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I for one am glad the railways got their way. Why fix something that isn't broken? The imperial system works just fine for the systems users.

In fact its superior to the metric system for the railway's purposes.
Road users use intersections with other roads to determine their location in the city, the railway equivalent is mile posts which are used to determine ones location on a subdivision. Furthermore it's extremely important to know where the location of every mile post is along the route as that is what foreman use to designate their limits and also what we refer to in order to help us ascertain the location of track restrictions. Going metric would mean using km's which would mean we'd be required to know 1.6 times as much information. Trust me, when your constantly traveling along at highways speed and considering a multitude of other issues, complicating matters by requiring one to retain more information is just asking for trouble.

mile posts (or distance posts) need not be every Km. A post every 2 Km or 5 Km would mean checking for these signs less often than in an imperial system.
 
Last column for glass atrium at Union Station marks significant progress

TORONTO, January 14, 2014 – A major milestone in the Union Station revitalization project was reached last night, as the last of 48 vertical steel columns that will support the glass atrium over the GO Transit train shed roof in the historic Union Station was put in place.

“The installation of the final column marks significant progress on the atrium roof at Union Station,” said Bruce McCuaig, Metrolinx President and CEO. “The improvements we’re making to the train shed mean we will be able to move more GO riders, more quickly through a much more pleasant environment over the coming years.”

The revitalization of the train shed at Union Station is a critical component of Metrolinx's regional transportation plan to dramatically improve how people move in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. The project is a $270 million investment supported by the Province of Ontario.

Construction of the train shed and roof elements is being done in phases to minimize disruption to GO’s regular rail services, which is why the steel columns were installed during the night.

The train shed is undergoing its first renovation since it was built over 80 years ago, featuring the atrium as the centrepiece. The most noticeable aspect of the project will be the natural light streaming through the new roof and glass atrium that is being built over the passenger platforms and railway tracks. The innovative design for the new train shed roof received a 2012 Canadian Architect Award of Excellence.

Once complete, the atrium will replace the centre 5,000 square metres of the 35,000 square metre roof. The large glass atrium will soar 13 metres above track level and will allow for sunlight and air circulation throughout the shed. Construction on the train shed began in January 2010 and is scheduled to be complete by the end of 2016.

Today, Metrolinx is sharing photos and videos of the latest achievement in the project.

High-resolution images and a time-lapsed video of the vertical steel columns being erected are available at these two unlisted and private website links:

Unlisted YouTube link: http://bit.ly/UnionTimelapseJan2014

Private photo set on Flickr: http://bit.ly/UnionStationPhotosJan2014

Metrolinx is working to provide residents and businesses in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area with a transportation system that is modern, efficient and integrated. Find out more about The Big Move, Metrolinx’s Regional Transportation Plan for the GTHA. Find out more about GO Transit, PRESTO, and Union Pearson Express, divisions of Metrolinx.
 
Because we are a country that is supposed to be using the metric system. Having two systems overlapping is a broken system.

We don't care about that on the railway, where there is no overlap - everything is done in imperial. I've never once heard anyone on the railway complain about the system not being metric, its a non-issue.
 
We don't care about that on the railway, where there is no overlap - everything is done in imperial. I've never once heard anyone on the railway complain about the system not being metric, its a non-issue.

This seems to be the more logical explanation than anything else. Railways are more or less isolated and encapsulated in their own little area of the transportation world and so the decision to stick with imperial measurements was more likely to be an industry wide decision rather than a government imposed regulation.

For comparison the airline industry also seems to favour imperial measurements and it does not have the history that railways would have (passenger air travel was just beginning to mature when metric began to be implemented). However there is very little interaction between air travel and other 'public' forms of transport. So as an industry imperial is kept as the standard measurement vs metric.
 
So what if that's how it always was done. Some industry still using cubits because that's how it always was done? Time to move forward and use what everyone else is using.
 
So what if that's how it always was done. Some industry still using cubits because that's how it always was done? Time to move forward and use what everyone else is using.
As was noted above it is clearly necessary for the railways in both US and Canada to use the same system of measurement because they are so integrated. Though I agree that they should move to metric it is very unlikely that they will do so as the US seems very opposed. (I assume Mexican railways are in metric, but they are far less integrated.)
 
For comparison the airline industry also seems to favour imperial measurements and it does not have the history that railways would have (passenger air travel was just beginning to mature when metric began to be implemented). However there is very little interaction between air travel and other 'public' forms of transport. So as an industry imperial is kept as the standard measurement vs metric.

Aviation is actually in a transitional state where metrication is concerned. The ICAO favours metric/SI as a global standard, the main exception being allowing feet as a measure of altitude, whereas runways are generally indicated in metres. Freight volumes and fuel weights are increasingly in m3 and kg rather than cu. ft and lbs.

Integration with the US railway system is probably the main reason for Imperial/US units being used on the rails in Canada. If the US ever decided to metricate the railways (a huge transition, to be sure), Canada would probably follow suit. Metrication of railway systems on a large scale has been achieved in other places such as Australia (part of a larger metrication scheme that has gone much further than Canadian efforts) and India (helped by one of the country's three main rail gauges being the 'metre gauge' introduced by the British at a point in the 19th century when interest in the metric system was high).
 
It drives me bonkers when coworkers or whoever mentions the temperature of their homes or pools in Fahrenheit. I don't know what 70-something degrees is! And your thermostat can be set to Celsius if it's digital! Just makes no sense to me. My dad grew up during the transition, and he even uses Celsius exclusively in discussing temperature.

That said, I'm very familiar with using feet and pounds for height and weight, but that's about it.

One of my pet peeves with apps like Grindr is that it makes you choose metric or Imperial, and if I choose metric I'm stuck with annoying cm for height and kg for weight, but if I choose Imperial I just have to deal with distance in miles. Neither situation is ideal for me.
 
Has anyone seen any new photographs of the dig under the station and it's progress? There were quite a few coming out for awhile there, but there's been nothing lately.
 
Only imperial measurements I use is for human body weight and height, and vehicle fuel efficiency. (Metrics way of measuring it is stupid)

I know plenty if people who use Celsius for everything but pool temperature, it's kinda annoying. I've built up a working knowledge of imperial at this point because of trips to the US and people using it in Canada for no real reason..
 
CN:

The last one I've seen was a set of 3 for the new York Street concourse - they're putting in the terrazzo floor.

CC:

Grindr? It used to be groundbreaking - but they can't even get the app stable with the last update - deleted.

AoD
 
Awesome, thanks MafaldaBoy! Looks like the canopy is pretty much 3/4 done?
 

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