F
fiendishlibrarian
Guest
I read somewhere that the man in charge of building the subway in Madrid is well-connected in the construction business, and is (was?) in charge of the Madrid metropolitan regional government. So I suppose he was able to grease the skids, so to speak. It would be akin to having Paul Godfrey running Metro again, and PCL or Ellis Don at the same time, and being able to coordinate contracts after a six month EA process. Clearly conflict-of-interest rules may be less strenuous in Spain, so I suppose echoes of Franco corporatism still linger.
The other issue is in Spain, the Metro trains aren't much bigger than our streetcars. They use a single-bore, twin track tunnel system, rather than twin tunnels, so I have to think that drastically simplifies and shortens the construction process. Our trains are to theirs what a Mondeo is to a Pathfinder. So if an Eglinton streetcar tunnel is to be built, I would think (hope) such a process will be used, rather than (in my opinion) the overbuilt tunnels under Bay Street and the Spadina station portal.
Alch, you've answered your own question re: consultants. What it would take to break this addiction I have no idea. I suspect it takes legislative changes, but given the incestuous relationships between consulting firms and politicians in this country, that is unlikely to say the least.
I'm not going to add more to this thread, as any point I would have made has already been made, only to say that the Sheppard subway will continue to Scarborough, it would be sheer insanity not to. And the Eglinton crosstown tunnel, if constructed with foresight in anticipation of conversion to heavy rail, may one day rival R.H Harris' inclusion of a lower deck on the Prince Edward Viaduct as a seminal moment of inspired thinking.
The other issue is in Spain, the Metro trains aren't much bigger than our streetcars. They use a single-bore, twin track tunnel system, rather than twin tunnels, so I have to think that drastically simplifies and shortens the construction process. Our trains are to theirs what a Mondeo is to a Pathfinder. So if an Eglinton streetcar tunnel is to be built, I would think (hope) such a process will be used, rather than (in my opinion) the overbuilt tunnels under Bay Street and the Spadina station portal.
Alch, you've answered your own question re: consultants. What it would take to break this addiction I have no idea. I suspect it takes legislative changes, but given the incestuous relationships between consulting firms and politicians in this country, that is unlikely to say the least.
I'm not going to add more to this thread, as any point I would have made has already been made, only to say that the Sheppard subway will continue to Scarborough, it would be sheer insanity not to. And the Eglinton crosstown tunnel, if constructed with foresight in anticipation of conversion to heavy rail, may one day rival R.H Harris' inclusion of a lower deck on the Prince Edward Viaduct as a seminal moment of inspired thinking.
