salsa
Senior Member
How does Europe do freight differently?
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2014 Municipal Election: Toronto Transit Plans
- Thread starter denfromoakvillemilton
- Start date
How does Europe do freight differently?
drum118
Superstar
The longest freight train I saw was 45 cars long using electric or diesel power and that floor me. Also, their rolling stock is shorter and moving to longer cars now for some types. I had a tour of a plant in Wien that built new equipment as well repair them and taken back based on plants I have been in here. Moving to 4 axles is happening now since most only have single at each end and carry less weight.
Speed is an issues and one reason for shorter trains to keep them out of the way of the passenger trains since they out number freight badly.
They are talking about longer ones, but will never come close to what we do.
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Rainforest
Senior Member
The Fords, whether Rob or Doug, will never deliver any subways. They will beat the drum, subways subways subways and no new taxes, then fail, blame someone else, and repeat the same algorithm during the next elections. Funny enough, their core voters will bite it and prop them again.
It is enough to look at Rob Ford's Sheppard Subway fiasco. Doug was firmly on the same page in that affair.
Most of John Tory's voters are more demanding and less committed. Tory knows that he will be booted out of the office in 4 years if his transit plan falls apart. His plan will undergo certain changes, but he knows he must deliver something meaningful.
I don't expect duplication of DRL east. They are not going to build two separate tunnels through downtown. There are two options. Either they will build a downtown tunnel shared by SmartTrack and DRL, and DRL will branch off north in the Queen and Pape area. Or, they will keep SmartTrack on surface (cheaper, but medium capacity), and later build a tunnel exclusively for DRL (high capacity).
rbt
Senior Member
A surprising amount of Europe is within 200km of the ocean. So, largely by ship; some parts of Germany use riverships for local movement.
Once you hit the nearby port either they mostly truck it. There are a few trains but they tend to be short (much lower demand) and not travel nearly as far as ours do.
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W. K. Lis
Superstar
Maybe John Tory is using the term SmartTrack and not tram-train to get the suburban vote? However, if it were a tram-train, I would have thought it would have more stations or stops. Maybe even merge with the Union Pearson Express as its replacement using tram-trains.
WislaHD
Superstar
I do like this idea over going to Eglinton West. The UPX seems kinda useless but a SmartTrack to the airport via UPX with fare integration much less so.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
I believe their longest freight train ever was 2km long, a length which is completely normal here.
Most of their shipping is done by truck instead of rail, actually.
Most of their shipping is done by truck instead of rail, actually.
TheTigerMaster
Superstar
SmartTrack (Part One): John Tory’s Short-Sighted Transit Vision
Steve Munro for Torontoist
Steve Munro for Torontoist
Markster
Senior Member
salsa
Senior Member
Just as I expected, SmartTrack (i.e Tory's version of GO RER) will not work. While I like the basic idea of it, there are so many problems with it and this article was only part one. Steve didn't even mention the "7 years not 17 years" bullcrap that he keeps pushing. In a recent debate, Chow said it's actually 12 years for DRL (according to chief panner I think), while Metrolinx disputes Tory's 7 year claim. Tory must be lying on purpose, so that his stupid soundbite would rhyme/sound better.
Doug Ford had me laughing when he called this the "BackTrack Plan". As soon as the grownups at Metrolinx demolish this scheme after the election, Tory is gonna backtrack.
TheTigerMaster
Superstar
kEiThZ
Superstar
And people say that Metrolinx won't support it. I really do think that Metrolinx will take the idea and roll it into their GO RER proposal, with a few extra 416 stations, fare integration and an accelerated schedule.
If they scheme works well enough, they'll push out the DRL a little (5-10 years).
In the end, Tory can claim victory, those suburban mayors can claim they improved commutes to downtown TO and Metrolinx can claim that they delivered substantial new service and capacity in record time. This is an easier political sell than the DRL which will cost billions and won't allow any serving politician to take credit in his political career.
TheTigerMaster
Superstar
Who will be paying for the portions of the line outside City of Toronto?
TheTigerMaster
Superstar
If you listen carefully to what Tory's campaign staff has said on a few occasions, this is exactly what the SmartTrack plan is intended to do. Tory's intention is to roll the plan into our GO RER plan while taking credit for the idea. The similarities to the nearly identical GO RER plan were not accidental. This is why the OLP is so supportive of the plan. It's a blatantly dishonest bait and switch, but nevertheless brilliant political strategy. It will work well for Tory.
I suspect that this is the reason that the plan was so poorly researched. It doesn't matter if the funding model is impossible,or if the proposed corridors don't work because SmartTrack was never intended to be built in the first place. As long as the lines on the map vaguely resembles part of our GO RER plan, it will work for Tory.
I'd be surprised if SmartTrack ever goes to Council for a vote. And if it does it will be purely symbolic. Either way John Tory's SmartTrack plan is completely inconsequential for our city.
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