[allabootmatt]

Per Steve Munro, the Dec. 15 TTC Commissioners' meeting includes a couple of agenda items on streetcar overhead maintenance and the new Ashbridges carhouse. I gather this will provide an early read on the new mayor's intentions with regard to the 'legacy' network, which are of course unclear. Doubt he would want to set up a war in Council over the issue this early, but with this guy you never know.

Edit: here is the link http://stevemunro.ca/?p=4682#more-4682

 

[Ed Drass]

Tempe hoping to create $160 million streetcar system

... to hook up with Phoenix LRT

A three-year study aimed at improving transportation options south of the light rail line has culminated in a plan to fund a $160 million streetcar-transit project that would travel roughly along Mill Avenue between Southern Avenue and Rio Salado Parkway.

If federal funding for the project is approved , the streetcar would be operating in late 2016.


Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/community/...eet-car-transit-system1215.html#ixzz182qBC9wK

 

[gweed123]

... to hook up with Phoenix LRT

A three-year study aimed at improving transportation options south of the light rail line has culminated in a plan to fund a $160 million streetcar-transit project that would travel roughly along Mill Avenue between Southern Avenue and Rio Salado Parkway.

If federal funding for the project is approved , the streetcar would be operating in late 2016.


Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/community/...eet-car-transit-system1215.html#ixzz182qBC9wK

Read some of the comments on the board under that story. Oh. My. God. Be happy we live in Canada. Be very, very happy.

 

[spider]

Read some of the comments on the board under that story. Oh. My. God. Be happy we live in Canada. Be very, very happy.

The link below from the comments referred to above is interesting, I have no idea how relevant the comparison is but it is interesting to see a viewpoint opposite to the Trolley Fanboy stuff we see everyday on this and other forums.

http://www.ti.org/vaupdate32.html

 

[Hipster Duck]

To be fair, that Tempe streetcar proposal is really stupid. $160M to build 3 km of streetcar through a low density, upscale community that ends at a strip mall with a 10% occupancy rate is not exactly a good use of money.

 

[spider]

To be fair, that Tempe streetcar proposal is really stupid. $160M to build 3 km of streetcar through a low density, upscale community that ends at a strip mall with a 10% occupancy rate is not exactly a good use of money.

You are probably right, it is refreshing to see someone actually judge a streetcar project on its merit rather than " I want a streetcar on every street right now because I like streetcars and that's all you need to know".

Isn't it odd that Toronto with all its streetcar experience is rarely cited in these articles.

 

[gweed123]

To be fair, that Tempe streetcar proposal is really stupid. $160M to build 3 km of streetcar through a low density, upscale community that ends at a strip mall with a 10% occupancy rate is not exactly a good use of money.

I would agree with that. $160 million for a line that isn't even in its own ROW. Other than replacing existing tracks, when was the last time the TTC spent anything close to that on a streetcar that runs in mixed traffic?

 

[SlickFranky]

I'm not terribly surprised that Toronto doesn't get mentioned more, but I am surprised we're not taking better advantage of this streetcar revival. TTC has to be the continent's leading streetcar experts, with more operating, installing, and maintenance experience than anyone else in North America. I wonder how much consulting work they're doing with other municipalities and transit operators.

 

[spider]

It is not only the streetcar sector where Canada is more or less invisible in the US.

I recently had a couple of very long boring waiting periods in local hospital waiting areas that thankfully had good newstands. I subscribe to 3 Toronto newspapers at home and read the 4th in situations like this as well as almost anything else. Anything else turned out one day to be the New York Times which was interesting especially when I came across an article that dealt with the subject of oil imports into the USA. I browsed through the stats and graphs and it suddenly occured to me that Canada didn't appear either there or in the text of the article. That made me curious, where else were we under the radar in the USA? It seems everywhere else. I re-read the entire edition and found Canada mentioned only as entries in the Sports standings and a chart of activity on the Toronto stock exchange along with all the other exchanges in the world. Talk about insular, Jeez!

 

[W. K. Lis]

When you want to have a movie or television series say "set in Toronto", what does one include in a street scene?

Streetcars.

Without the streetcar, Toronto will not be Toronto. Even art would include the streetcar to say "set in Toronto".

 

[spider]

When you want to have a movie or television series say "set in Toronto", what does one include in a street scene?

Streetcars.

Without the streetcar, Toronto will not be Toronto. Even art would include the streetcar to say "set in Toronto".

I suggest that the CN Tower is the de facto trademark in any non-Torontonian's vision of our city unless he or she is a trolley fanatic.

 

[Calrissian]

I suggest that the CN Tower is the de facto trademark in any non-Torontonian's vision of our city unless he or she is a trolley fanatic.

Like Paris has the Eiffel tower & Notre Dame,or New York Empire State Building & Brooklyn bridge, Toronto certainly could be associated with the CN Tower & Street Cars. (or Skydome)

To suggest otherwise would be out of stubbornness or ignorance.

 

[quicksilver]

Like Paris has the Eiffel tower & Notre Dame,or New York Empire State Building & Brooklyn bridge, Toronto certainly could be associated with the CN Tower & Street Cars. (or Skydome)

To suggest otherwise would be out of stubbornness or ignorance.

+1

 

[spider]

Originally Posted by Calrissian
Like Paris has the Eiffel tower & Notre Dame,or New York Empire State Building & Brooklyn bridge, Toronto certainly could be associated with the CN Tower & Street Cars. (or Skydome)

To suggest otherwise would be out of stubbornness or ignorance.
+1

The original poster promoting streetcars as the face of Toronto did not offer multiple choices, only one and it was streetcars. I disagree with neither stubbornness or ignorance or tunnel vision.

 

[adma]

I suggest that the CN Tower is the de facto trademark in any non-Torontonian's vision of our city unless he or she is a trolley fanatic.

Okay, then. Revell's City Hall is expendable, then.

Remember: you're speaking of the most asinine, rock-bottom, reductivist form of "non-Torontonian's vision". For a 3-paper-a-day person, you've a pretty crappy knack for urban poetry and civics...