[torontocolin]

Large swaths of this city could feast on the low hanging fruit that Metrolinx has ignored here in the past. No question they could and should do more, but they could transform transit for huge swaths of the city on the low hanging fruit alone.

 

[dowlingm]

Large swaths of this city could feast on the low hanging fruit that Metrolinx has ignored here in the past. No question they could and should do more, but they could transform transit for huge swaths of the city on the low hanging fruit alone.

They ignored it because it was not their mandate to serve it but rather battleground Liberal-Tory seats in the 905 (see also Spadina subway above Steeles).

 

[TheTigerMaster]

They ignored it because it was not their mandate to serve it but rather battleground Liberal-Tory seats in the 905 (see also Spadina subway above Steeles).

I absolutely despise how improving transit has become synonymous with building transit to the electorate. All this billions of dollars of transit were building in the 905 isn’t even going to improve the transit situation relative to today: the transit modal share in the 905 is actually expected to decrease in the coming decades (yes, you read that right).

And of course, “building transit” means “building transit where it’s politically beneficial” to this government, which is probably why we see projects like the Sheppard West Subway prioitized over the DRL West in the RTP (to be fair, it is a draft... let’s see if they fix it).

If we’re going to invest billions in 905 transit, how about we walk before we run and ensure that the region actually has a functional bus system first.

 

[drum118]

Same equipment as UPX and some what amusing.
CA: SMART Adds More 3-Car Runs to Increase Rider Capacity

 

[muller877]

Large swaths of this city could feast on the low hanging fruit that Metrolinx has ignored here in the past. No question they could and should do more, but they could transform transit for huge swaths of the city on the low hanging fruit alone.

When there are multiple layers of government doing the exact same thing by definition it creates inefficiencies. We have Metrolinx and the TTC both trying to build transit within the City of Toronto. Why do we have the engineers, planners, middle management, etc duplicated? Empire building.

Metrolinx was suppose to be for regional transit (i.e. city to city) while the local transit Boards would be within each City. Clear delineation of responsibilities. But not anymore.

Either have one or the other get out of the LRT game. I really don't care which one (other than the one that is more professional and more efficient). But why have 2 teams doing the same thing in the same geography?

 

[steveintoronto]

When there are multiple layers of government doing the exact same thing by definition it creates inefficiencies. We have Metrolinx and the TTC both trying to build transit within the City of Toronto. Why do we have the engineers, planners, middle management, etc duplicated? Empire building.

Metrolinx was suppose to be for regional transit (i.e. city to city) while the local transit Boards would be within each City. Clear delineation of responsibilities. But not anymore.

Either have one or the other get out of the LRT game. I really don't care which one (other than the one that is more professional and more efficient). But why have 2 teams doing the same thing in the same geography?

It's actually moving in that direction (pun intended) if for no other reason than the level of government that finances it should, with only a few exceptions, also be responsible for the planning and operation of it, as well as accounting to the taxpayers who fund it.

 

[dowlingm]

Same equipment as UPX and some what amusing.
CA: SMART Adds More 3-Car Runs to Increase Rider Capacity

SMART has quite a bit of expansion planned - in addition to planned south and north extension, an east-west Novato-Suisun City route was noted for study in the California State Rail Plan (if only Canadian provinces had to create those).

 

[nfitz]

Plans to buy more Sharyos?

They already have once since the original production. They originally had seven 2-car trains, and if they haven't been delivered yet, they had two more 2-car trains on order.

I'm surprised that Metrolinx didn't add on enough cars to make all our trainsets 3-cars at the same time.

I'm not sure how the are running 3-car trains. They had all end cars, and only Toronto had the (4) middle cars. Either the information floating around is wrong, or they changed their second order again. Or you can't walk between cars.

 

[nfitz]

Spadina, Caledonia, and Lansdowne stations are not SmartTrack, unless you choose to define SmartTrack as any new GO station in the 416...

I think even the city and GO are getting confused, given the last SmartTrack report to the city included extensive design information for the Spadina-Front and Bloor-Lansdowne stations!

I think the bottom line is, we don't know what SmartTrack will be once it's running. I expect like other design and construction phase names (TYSSE, Crosstown, Blue 22) it will vanish completely at some point, and it will just be what it will be.

 

[dowlingm]

They already have once since the original production. They originally had seven 2-car trains, and if they haven't been delivered yet, they had two more 2-car trains on order.

I'm surprised that Metrolinx didn't add on enough cars to make all our trainsets 3-cars at the same time.

I'm not sure how the are running 3-car trains. They had all end cars, and only Toronto had the (4) middle cars. Either the information floating around is wrong, or they changed their second order again. Or you can't walk between cars.

They attached end cars but advised passengers they could not walk to-from the other cars in the train.
https://www.google.ca/amp/www.press...47-181/smart-expands-capacity-with-a?view=AMP

 

[smallspy]

I'm surprised that Metrolinx didn't add on enough cars to make all our trainsets 3-cars at the same time.

If everything worked perfectly, there are enough UPX cars to operate 6 3-car trainsets. Of course, not everything works perfectly, and seldom are they able to get more than 1 3-car trainset out in service.

I'm not sure how the are running 3-car trains. They had all end cars, and only Toronto had the (4) middle cars. Either the information floating around is wrong, or they changed their second order again. Or you can't walk between cars.

SMART only has "A" cars, and they simply run three "A"-cars together in their 3-car trains.

Also, UPX has 6 "C" cars, not 4.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.

 

[Megaton327]

I think the bottom line is, we don't know what SmartTrack will be once it's running. I expect like other design and construction phase names (TYSSE, Crosstown, Blue 22) it will vanish completely at some point, and it will just be what it will be.

Oh yeah, the whole thing of trains running every 3-5 minutes and accepting TTC fares is never going to happen, and the SmartTrack branding will never appear on trains or in stations. I don't think anyone except Mayor Tory is deluded enough to believe that anymore, and I hope even he realizes it won't happen.

All SmartTrack is is John Tory riding Metrolinx's coattails so that he gets to take credit for GO RER, which was going to happen regardless. One or two additional stations in Toronto will be built which wouldn't have been, e.g. Lawrence East (which shouldn't be built since there should be an LRT there...) but that's it. Spadina-Front was going to be built anyways, as were Liberty Village, Mt Dennis, Caledonia, and Downsview Park; Lansdowne was a capitulation to local outrage over the Davenport Diamond and had nothing to do with ST. At least two of the four stouffville stations (east harbour/unilever and one of the other ones) would probably have been built anyways, he can take credit for Lawrence E and another one. The trains will run every 15 minutes, they'll be GO trains with GO livery with GO fares and the TTC transfer discount until such a time as region-wide fare integration is implemented, and at that point it's anyone's guess what fares will look like, but I promise it won't be a $3.00 (plus occasional $0.05-10 increases) flat rate.

 

[Amare]

Oh yeah, the whole thing of trains running every 3-5 minutes and accepting TTC fares is never going to happen, and the SmartTrack branding will never appear on trains or in stations. I don't think anyone except Mayor Tory is deluded enough to believe that anymore, and I hope even he realizes it won't happen.

All SmartTrack is is John Tory riding Metrolinx's coattails so that he gets to take credit for GO RER, which was going to happen regardless. One or two additional stations in Toronto will be built which wouldn't have been, e.g. Lawrence East (which shouldn't be built since there should be an LRT there...) but that's it. Spadina-Front was going to be built anyways, as were Liberty Village, Mt Dennis, Caledonia, and Downsview Park; Lansdowne was a capitulation to local outrage over the Davenport Diamond and had nothing to do with ST. At least two of the four stouffville stations (east harbour/unilever and one of the other ones) would probably have been built anyways, he can take credit for Lawrence E and another one. The trains will run every 15 minutes, they'll be GO trains with GO livery with GO fares and the TTC transfer discount until such a time as region-wide fare integration is implemented, and at that point it's anyone's guess what fares will look like, but I promise it won't be a $3.00 (plus occasional $0.05-10 increases) flat rate.

I wish this could be pinned to the top of the Smarttrack thread.

 

[Leo_Chan]

I wish this could be pinned to the top of the Smarttrack thread.

Something to consider:

There should really be a system on these forums that make the first (or zeroth) item on the thread be a table of contents or directory, and if someone (mostly mods) think a discussion is important can pin it to the top of the thread.

In addition to this, there should be a pinned thread on this forum as a directory of all the important threads to make it easy to see what everyone is talking about or to know what is hot.

Probably should post this in the Urban Toronto Forums Threads.

 

[Northern Light]

Could be about UPX

Or about GO, but since the announcement is at UPX
I'll post it here.

https://news.ontario.ca/mto/en/2018/02/minister-of-transportation-to-make-an-announcement-43.html