Wow with each fortnight comes more shit on MLs ineptitude leaking out...
Very very disappointing yet not surprising considering the size of their c suite.
The question now is what will they do about it...my guess is NOTHING AT ALL.... hoping that dougie or the next govt will disband this leach of a crown Corp.
The
new article is fascinating and dissapointing at the same time. I'm happy human reporters are still doing good writing on good sites!
Fortunately, catenary is still coming to Toronto, courtesy of ALTO Train.
ALTO is the trojan horse that forces GO Electrification
While that
may not be by the 2040s or 2050s, when the Toronto extension manages to occur after the addictive Ottawa-Montreal starter leg opening by hopefully 2038-2039. Realistically early 2040s after your obligatory construction delays.
Despite this, I do root for ALTO. Hopefully shovels hit ground 2029 on the Montreal-Ottawa leg before Carney needs to yield to an election.
GO Electrification could happen way sooner of course, but there's a nonzero chance that ALTO beats GO Electrification, and then devs want to milk the boom potential of electrification, forcing GO Electrification because of ALTO catenary commonalties on a shared corridor. This is the Way, methinks.
Since Air Canada is part of the ALTO consortium, there will be incentives to extend catenary to the hypothetical Woodbine GO station (roughly where UPX forks off the Kitchener corridor towards Pearson. Developers will find it irresistible to condoify Woodbine, so it all aligns. I don't believe an underground corridor reroute will happen to get nearer Pearson; I predict that an aging LINK would simply be replaced with a faster shuttle train that also connects to Woodbine GO, as part of the Union Station North long-term masterplanning.
Spreads Like Nutella (good) or Cancer (bad)
Some smart and/or clever late-2030s or mid-2040s election plan would combine it into one big electrification Big Bang of sorts (ALTO Kitchener + GO Kitchener Electrification + Pearson Stop).
So ALTO route eventually forces electrification of Lakeshore East GO and Kitchener GO corridors, and the rest of the dominoes follows because GO can't resist through-running Lakeshore electric trains or Stoufville-Kitchener trains.
Electrification would thusly, end up spreading like Nutella (good) or cancer (bad) despite both 2040s-era Ontario Conservatives and 2040s-era Ontario Liberals. You might even have an eventual forced efficiency-restructure of the big M along the way between now and 2050s, to prevent ALTO from causing lost government pensions for a bunch of figureheads (= fewer roadblocks for ALTO).
Unless boondoggle-league costs makes everyone want to cancel ALTO. So be it. But we're not there yet, because:
Montreal REM Encouragement Moment
My hope is that ALTO will pull off Montreal REM levels of sufficient construction efficiency and the Montreal-Ottawa section is so homerun, it amplifies high speed train demand.
One heck of a big razor-and-blades business plan. Addict us with a very quickly constructed taster segment. Just like Spain. Just like Japan. Just like China. Etc. That's Ontario-Quebec, a country-unifying initiative as big as relocating the capital city (Ottawa) on Ontario-Quebec border.
And y'know, Quebec did REM. I'm jealous of you, Montreal.
Also, guess what? CDPQ-Infra is a member of both Montreal REM and ALTO Train.
Mind you, so is SNC-Lavalin / AtkinsRealis, so there's that too. Y'know, the big scandals. But REM succeeded, by most measures. Fast construction, not offensive-league cost overrun, and well-loved. The same successful REM bigshots running ALTO Train.
Montreal loves REM.
Even many of us see Lavalin in a better light than, say, the big <whisper> M </whisper> that runs the green coloured commuter trains we love.
Undo the "Doggle" extension from the "Boon" route? </pun>
With the news media's squeals of predicatably "Beyondy-McBeyondFace" dismaying cost-overrun of over <hushed silence> $100B-ish, you'll probably need 2040-2050s era incomes to make ALTO fares feel cheap. Today, the cost of life is obviously not cheap, but after inflation, tomorrow's $250 fare feels like today's cheap $50 fares or thereabouts.
And some kind of equalizing between overfunded-roadplanning and underfunded-railplanning, may make ALTO fares even more affordable to 2040s/2050s-era incomes. Mayhaps.
Despite my dry sarcasm wit moment, I am not anti-ALTO, especially if enough Ontario jobs are created during ALTO construction. ALTO estimates ~50,000 jobs combined. The same ALTO funds actually indirectly funds a portion of GO electrification, chrissakes. Especially if it solves the expensive Union Station segment. And it feels more satisfying closer to REM Rabbit construction speed than Toronto Turtlelington Crosstown LRT construction speed, thanks to the common consortium members. Y'know,
there is hope, after all.
(Hmm, Carney + Catenary? Hello Catarney. <make-a-meme.gif>)
