In my french class and the other students and teachers ask casually if Canada has "le train grande vitesse" and are shocked that a "developed" country like Canada does not. Bad look.

The best video I've seen in a while of the absurdity of the bike lane and speed camera removals - including how the premier was himself hit by a speeding driver as he removed something he appears to acknowledge would prevent this . . . www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pcaa...

We have new podcast episode out on the housing accelerator fund and Toronto and as always the edit is . . . art. site.canadiancivil.com

If Toronto has a housing crisis we continue to not be taking it seriously. This video is hilarious though . . . youtube.com/shorts/lYtS2...

An obvious Toronto transit project people don't talk about. open.substack.com/pub/nextmetr...

It is absolutely nuts that the only transit we are building for this is Finch West 2 Electric Boogaloo

The current mayor of Toronto and the TTC chair deserve real credit for being the first pols in a long time to care enough to try to stop the streetcar network from rotting.

I’ve never understood why Toronto thinks people going to UTSC from Kennedy would take an Eglinton East LRT once the subway extension opens. Staying on the subway 5 more minutes (at up to 80km/hr) to Scarborough Centre and then taking a bus would be guaranteed to be faster than the LRT ever could be.

A whole year of Cinq Personnes! Lots of learnings and lots more goals. open.substack.com/pub/cinqpers...

My ideas for Scarborough transit - that's hopefully better than the Eglinton East LRT. open.substack.com/pub/nextmetr...

Why do you complain about transit media coverage in Toronto Reece?

I think its pretty clear that banning Waymo is not the best path forward for Toronto

My latest, pretty optimistic post about Toronto. open.substack.com/pub/cinqpers...

Waymo in Toronto. The TTC and City Need to get serious about transit lanes and priority. www.thestar.com/news/gta/way...

Two thoughts I was having. Ah, what if I made videos again? Oh, I could not take the stress with the way people are talking about high speed rail. . .

Instead to looking to Asian or European cities, North American cities should look closer to home — to São Paulo for some transit inspiration. open.substack.com/pub/nextmetr...

Well that’s too bad. As the first TTC-controlled project in a while, Waterfront East could be a flagship for lower cost design & construction. I just don’t get why the TTC could build 2.5 km of track on Queensway in 2017 for ~$9m but now budgets $2+ billion to do <4 km. cdn.ttc.ca/-/media/Proj...

ICYMI

I have thoughts on the Waterfront East LRT. open.substack.com/pub/nextmetr...

Making a Masters Degree for myself. open.substack.com/pub/cinqpers...

One of the most frustrating side effects of the "everyone in Canada is now an expect in high speed rail" is the extremely Toronto-centric "We couldn't get the Eglinton line done, so Canada is incapable of building transit!" Vancouver has been better at this since '86.

It feels hard to justify spending effort on "drone-based digital twins" when we aren't using switches from this century and streetcars are often 30 minutes apart for no good reason.

Yet another look into Alto in light of yesterday’s… news. open.substack.com/pub/nextmetr...

With the Liberals not having delivered intercity rail in the last 11 years, and the Conservatives solution being "we just won't build stuff! for *those* people in Ontario and Quebec (the majority of the countries population)" I'm reminded that what I really want is pro-rep.

Translink continues to absolutely blow other North American transit agencies out of the water. This is stuff you usually only see in Asia and Europe.

Do any of the services that interview a software engineer and go find them jobs still exist?

We need better governance. Feels like the most fundamental thing.

I’m concerned about AI. Read my latest article: open.substack.com/pub/cinqpers...

A big problem with Alto seems to be that they've identified decisions made in CAHSR as problematic, not the entirety of how the Anglosphere and noveau Canada approach transit builds.

We are never going to get high speed rail in Canada if we can't rationally weigh the enormous quantity of urban dwellers who will (largely, but not only) benefit against the small number of rural NIMBYs.

It'll be painful if a small number of rural folks who do not want to see a train successfully derail hsr in Canada, and somehow it is feeling more and more likely

Toronto is seriously doing the government run grocery stores thing???

Oh Ottawa, unbelievable. Ontario Transit Cynicism Meter = 10/10

I made a blog about my journey towards self improvement (fixing my shortcomings really) last year, and I've loved writing it every week. In this weeks post I compare public transit in Toronto to eating with your feet. Yeah. cinqpersonnes.substack.com/p/swimming-b...

I weep for the NDP at all 3 levels of gov, so painful to watch, now feels like a time we need them more than ever and yet . . .

I think in a few years I'll probably reflect on the Finch West LRT as the thing that killed my interest in public transportation, at least in Ontario.

When the TTC is done finishing accessibility upgrades, which it rolled through a large portion of subway stations, it should just change the program to adding screen doors and continue along from station to station

Excited to be helping on this! We need a comprehensive plan that can show how much the streetcars can improve.we can save Torontonians hundreds of thousands of hours a day.

Toronto has some of the slowest tram services on earth. Trams are not inherently slow but Toronto has archaic operational practices, out of date service and track design paradigms, as well as a general lack of care for them. Below are ideas on how Toronto can start fixing them:

Toronto’s streetcars are the SLOWEST in the world. But they don’t have to be - tram systems around the world provide far faster and more reliable service. 10 low-cost fixes, when implemented together, can launch Toronto closer to global best practice. Be sure to read our plan below!

Toronto’s streetcars are an icon of the city (the largest system in North America!). But they’re also disappointingly slow compared to other tram cities (and sometimes even compared to Toronto’s own buses). A 10-point plan from local professionals and advocates to fix the problem.

Toronto has a vast network of over 80km of streetcars moving a quarter million people every single day. But they are slow. Really slow. But that's not an inevitability of life, and simple policy changes could speed them quite a bit! Check out @fasttracktoronto.bsky.social's 10-point plan!

Toronto has the slowest streetcars in the world. Here’s a sensible short-term plan to speed them up. fast-track.to/wp-content/u...

This document is worth a look for transit advocates everywhere, because it’s a really effective advocacy piece. Just a few pages, clear points, evidence of a lot of thought behind it but not overwhelming the reader with data or analysis. @rmtransit.bsky.social

I really think we are going to see EV numbers permanently tick higher as a result of this oil crisis. Todays blog post is on the strategic value of electric public transport. open.substack.com/pub/nextmetr...

Regular reminder that "social" media is *the* place where the "so what you're saying when you say you like waffles is that you don't like pancakes!" was born.

A few of us advocates got together to start enumerating all of the things the city and TTC should be fixing (and should have a long time ago) and created a group with a ten point plan. We estimate you could save *billions* of dollars of peoples time in just the first decade.

The plan if implemented could improve speeds by up to 40% across the network, saving riders tens of thousands of hours *every day*, the time savings for riders alone would number in the billions of dollars in just the first decade! Read it here: fast-track.to/wp-content/u...

Today FastTrackTO is officially launching and releasing our 10 point plan to modernize the Toronto Streetcar network. An iconic symbol of the city that could be fantastic with some achievable, common sense and low cost changes. The plan if implemented would transform the city. fast-track.to (1/2)