared of snow, but they are not cleared of parked cars...

I like when trains go zoom

Only in Ontario would we install 7 signal heads at a midblock pedestrian signal. 4 transit signal heads and 3 traffic signal heads, for 1 transit lane and 2 vehicle lanes. (There's also a bike lane but it doesn't get a signal, haha)

It was nice of the maintenance crew to give my bike a much-needed wash while I was at work. I just wish they had taken my insulated helmet off the handlebars first. It's soaking wet and it's -10 degrees out for the ride home

There’s your Ontario-built equipment going up against an unarmed crowd.

Just because e-bikes are less hazardous than cars doesn't mean we should accept unnecessary hazards. Canada/US allow much faster and heavier vehicles to operate without license or insurance than other countries. Is it really so unacceptable to limit e-bikes to 25km/h / 250W like other countries?

Daily reminder that the primary benefit of railway electrification is not to reduce railway emissions. It is to enable faster acceleration which reduces travel time and thereby increases frequency without adding operating cost. That then attracts more riders and thereby more revenue.

The Government of Canada having foreign travel advisories for "exercise high degree of caution" for most of Western Europe, but still keeping the USA in full green, is insane. travel.gc.ca/travelling/a...

The TTC has imposed a 25 km/h limit on the surface portions of the subway, presumably due to freezing rain yesterday. But making the subway slow and infrequent will encourage people to drive on slippery roads instead. It seems like "add a speed restriction" is the TTC's solution to every concern.

It's so frustrating when the Google AI summary has clearly found the information I'm looking for, but it's not in the sources it links. I can't cite the AI summary because it's often wrong. Even here it claims GO Expansion is a project of ProRail, the rail infrastructure operator of the Netherlands

At the back cab of the Finch LRT you can see the speedometer, including the programmed speed limits. It would be useful if a pair of transit advocates could film a full ride with both the view out the front and the speedometer at the back so we can document the speed limits youtu.be/lectZKgdwTo

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

In 2021 The City exempted the Finch LRT from the 50 km/h speed limit (allowing it to go 60), citing the importance of short round trip times. Unfortunately the TTC later enacted 25 km/h intersection speed limits, making 60 km/h unattainable between signals anyway. www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis...

If they can cut 9 minutes each way off the scheduled travel time, here's how frequent the service would be with the existing number of drivers and vehicles: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

This isn't something that needs to be funded through a budget. Signals on Eglinton and Finch already have signal priority installed. The problem is the way these signals prioritize (or don't) transit. Such as left turning cars going before LRT vehicles. 1/2

The "R" in LRT doesn't stand for "rapid", it stands for "rail". Toronto's new Finch LRT does have rails so guess it has achieved its mandate!

One of the nice things about the REM is that it provides a nearby illustration of how fast the O-Train could be if we wanted our rapid transit to actually be rapid: youtu.be/Wx7yOQqYeK4?...

Metrolinx can't run night trains "due to track ownership"?! Metrolinx owns: 100% of Lakeshore East 100% of Stouffville 100% of Barrie Kitchener line to just before Bramalea Lakeshore West to Burlington. Rather than sharing their actual constraints they spew vague misleading bullshit.

The difference in the time it takes a streetcar in Amsterdam vs. Toronto to clear an intersection after servicing a nearside stop.

99% of Canadians studies "We are taking inspiration from international peers!" Look inside The international peers 🇺🇸🇬🇧

Electrifying railways is not greenwashing. Faster acceleration means more revenue. Shorter round trip times mean higher equipment productivity. Electricity is cheaper than fuel. Electric trains are cheaper to maintain. It's the most financially sustainable way to run a frequent rail service.

Personellement je préfère des garages propres, mais à chacun son goût...

There is some irony in this government directive, following their own attempts to limit or remove barrier-protected bike lanes in Toronto and the rest of the province.

In Ottawa when a road is reconstructed it's brought up to the current standards. That usually means that cycle tracks get added, as is currently happening on Greenfield Avenue:

It is insane to me that some people believe AI responses

Metrolinx claims that they can't reintroduce express trains on the Lakeshore East line since the 3rd track is out of service. That's a lie: most of the 3rd track is still in service and there's room for express trains ontariotrafficman.wordpress.com/2025/09/12/go-transit-lies-about-express-trains/

The fact that it's so commonplace to view speeding fines as a tax on average people demonstrates how inconsistent road design is with speed limits. If 15% of people are speeding, something is wrong with those people. If 85% of people are speeding something is wrong with the road design.

Many American engineers responded to my multi-stage ped crossing video saying that they can't do Dutch-style ped green waves with American equipment. But the City of Madison, WI keeps proving them all wrong. Here's @jerryschippa.bsky.social showing one off: youtube.com/shorts/ltq2Q...

Via Rail only makes up about 55% of the bus/train capacity provided in the Ottawa-Toronto market - which illustrates how much train ridership could increase if Via had more affordable tickets.

This temporary bike lane on Danforth near Pape is the best construction lane I've ever seen in Toronto. It reminds me of Vancouver and - I don't know about you - but I've got this warm, happy feeling in my stomach?

New York City has its classic express subway trains, but London actually also has its own express underground trains. Come learn more in this video with @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social ! youtu.be/cnrkztrLhqY

This type of advocacy is why North American transit agencies predominently use the slower and more expensive Pay As You Enter model of fare collection. For Proof of Purchase to work, there need to be fare enforcement officers, but advocates freak out about any kind of enforcement.

The U.S. Coast Guard entered Canada, captured a Canadian who was fishing in Canada, smuggled him back to the US and put him in jail. No warrant, no charges. This is an act of foreign agression. www.ctvnews.ca/montreal/art...

What is the point of having elections if we get a conservative government either way?

Yes. If we really wanted to grow the economy, we’d fund higher education and scientific research to fill gaps left by a sudden American decline, along with the housing for it. There’s a big role for the federal government in that. Instead we’re going with tax cuts, austerity, and defence spending.

Turns out our government is in fact stupid enough to believe that Donald Trump's word is worth anything. In reality, he'll just make up a new excuse to torment us and all we'll have accomplished is to lose $7.2 Billion dollars over 5 years. www.canada.ca/en/departmen...

Southeastern Pennsylvania is drastically cutting transit service to save money, forgetting that you can also save money by making transit faster. If the round trip time is 50% shorter, you can keep the same frequency with half as many vehicles and half as much money. wwww.septa.org/news/septa-b...

For the next 3.5 years, very possibly longer, the United States is a hostile foreign power. They might get distracted and focus on something else for a few weeks or even months, but the underlying dynamic is the same.

Même si CPKC et CN refusent d'installer de caténaires sur les voies qu'ils utilisent, les deux extrémités des lignes Saint-Jérôme, Dorion et Mascouche sont uniquement utilisés par Exo. Des trains Exo électriques n'aurait besoin qu'une petite batterie (légère) avec une autonomie d'un trajet unique.

Miles & Aleena are taking a domestic bus trip a quarter of the way around the planet! 6 days, 17 transfers, 7 bus companies, 2 ferries, 6 time zones and over 7800 kilometres. And they're speedrunning it - sleeping on overnight buses rather than staying in hotels. This is a gargantuan undertaking.