Cost has increased significantly over budget, which I guess isn’t surprising given the ambition of the Metro project and the overall amount of infrastructure being built in Sydney. https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/4-3-billion-cost-blowout-in-sydney-s-metro-rail-project-20200203-p53x7n.html

Elevated is not only cheaper, it doesn’t necessarily mean the apocalypse. For example, the S-Bahn is a surface/elevated system that traverses a lot of Berlin residential neighbourhoods that seem to do just fine with it. The residential area of the elevated Hackescher Markt station, where my...

True, they do seem to make mistakes sometimes. My wife and I are sometimes charged different fares for the same trip, though maybe that’s some daily maximum thing? And I’ve had two free bus rides this week because the card readers weren’t working. But on the whole it’s pretty good.

Meanwhile, in the 21st century: https://transportnsw.info/tickets-opal/opal/contactless-payments And when I do tap my Opal card the reader gives me my card balance when I tap on, and fare (varies by day and time) and remaining balance when I tap off.

Surely the stars have aligned for the Trudeau government to provide significant funding for a further TTC streetcar order. It’s a Montreal company with a history of exerting enormous political influence in Ottawa. The Quebec government is quite public about its view of BBD as a national...

It’s nice to see a photo of a handsome old building that we apparently forgot to demolish.

The new Sydney CBD and Southeast tram runs without overhead wires along George Street in the core. Though it does have overhead wires outside the CBD. Trams in Sevilla and Bordeaux are wireless, if memory serves me correctly; however, I don’t recall if that’s only in certain sections. On the...

I suspect some of the objections to the Gardiner stem from the miserable pedestrian experience of crossing Lakeshore underneath it. The shabby, degraded public realm is of course a given for Toronto. But pedestrians also have to navigate past pretty obtrusive on and off ramps that consume a...

Australia and Switzerland are both considerably higher income than Canada, for one thing. I don’t know about CHF, but Australia certainly takes a far different approach to resource development, immigration and government debt than Canada does. I suspect that these factors account for some of...

I get it, I think. Putin’s a serial liar who sometimes orders the murder or imprisonment of his opponents, has vastly enriched himself at the expense of the state, has grabbed back bits of the old Soviet Union de jure (Crimea) or de facto (eastern Ukraine), and is an implacable opponent of NATO...

Just once I’d like to see one set in January.

If you want to live in a country that deports convicted criminals, go to Australia. I say that BTW as a newly- minted Australian permanent resident, so I’m taking my own advice. Canada would never have the balls or the concern for its citizens’ welfare to do anything like what you suggest...

Can I like this like a million times?

I came back from Sydney the week before last, and was actually impressed by the speed of baggage reclaim in T1. It took about half an hour from landing to getting my suitcase, which is a huge improvement. Not exactly HK or Sydney speed, but going in the right direction.

https://www.livescience.com/doomsday-plane-strikes-bird.html OK, it’s off topic. But still...

I think SteveX’s point is that the probability of being fined for speeding in Toronto is minuscule, and the fines aren’t all that high. Net-net, putting up a sign with a number is unlikely to do much to regulate speeds if nothing else changes. So I agree with you - we need to make significant...

Not at all. It means they’ll soldier on into the mid-2070’s.

Surely the section between Eglinton and Shepard could be mostly above ground.

Next to Robarts, the Brooklyn Bridge would feel lightly built.

Those are federal only. The combined federal-provincial top marginal rate in Ontario is 53.5% on ordinary income, kicking in at around $220k in taxable income. If you have high T4 income (salary), there aren’t that many loopholes, and you certainly don’t end up paying little to no income tax.