My problem is that I believed the transit experts. Both TTC and metrolinx talked about studying elevation on Eglinton and having a report for the next year.
http://m.thestar.com/#/article/news...ed_transit_among_metrolinxs_alternatives.html
The lack of information on this option that was being looked at points to obvious political interference.
That, and perhaps a blurb in another article, were about all we were given in terms of discussion about elevated transit for Eglinton East. And while they were 'perhaps talking about maybe studying it', they went full bore with accepting an unstudied underground solution costed exactly the same as the central portion. If they were so quick to accept that, why weren't they quick to propose elevated? I don't see "political interference", I see political incompetence.
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And speaking of incompetence surrounding major transit projects, there's a new
Star article talking about the lack of information re: the S(L)RT. People had no idea what they were getting. Yes, Ford played a major role in giving out misinformation. But I think the finger should be pointed at Miller and Giambrone on this one. All communication about the project was lacking, people were in the dark, and IMO it should've always been called a "subway" instead of "LRT" - because it
is a subway line.
The article presents us with one of the only (or
the only) rendering of what we were to get. I believe it was scrounged from a TTC report, and if I'm not mistaken it's erroneously showing a Mark II vehicle.
Take a look at this.
Calgary designed, built and opened their LRT in only 3 years. Really impressive work. Any input on how they were able to do that?
Ah, cool. I definitely like how Calgary (and Edmonton, and Ottawa, and KW) are doing LRT. IMO there's a lot more flexibility than what we're seeing in TO. With the exception of the mothballed SLRT, it seems here we can only build light rail either in the middle of the street, or underground - very little in between. Whereas in virtually every other city with LRT significant portions of lines are completely separate from limiting factors like a road's speed limit or traffic signals.
Having said that, I'll still hold Vancouver to a higher regard for taking things to a higher level and continuing to build a true subway/metro system.