[Platform 27]

With no Buy Canada analog to Buy America and Siemens' existing foothold I doubt much will change.

While the lack of CanCon requirement is probably a major factor in there not being any Bombardier LRVs rolling around in Alberta, I don't see how Siemens really gets too much a leg-up on any other vendor once they get into the first low-floor lines out there.

Yes, Calgary and Edmonton have probably been inclined to keep going back to Siemens whenever they added a few more cars to their high-floor fleets, because it made sense to keep things simple in terms of sourcing parts and fitting out maintenance facilities and training maintenance staff. But if/once Edmonton launches its first low floor line, I imagine the situation will be essentially no different than a new startup LRT system on a blank slate. Any LRV they order, be it one from Siemens or Bombardier or Kinki Sharyo or Alstom or Bob's gently-used tram emporium, will be a completely different beast mechanically and be serviced out of a separate yard.

Aside from management potentially having a comfort level with the manufacturer's track record and having one phone number to call when you need to order new fuses, I don't know what legs up Siemens really gets in a situation like that. Many other transit systems certainly haven't been too fussed about sticking to a single manufacturer: for example, L.A. has gone all over the map when ordering LRVs in recent years and wound up with quite a blended fleet.

 

[doady]

Might be the first sale, but according to the current schedule we'll see them in service in 2020, while Kitchener-Waterloo will see them in operation in 2017.

If it gets funding, the first part of Hurontario-Main LRT is planned to be in operation in 2016.

 

[innsertnamehere]

2019 now for us. the closure of the northbound lanes of the allen south of Lawrence seems to have jumped the date forward by a year.

 

[Dan416]

If it gets funding, the first part of Hurontario-Main LRT is planned to be in operation in 2016.

2016? That sounds extremely realistic given that no funding has been announced.

 

[drum118]

If it gets funding, the first part of Hurontario-Main LRT is planned to be in operation in 2016.

Given the fact that the EA will not be completed until 2013 and then go to Metrolinx Board in late 2013 so the funding can be put into the 2014-2019 budget, phase 1 completed by 2016 is out of the question.

The way the government is dragging its feet these days on funding transit, 2020 is more likely the real date.

It is also sitting in the 15 year plan and Hazel was trying to get it move up.

Time will tell what the real date will be.

 

[gweed123]

Given the fact that the EA will not be completed until 2013 and then go to Metrolinx Board in late 2013 so the funding can be put into the 2014-2019 budget, phase 1 completed by 2016 is out of the question.

The way the government is dragging its feet these days on funding transit, 2020 is more likely the real date.

It is also sitting in the 15 year plan and Hazel was trying to get it move up.

Time will tell what the real date will be.

Hopefully when Metrolinx announces their funding strategy, it'll become clearer how the funding will actually come to pass. I'd imagine this would be the top priority for Peel Region.

 

[nfitz]

I'd imagine this would be the top priority for Peel Region.

Does Peel Region have any interest in Transit? I've never heard any mention of it before.

 

[gweed123]

Does Peel Region have any interest in Transit? I've never heard any mention of it before.

Well the Hurontario LRT is a joint undertaking between Mississauga and Brampton, who are both in Peel. Personally, I think that lower tier municipalities, especially in the GTHA, shouldn't have their own transit systems. It should be done at the upper tier level, like YRT and DRT.

 

[nfitz]

Well the Hurontario LRT is a joint undertaking between Mississauga and Brampton, who are both in Peel. Personally, I think that lower tier municipalities, especially in the GTHA, shouldn't have their own transit systems. It should be done at the upper tier level, like YRT and DRT.

I agree; but I didn't think Peel had much involvement in the project, if any.

 

[innsertnamehere]

what name would the LRT operate under? mi-way or zum?

 

[gweed123]

I agree; but I didn't think Peel had much involvement in the project, if any.

I know, which to me is rather strange. You would think that Peel Region would want to play a greater roll in this project, considering it's crossing lower-tier municipal boundaries. It just gets so much more complicated working out funding arrangements when it's crossing municipal boundaries.

Durham is facing the same thing with the Highway 2 BRT, but that whole process is simplified significantly because crossing the border between Ajax and Whitby is just a line on a map, and doesn't have any impact on transit operations or who's funding it whatsoever. Ditto for any VIVA projects in York Region.

 

[Dan416]

Maybe the HMLRT (acronym used on some of the display boards) vehicles will be cosigned MiWay and Zum? Either that or by the time this is implemented BT and MT will have merged. Although I haven't heard any discussion of them doing so. It's hard for me to even imagine Brampton and Mississauga merging either at a municipal or transit level. Although by the same token I suppose people from Etobicoke and North York etc felt the same way...

 

[W. K. Lis]

Caledon is also part of Peel Region. Public transit in Caledon is... it needs study. See this link.

 

[TOareaFan]

Maybe the HMLRT (acronym used on some of the display boards) vehicles will be cosigned MiWay and Zum? Either that or by the time this is implemented BT and MT will have merged. Although I haven't heard any discussion of them doing so. It's hard for me to even imagine Brampton and Mississauga merging either at a municipal or transit level. Although by the same token I suppose people from Etobicoke and North York etc felt the same way...

Brampton and Mississauga do not need to merge in order to shift transit (all or part) to the regional level. It would just take an agreement that transit (like, say, waste collection or policing) is better handled regionally than municipally.

It would not be an easy discussion (Brampton, as an example, would fear that more resources would be dedicated to the larger population to the south.) but it would not need a municipal merger. It would be, likely, something like this LRT project that would spur, at least, a discussion about it. Once you look at joint operational issues it would be hard to ignore the conversation that went .."if it makes sense for the LRT, why not BRT and regular bus routes too".

I will say that I have not heard a single Bramptonian say anything positive about this proposed LRT. No one that I have discussed it with seems to be vehemtly opposed to LRT in principle....just that they see this as offering very little benefit to Bramptonians in general. To paraphrase and condense the sort of comments I have heard....."Brampton gets a stub off of a line that runs mostly in Mississauga and it does not get me anywhere I need/want to go in any significantly faster way than I can already get there now.......by the time I get to Main Street to get on this I might as well have driven where I am going......what is the cost for those limited benefits.....why did/are we spending money on fancy bus systems if we are just going to replace/duplicate it on a LRT.....how much disruption is it gonna cause during construction...and for what?"

All limited sample size, anectdotal stuff....but it really is hard to counter some of it.

Someone thought that this would/should be the highest priority for Peel? I think a lot of people might suggest that they prefer that any provincial/metrolinx contribution to transit in Peel should go to enhancing GO service on the two limited service lines and let the municipalities augment bus/BRT service to interconnect.

 

[Markster]

"Brampton gets a stub off of a line that runs mostly in Mississauga and it does not get me anywhere I need/want to go in any significantly faster way than I can already get there now.......by the time I get to Main Street to get on this I might as well have driven where I am going......what is the cost for those limited benefits.....why did/are we spending money on fancy bus systems if we are just going to replace/duplicate it on a LRT.....how much disruption is it gonna cause during construction...and for what?"

Sounds like every single complaint about the Waterloo LRT!