A remarkable piece about how to upgrade and optimize the Go Transit rail network, with express and local services, using lessons learned from real work examples in Japan

This seems like a very bad idea

Most of Canadian housing policy is predicated on the idea that seniors will downsize and use that money for retirement. Yet nearly *half* of all households aged 85 and over live in a single-detached or semi-detached home they own.

Notable chart included in a new TTC Board report about improving streetcar speeds, comparing stop distance and average speeds on Toronto routes versus surface rail routes in other cities. secure.toronto.ca/council/agen...

Timeline cleanse: It’s someone special’s sixth birthday 🎉

I couldn’t agree more with this sentiment - it’s nice that the TTC was given $3 billion for the waterfront east LRT but they should really try and spend less. Toronto should treat this as a lower cost transit pilot project - go faster, smaller contracts, less concrete, less tunnel work, etc.

AOC: “This is a threat of genocide & merits removal from office. The President’s mental faculties are collapsing & cannot be trusted. To every individual in the President’s chain of command: You have a duty to refuse illegal orders. That includes carrying out this threat”

Great news: In addition to being open later, Eglinton line 5 is speeding up and adding more frequent trains

Next stage: Enlightened planner: what if we identify and resolve the reasons for unreasonable cost escalation in transit projects instead of treating them as an inevitable part of big infrastructure projects?

I feel like “the world passed peak gas-powered car sales in 2017” is not a widely known fact

Bluesky: Minneapolis X: Moscow Facebook: The Villages Instagram: Miami Threads: Orlando Mastodon: Brussels LinkedIn: Dubai Tik Tok: Shanghai

A picture including every human who ever lived but four

Someone in my neighbourhood is giving away this busted down tickle trunk, and I’m gutted I can’t think of a good use case for it that would allow me to bring it home.

New from me at TVO, on watching high-speed rail history repeat itself. www.tvo.org/article/anal...

The People Yearn for the Train

I went back to capture what the astronauts said in full when the clock was stopped at T-10 minutes and they were asked if they were go for launch: This is Victor. We are going for our families. This is Christina. We are going for our teammates. This is Jeremy. We are going for all humanity.

Godspeed Mr. Hansen

Look, if we call high-speed rail a person transport pipeline can we all agree to support it?

To recap, Poilievre’s position seems to be that private truck owners unlawfully occupying public property and honking train horns in our capitol’s urban core is fine But public rail authorities exploring lawful expropriation of some rural lands for a transport corridor is beyond the pale

Inbox: "Poilievre called on the Liberal government to cancel the [Alto high-speed rail] project, and said that as Prime Minister, his government would do so" Battle lines drawn

Why is that apartment in Etobicoke helping fund the Spadina subway extension, library branches across the city, affordable housing, shelters, and long-term care? (because it’s easier to tax new housing than to raise everybody else’s taxes, that’s why.)

Assuming a full 50% cut to Development Charges in Toronto, that would bring DC's back in-line with 2019, just as they started to grow enormously. Combined with last week's HST exemption this hopefully helps unstick the industry. Reminder: if nothing's built, cities get $0 in DC's anyways

Also of note in the Fed/Ontario announcement today, the twos govts will look at finally building the missing rail link from Milton to the CN main line near Highway 7, which would allow the CP main line through Toronto & Mississauga to be used for new passenger rail services.

Big news buried below the fed/Ont DCs announcement: $3B funding deal for the Waterfront E LRT in Toronto news.ontario.ca/en/backgroun...

This is very good news for folks looking for more affordable housing, even if they are not buying a new home themselves. Lowering unfair taxes on new housing should increase supply and lower prices and rents relative to where they would otherwise be.

Very sad to learn a 15 year old boy is in critical condition after a driver struck him near a school, in a 30 km/hr zone, where speed cameras had been removed. Speeding kills and the thoughtless removal of cameras to punish speeders near schools should be reversed. www.thestar.com/news/gta/mou...

Will Vancouver be the first place in Canada to implement congestion pricing for its City Centre? It’s well served by transit, has easily understood boundaries, seems like a great candidate

Very good news: The HST is coming off new home purchases, at least temporarily. We should no more tax new homes in a housing crisis than we would tax new farms in a hunger crisis or new job offers amid unemployment.

Good piece. I have liked the Island Airport, but expanding it should not be at the Premier’s whim. City Council should have a say. Not sure it’s worth the cost of doubling runway length, locking in frequent jets over the waterfront, & reducing new housing, all to serve ~5% of Pearson’s passengers.

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)

Pretty remarkable that the supposedly pro-market Board of Trade can’t bring itself to advocate for congestion pricing - which demonstrable works in NYC and London - and instead argues for small beer tweaks like smart signals, etc.

New report! MMI partnered with OREA on their release "A Pathway to Development Charge Reform" which provides 7 practical recommendations on how to lower DCs in a fiscally responsible way that does not increase property taxes. See the recommendations here: www.missingmiddleini...

Really remarkable new population estimates, suggesting Ontario’s population down by 0.7% over the last year

oh look at that www.pew.org/en/research-...

Leave it to @graphicmatt.com to call out the lack of data supporting the idea of having jets at Billy Bishop Airport! High landing fees, low passenger numbers, gridlock, and over $1 billion needed makes this all not add up. #TOpoli #ONpoli #cdnpoli #NoJetsTO www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

I would simply gather the six most important world powers and work out a joint comprehensive plan of action to ensure Iran’s nuclear program is strictly monitored and restricted, but peace is preserved, oil exports unimpeded, and the strait kept open

Your good news story today: a major purchase on the Northlander route, launching later this year, is expected to improve both passenger and freight service. Connecting Ontario's north to major population centres again is a huge W. www.ctvnews.ca/northern-ont...

If you care about cities, these are people you should be following. Glad that I can be part of that conversation

Horrifying and despicable targeting of the Jewish community in Michigan I hope the City and Toronto Police take further steps to safeguard our Jewish neighbours, including long-term arrangements to have police patrol and protect vulnerable sites @mayoroliviachow.ca @shelleycarroll.bsky.social

You love to see it

What folks often fail to realize is that in our biggest cities, homeownership skews old. Real old. The highest rate of homeownership in the City of Toronto, by age category is among... people over the age of 85. (Census 2021)

Platform doors make financial sense

Americans: we live in a fallen state—embroiled by sin, cheating, lying, and evil. You cannot trust anyone, not even those who claim to know you best Canadians: I love my neighbors and my friends!

Spain is a core EU member, part of the customs union, and will enjoy the benefit of the EU’s anti-coercion instrument designed to shield members from trade blackmail, so this could provoke a wider trade war in the unlikely event the US does not TACO www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/f79388c...

Sad to see Halifax - which had been staying out of the way and letting the market build homes - moving to hike development charges. Municipal government by, of, and for legacy homeowners, dedicated to the proposition that property taxes should be kept down by taxing new home building, is wrong.

Data from October 2025 shows the streetcar travelled on average about 60-90 seconds faster going south (nearside stops) than north (farside stops) over this stretch. This suggests each farside stop adds about 20-30 seconds to a rider’s journey time. Thanks to @stevemunro.bsky.social for the data

Most TTC streetcar & LRT dedicated lanes have stops at the far side of intersections - this based on the theory that these let TSP work better, reducing delays. But many TTC riders feel the frequent double stops this causes (1st at red light, 2nd at farside stop) adds to delays. So who’s right?

One nice thing about Line 5 is that the LRV doors close quite quickly, in ~3 seconds, vs. the ~5 seconds it takes for streetcar doors to close. To save time, the TTC should re-program the streetcar doors to close faster, which should be possible as they use closely related Alstom vehicles.