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GO Transit: Construction Projects (Metrolinx, various)

I think you guys are making up excuses.

If Metrolinx had spent more time and money electrifying the system and less on building garages then it would have opened a whole lot earlier. Seriously, how long does it take to figure out platform height or whether you are going to run single or double level trains? That should have taken a couple months not 4 years and they still haven't a clue about either one. This is nothing short of scandalous, complete incompetence, and not being able to establish priorities.
 
ssiguy2 said:
I think you guys are making up excuses.

If Metrolinx had spent more time and money electrifying the system and less on building garages then it would have opened a whole lot earlier. Seriously, how long does it take to figure out platform height or whether you are going to run single or double level trains? That should have taken a couple months not 4 years and they still haven't a clue about either one. This is nothing short of scandalous, complete incompetence, and not being able to establish priorities.
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Completely true to an extent.
 
EastYorkTTCFan said:
It didn't work because the "experts" at Toronto City Council knew better than the TTC and the planners that designed the LRT and got told by the then mayor "that Scarbrough "deserved" a subway.
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Right but one of their arguments that convinced council, amongst other things, was that the SRT would have to be replaced with buses for 3 years during LRT conversion while the subway would not shut down the SRT during construction.
 
hw621 said:
^how did Montreal manage to sneak some money from the pension?
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Pensions like reliable long-term investments (like office buildings).

They did it by offering a predictable long-term return; it's debt by another name.
 
EastYorkTTCFan said:
It didn't work because the "experts" at Toronto City Council knew better than the TTC and the planners that designed the LRT and got told by the then mayor "that Scarbrough "deserved" a subway.
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The first part is correct.

Instead of listening to the TTC in 2006 and going with the Mark II train upgrade - and a 8 month shutdown, the public was told by the then mayor that everything had to be LRT.
 
rbt said:
Pensions like reliable long-term investments (like office buildings).

They did it by offering a predictable long-term return; it's debt by another name.
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That and the province handed it infrastructure already in public transit use: the Deux Montagnes tunnel and a huge chunk of Gare Centrale.
 
dowlingm said:
That and the province handed it infrastructure already in public transit use: the Deux Montagnes tunnel and a huge chunk of Gare Centrale.
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That goes hand-in-hand with guaranteeing a return; it's easier to guarantee a return on $LOW rather than $HIGH.
 
ssiguy2 said:
Montreal's REM which was only announced a couple years ago is already under construction, ...
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The most expensive part of the new REM line is surely the rail tracks over the St. Lawrence River as part of the new Champlain Bridge which started construction over 3 years ago. The idea for this line is clearly over 2 years old ... in fact the inclusion of the rail tracks in the bridge was announced in 2008. The LRT from Central Station south had been in discussion for many years. The section from Central to Deux-Montagnes is over 100 years old, and proposals to convert it to a Metro-like service date to the 1950s, and it was quite serious in the early 1960s, when it was supposed to be Line 3 (which is why to this day, the Montreal Metro has a Line 1, 2, 4, and 5).

The integration of all this into one service was only announced a couple of years ago - but it's disingenuous to not mention that construction (let alone design) predated the announcement by years!
 
rbt said:
That goes hand-in-hand with guaranteeing a return; it's easier to guarantee a return on $LOW rather than $HIGH.
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Depending on who accepts the risk at what price?

But rather than discuss the details of REM, the bigger picture tells a story:
The $4.9 Billion Railroad Being Built by a Pension Fund
Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec is constructing a railway for Montreal. It's already in talks for similar projects in the U.S.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/feat...railroad-being-built-by-a-quebec-pension-fund

Cdn pension funds are massively invested in Australian rail/transit projects, as well as in the UK and elsewhere. Even Ontario funds...which to bring things back to this string and surmise: Why aren't they investing likewise in Ontario? It's a rhetorical question, as I think with the present Con regime, this will happen by default.

I'd suggest calling the Con-sortium Con-construction. I'm not concerned that much other than due diligence as to the investors. What worries me is how much the Cons give away by bending over backwards to avoid any amount of gov't monies needed. Make no mistake, I have a Conservative background, my father being an elected rep in the UK, and my voting Conservative in this nation prior. But that was back in the days when Conservatives were really that.

What QP now hosts are amatuer thugs.
 
denfromoakvillemilton said:
Of course you know the garages hurt suburban transit and encourage more driving.
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It doesn't matter how frequent the trains are if people can't access the stations in the first place. Yes, we need TOD, fare integration and improved feeder bus service, but it's insufferable how this guy keeps banging on about parking garages being the greatest evil, blissfully unaware of the situation on the ground. And yes, we do need to shift away from the park and ride model, but opposing parking garages doesn't help either. At least those people aren't driving all the way downtown.
 
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