[smallspy]

I have great confidence that bidders know how to write contracts so tightly that any public opposition can be ignored. The bidders won't want to be involved in, responsible for, or guided by any public debate. They will just get on with it as they see fit.

ML/IO may be incompetent, but on top of that they like things loose. Having the excuse "It wasn't our decision, under the terms of the P3 the contractor makes that decision" firewalls them from any accountability or transparency.

This is no way to design, build, operate, maintain or finance public infrastructure.

- Paul

I'm not so confident in IO.

A friend of mine in the insurance industry has been dealing a lot with IO of late, and a lot of the potential tenderers are giving them a lot of pushback on some of the terms that they've been trying to include of late. And it's not just the transit projects either - it seems to be almost everything. They have been trying to push more and more risk on industry, and the insurance companies are happy to provide the security on the risk - but that comes at a price. And that price is becoming the sticking point as it becomes a bigger and bigger fraction of the overall project price.

Dan

 

[Northern Light]

Via with HFR would not be using this stretch of track, BTW.

At the minimum VIA's service to Kingston remains.

But the HFR connection via the Belleville sub is not a done deal, last I heard.

There was at least some modelling done on connecting via the Stouffville sub, which has a number of advantages.

It may be that its been settled since, but I would want that in writing before deciding on corridor capacity issues.

 

[asher__jo]

Tweets from reporters who were at Mulroney's speech just now.

All these changes are positive EXCEPT for the fact that Metrolinx has absolutely zero accountability to the cities it affects.

 

[Tommy521]

View attachment 229630

Already I can see a bit of an issue. Looks as though they are using the Toronto Centreline (TCL) dataset from OpenData Toronto.
Measuring the existing rail bed, it sits at about... 12-14m in width. If we assume that, as they claim, there will be a 11m addition on each side, that raises the total to say 36m. Using a 36m buffer on our TCL we can see, oh no! It's clearly impacting the Rec Center, meaning it must be demolished, no?

Well, if you look a little closer you can see I've also shown the actual rail tracks, from the National OpenData Catalogue, which differs slightly from the TCL file. the TCL appears to show the geometric centre of the allotted land for the rail corridor, and not the centre of the rail alignment.

So I'll perform the same methods on our actual rail track, where the edge of the rail bed appears to be approx. 2.5m away from the rail centreline. Adding their proposed 11m buffer to this, we get the following image:

This is nearly identical to what we would expect from the rough measurements on Google Maps:

(Source: Google Maps)
Of course, this is highly dependent on the actual edge of the rail bed and the setback. I'll explore some different arrangements of that at a later date. For now, I am confident that they have not used the correct data set. Using the TCL dataset provides an inaccurate look at the future OL alignment as the track alignment will be based primarily on the existing rail line and not the centreline of the rail corridor's property.

This is only a preliminary finding. I'll be performing a more in depth analysis based on similar methods to this hopefully by Friday or Saturday this week. I'll take a look at the discrepancies and list the actual affected addresses and their land uses.

EDIT: Again, wanted to make it clear this is not necessarily saying that the Rec Centre is or is not impacted. Only that the methodology of the post is flawed.

 

[Hopkins123]

Latest post with a map by the local residents group.



The group says that Metrolinx says that this map is inaccurate. The spacing is not to scale on the cross section.

Thoughts?

View attachment 229630

Will these ingrates put a sock in it already? This is precisely what pisses off suburbanites. Most communities would die to have a new subway through neighbourhood and here's Leslieville doing everything in their power to obstruct to the point Doug may just pull the plug. If he's truly anti transit, you've just handed him the detonator. Congrats!

 

[vic]

Will these ingrates put a sock in it already? This is precisely what pisses off suburbanites. Most communities would die to have a new subway through neighbourhood and here's Leslieville doing everything in their power to obstruct to the point Doug may just pull the plug. If he's truly anti transit, you've just handed him the detonator. Congrats!

Perhaps the suburbanites should have put a sock in it too.

Popular woodlot threatened by Scarborough subway plans

Need for ‘mobilization sites’ during construction may come down to razing homes or trees.

www.thestar.com

 

[Allandale25]

Latest notice.

Information as of 3 February, 2020

Investigative work on Mill Street and Berkeley Street

Beginning mid-February, 2020

What is the Ontario Line Transit Project?

The Ontario Line will bring nearly 16 kilometres of much-needed subway service to the City of Toronto, making it faster and easier for hundreds of thousands of people to get where they need to be each day. Initial plans for the line include 15 potential stations, including six interchange stations and 17 new connections to GO train lines and existing subway and streetcar lines.

What is happening?

To advance the Ontario Line project, Metrolinx will be evaluating the underground conditions of the area where the subway will be built. Work is done by a vehicle that moves slowly on the road pulling a chain of devices, linked together by a metal cable. Occasionally, the vehicle will stop and a hammer is used to generate a signal. This work must be done to determine the approach for the construction of this important project, and will support the creation of foundation designs and other structural plans.

What to expect

During investigation hours, lane reductions may be required along Berkeley Street (between Richmond Street East and The Esplanade) and Mill Street (between Cherry Street and Bayview Avenue)

Traffic delays are expected.

Every effort will be made to minimize disruptions.

Access to properties will be maintained at all times through at least one driveway.

Residents and businesses near the work site can expect to hear some noise caused by the truck driving by and occasional hammering, similar to regular ambient noise.

Please take care when walking near work areas. Watch for additional signs directing pedestrians as detours may be required

Timing

Work is scheduled to start in mid-February and overall work will last for approximately one week.

Work will occur overnight between 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., Monday to Friday.

Work could be rescheduled and delayed due to weather conditions or any unforeseen circumstances

 

[JasonParis]

These answers are so out to lunch as to be foolish. I have known the Toronto Star as a full biased shill for the Liberal Party since I delivered it when I was 12. The globe is also a left\social justice leaner. As for the CBC not being left leaning...PFFFFFT ...lol. THEY GET THEIR MONEY FROM THE GOVERNENT !

CBC/Radio-Canada gets its money from a government allocation (the second-lowest in the developed world), television/digital advertising and some international sales. Via both the Broadcasting Act and the pubcaster's license, the government has next to no ability to directly influence editorial or even operational decisions. Their budget has been slashed (and occasionally risen) under both Liberal and Conservative governments. There's also never been a third-party report that's found systemic bias in CBC (or R-C) reporting.

 

[Johnny Au]

There's this:

Media Bias/Fact Check News

We are the most comprehensive media bias resource on the internet. There are currently 3900+ media sources listed in our database and growing every day.

mediabiasfactcheck.com

It's a really useful site to check the biases of what I read.

 

[sixrings]

CBC/Radio-Canada gets its money from a government allocation (the second-lowest in the developed world), television/digital advertising and some international sales. Via both the Broadcasting Act and the pubcaster's license, the government has next to no ability to directly influence editorial or even operational decisions. Their budget has been slashed (and occasionally risen) under both Liberal and Conservative governments. There's also never been a third-party report that's found systemic bias in CBC reporting.

CBC once owned 25% of Sirius satellite radio. They were in on it day one and made a killing on it. Not all their money comes from taxes.

 

[Allandale25]

^ can we get back on topic?

 

[44 North]

There's this:

Media Bias/Fact Check News

We are the most comprehensive media bias resource on the internet. There are currently 3900+ media sources listed in our database and growing every day.

mediabiasfactcheck.com

It's a really useful site to check the biases of what I read.

Put Ontario News Now in there and the site would probably break.

 

[OneCity]

To be fair, that terminus has always been Exhibition/Ontario Place, with all evidence pointing to the station being beside the existing Exhibition Station. There's not going to be a subway station at Ontario Place itself. I suspect that Ontario Place was added to the name because of the name of the line. Agree with everything else in your post.

I firmly believe there is also larger politics at play with the Ontario place stop. You are likely correct for design reasons the stop will probably end up by the EX, but I wouldn't discount the Ford Provincial Government using the stop proposal as leverage in the ongoing debate with the City over the future development planning of Ontario place lands.

Important to keep in mind the City of Toronto owns and maintains all the roads fronting Ontario place and they were using the threat of closing all the entrances to OP in the debate against the Province over fear of a Casino and or mass development on the property. But, if they can get the stop designed over Lakeshore it would be a game changer in the debate. At the bare minimum the proposal alone will be concerning to those within City Council who are in the opposite political alignment or views of the future for the lands. Ford plays a mean game of negotiation style politics and this stop is likely a big reason the opposition will want to slow down progress on this line and vice versa

Something to keep in mind as progress continues

 

[tiffer24]

More community backlash... this time from the East End Transit Alliance.

 

[Northern Light]

More community backlash... this time from the East End Transit Alliance.

View attachment 229776

The image at the bottom suggests a 6-track configuration, which certainly precludes substantial growth in VIA's services..

Not clear is what room is envisioned for platforms, but they surely wouldn't fit in that space.

I'm told Platform Edge Doors are part of the design which is good, as far as it goes, but that will skim off some portion of the platform.

The minimum width of a GO island platform, according to their design manual is 7.4M

But that design typically allows only for relatively narrow stairs, not Metro-style access via escalators and stairs.

GO runs at much lower frequencies.

Further, if cross-platform connections are envisioned, one must allow for a crush-load GO Train and a crush-load OL train to offload at the same time.

A quick look here:

http://www.metrolinx.com/en/docs/pdf/relief-line-epr/appendix/Appendix%202-3_Subway%20Design%20Standards%20and%20Construction%20Methods.pdf

Shows that R/L platforms were contemplated at 10.3M.

IF you used that, and added minimum track clearances, you get a much wider take than 22M at stations, which also widens the approaches as well.

Stations with an OL only platform could be smaller, but given the frequency and capacity claims, I should think minimum width needs to be larger than the RL configuration.