Oh and if people haven't come across Open Infrastructure Map before - this is a super nerdy thing to nose into. It certainly helped me to visualise the connections between Quebec's hydro plants and the population centres of Canada!

Also, if people are legitimately interested in this topic - I can recommend this (free!) book Overhead Line Electrification for Railways - An approachable and comprehensive study of OLE for beginners and trainees (It is written from a UK perspective, but it's interesting nevertheless!)

I could provide many more examples of long, electrified freight trains - I just chose India as an example. I don't disagree that countries focus on passenger trains - but freight is not an afterthought though! As another example, China (known for its high quality high speed rail) is #1 for...

appreciated!

Dare I ask what the ridership per $ cost for the tunnel route is...

Not the case - India has nearly 2,000km of newly built electrified railway dedicated for double stack freight - electrified at 25kV AC. Trains of comparable length to ones used in North America, running at 100kmh on these dedicated, grade separated lines. They use Alstom electric locomotives...

Yes, 25kV AC - for example in the UK, the East Coast Main Line into Kings Cross has 125mph Intercity EMUs on the fast lines, with 85-100mph commuter/RER trains on the slow lines. No, there are no drawbacks - 25kV AC is an international standard for electrification at this point.

I'm gonna work out how I phrase "maybe you should have public art, or at least use a decent architect rather than relying on engineering led design teams" without sounding too rude...

I am not looking forward to hearing from people who should know better (i.e. worked with Tory) about this budget ... If there are 'efficiencies' to be found, why didn't you find them when you were running Council? I disagree with him, but I do appreciate that Burnside is upfront with what he...

Did I dream about TMU thinking about talking some of the space?

Looks good... although this street does seem redundant by the final phase... Surely a larger park would outweigh the marginal transportation improvement (and if you want a walking/cycling route along that line, you can do that without needing a GIANT street). Looks like every address /...

This is why it's gutting as a Londoner that all the good engineers and designers who worked on Crossrail are currently in Australia (Sydney Metro, Melbourne Metro Tunnel) or New Zealand (City Rail Link) ... because we're not building Crossrail 2... :( A long runway of rapid transit projects in...

Unfortunately I don't think I've ever used a good "planning data" system - but the Toronto one is particularly bad. Hard to find addresses or applications if you don't know the correct reference. We've got gigabit internet here at home, and documents take an age to download!

And on that note....

I wouldn't be surprised if general customs capability remains the same - for some trucks and most cars. But specialist customs capability might be moved to the brand new facilities at the Gordie Howe - given USDA have a building there, vehicle imaging building, much more space etc.

Yes, I could see the Ambassador asking for/paying for a "crossing wait time" electronic sign on the 401!

Keeping the diamond track is classy, that's really nice.

Ugh, imagine how bad this is going to look when value engineered to smithereens and then poorly maintained/managed by Parks for a few years. I'm not asking for bland featureless grass and some trees (looks at some of the parks recently built in York Region) ... but thinking about the...

yes, I can imagine a few providers kicking up a fuss if Alstom was selected automatically...

Interesting that they didn't take that approach with the Ontario Line - Hitachi rolling stock likely made in Italy! Alstom have been binning the majority of the BBD intellectual property - seems very unlikely they would stick with a BBD Flexity product given that they are only advertising...