Given how the cost estimations have gone up, I'd be more interested in seeing what their actual cost ends up being. Helps that Ottawa is going through solid rock and not the soil of Toronto (which has both a high water table and many underground streams). The deeper you dig your tunnels...

$2 billion will likely not get you much of a downtown subway line. People seem to like throwing around subway construction costs as if a km of subway is a km of subway is a km of subway. Unlike tunneling under empty fields or low rise industrial areas out to Vaughan, there is a heck of a...

I'd be curious to know where you are getting your stats on the Finch travel patterns. There are barely 3000 parking spots at Finch station and presumably these are taken up in fair numbers by people coming from the north and from the east and not just people from the west who would jump at...

It's not just about decreased travel times. As you mentioned, the reliability factor is a huge impact. I believe Steve Munro's piece shows that the consistency between peak and off-peak travel times are far better now than before, indicating that when you do separate the traffic, you get that...

As basic as possible? You mean like a surface LRT in it's median ROW?

No it wouldn't. You should look at how that would work based on the current TTC route map. Since you are only planning on having a few stops for the hydro corridor line, I presume you'd only be putting them at major points - major cross-streets. Anyone for whom the hydro corridor would be...

Have you or anyone else bothered to ask Hydro whether they'd be willing to allow the city to build such a busway on their ROW? The city has no jurisdiction over that provincial body. One of the reasons they may have be willing to go along with the York U busway is that it is only to be a...

I still don't get what the relevance is of whether SkyTrain is proprietary or not. LRT will be constructed with low floor platforms and overhead power distribution systems. Is that the same as SkyTrain? If not, then that means there will need to be rework. Are you still set in only...

But why would there be a cancellation fee on the LRT cars ordered for Eglinton if they haven't been canceled? What you have proposed is holding off on the construction slated to start in a month or two, redesign the line for Sky Train, cancel the LRT order in place of Sky Train cars, only use...

You mean the MK11 trains are low floors just like the LRVs (so stations wouldn't need to be changed)? Their power requirements (including substations and the like) are the same? And this facility is big enough to handle all the new trains or at least can be easily expanded to such a size...

So you are saying that because an EA was done for the Pearson rail link that they wouldn't have to do an EA for any other at-grade rail line takeover/conversion to subway? Are you sure about that? For that matter, have you looked at the use of those various CN and CP lines, how many tracks...

If you are referring to the rail corridors where there are currently tracks, then you might want to take into account that those corridors are not Toronto's but rather CN or CP's. Those organizations are not under Toronto's jurisdiction and it is not like Toronto can just say 'hey, we're going...

What stations can you identify where their intersections are 150m+ wide (to enable a tunnel width for your double tracks to include the transition to double tracking plus the double track through the 90m station)? Have you ever been on the subway when it pulls in or leaves a terminal and has...

But if you read the original TC plans from http://www.toronto.ca/involved/projects/eglinton_crosstown_lrt/pdf/2009-11-20_display_panels_part1.pdf (slides 10 and 11) carefully, they are beginning to tunnel in the central portion that has the final EA. They are starting at Black Creek which does...

Surprised no one else has commented on this yet. 30 second headway means 120 vehicles per hour. 120/hr * 38/vehicle = 4560, a long way from the suggested capacity. This theoretical capacity is assuming perfect operation whereby in much less than 30 seconds (15 - 20?) you can get all 38 people...

How much does the wheelchair capability cost per car? When not used to store a wheelchair, what is the impact on space utlization in the car? Given elevator access to platforms are in various places in different stations, how would someone in a wheelchair know where their spot is going to be on...

How about this logic: - they wanted to buy enough TRs such that they could entirely fill the YUS line (with some spares for current and future extensions); - by having an all-TR YUS, they can implement ATC, significantly improving capacity by reducing headways; - that would push all T-1s to...

The previous TC plans intended to remove duplicating bus service. That would be one of the cost advantages of LRT implementation. Are you aware of Ford's new plan changing that intention? Chaplin is where they plan to extract the TBMs when they meet in the middle. That means they'll be...

Now this is just getting silly. As much as I'd like to see it, there is absolutely no way any kind of DRL is going to be built for 2020, Olympics or not. Even TC lines fully funded in 2010 that had a fraction of the engineering intricacies and cost of the DRL were barely going to be coming...

Has there ever been a Canadian bid that didn't have full buy-in and support (including financial) from both the province and federal government? Regardless of what Ford may or may not choose to support, do you see any indication that either of those two senior level of governments would be...