dunkalunk
Senior Member
Hamilton is already at one end of this triangle, why slow down service between Toronto and St. Catharines/points beyond?
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What Megaproject(s) Would you like to see built next? (wackiness encouraged
- Thread starter dunkalunk
- Start date
leopetr
Active Member
I'd like to see a 600 km/h maglev running every minute from my home to my workplace with a stop at my favourite sushi restaurant.
dlam
Active Member
Just work and live at your favourite sushi restaurant. No maglev needed and problem solved! =D
kEiThZ
Superstar
Your imaginations are weak. We're getting license to run wild here.
I say cross-Canada Maglev network.
I say cross-Canada Maglev network.
Amy Rose
Active Member
Trans-Atlantic subway a la TTC
Mapleson
Active Member
For starters, I'd go for a full-on eco-city built into the ground, like they proposed in Siberia:
http://io9.com/5689785/a-proposal-for-a-domed-city-in-a-kilometer+wide-siberian-diamond-mine/
A climate controlled city in Canada where you can reduce the cost of utilities and maintenence by eliminating the old-school techinques we use in conventional city building.
Next, I'd build a coast-to-coast-to-coast Vacuum-Tunnel MagLev with speeds of around 1000-5000 km/h.
Third, I'd build Molniya orbit satellite network to give full high-speed internet coverage to northern and rural Canada.
http://io9.com/5689785/a-proposal-for-a-domed-city-in-a-kilometer+wide-siberian-diamond-mine/
A climate controlled city in Canada where you can reduce the cost of utilities and maintenence by eliminating the old-school techinques we use in conventional city building.
Next, I'd build a coast-to-coast-to-coast Vacuum-Tunnel MagLev with speeds of around 1000-5000 km/h.
Third, I'd build Molniya orbit satellite network to give full high-speed internet coverage to northern and rural Canada.
rbt
Senior Member
My initial thought was a space elevator harnessed to the top of the CN Tower. Too practical.
How about we build the worlds largest bowl of soup? We can line the Skydome with plastic and fill it up with some kind of Tomato soup.
valvenis
New Member
24 hour electrified RER around the city similar to the Berlin Ringbahn http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringbahn
It would go as far west as the airport and as far east as U of T Scarborough Campus. The northern section would run along Finch. The southernmost stop would be at Toronto Island Airport. Naturally there’d also be a stop at union station.
There’d be multiple tracks to allow for express service and separate tracks for freight.
It would go as far west as the airport and as far east as U of T Scarborough Campus. The northern section would run along Finch. The southernmost stop would be at Toronto Island Airport. Naturally there’d also be a stop at union station.
There’d be multiple tracks to allow for express service and separate tracks for freight.
CanadianNational
Senior Member
I remember the Canada of my youth: a country besotted with northern futurism, and doing it with style. On that note:
-A spaceport for Canada! Sudbury might work, with its barren landscape. A Canadian moonbase and hotel, too, eh?
-Coast-to-coast maglev high-speed rail, from St. John's, Newfoundland to Vancouver, British Columbia. Stops:
St. John's - Halifax - Moncton - Fredericton - Quebec City - Montreal - Ottawa - Toronto (w/ a branch to Hamilton as the gateway to London-Windsor or Niagara Falls-Fort Erie branches) -
- Sudbury - Sault St Marie - Thunder Bay - Winnipeg - Regina (w/ branch to Saskatoon-Edmonton) -
- Medicine Hat - Calgary (w/ branch to Red Deer - Edmonton) -
- Lethbridge - Vancouver.
-The complete conversion of the country's electrical needs to solar production - making us independent of any need for nuclear, gas, oil, coal or hydroelectric sources.
-A working fusion reactor. Just in case that solar bit takes awhile. Gee, that looks safe.
If neither of the above work, a giant battery that can absorb and store the power of lightning strikes.
-A "'Manhatta" project that would link up major scientists from all over the world to find the natural and renewable counterparts to all the components of distilled oil now used in every application - from fertilizer, to transport, to medicine, to electronics. Canada's agricultural interests could be shifted to suit, making us shortly oil independent - and help us also be well off by exporting the encycopedic knowlege gained.
-Canadian cities could each use an enormous year-round indoor summer park. Each of these parks would be, say, two to five miles across, and tremendously high inside. High and huge enough, in fact, that the structure would practically disappear. Buckminster Fuller's domes still might be the best way to do this. With artificial full sunlight and deep heating mimicking the summer in the depths of winter, these parks would help relieve seasonal affective disorder. Their size would guarantee return visits, as it would take years to "see it all".
If this size is prohibitive for most cities, they could have smaller ones. That, or we could entreat Cuba to join Canada. Or build a giant touristy-resort one of near-ungraspable dimensions in high-north Nunavut or Baffin Island, with a 'Polar Express' rail link. See: fusion reactor.
A varied and thriving canadian electric car/personal transport/conveyance industry. Oh, and make 'em glamorous.
-Not so much a mega-structure as a mega-law: Invisible, ongoing boundary walling of cities, towns and hamlets in Canada. Draw a line or circle around each settlement, however big or small. Once it fills up, it only goes up from there. Not out. Quickly, there would be no sprawl. None.
In the city and need to get out? Cross the street!
-Re-Widen the St. Lawrence Seaway, allowing cruise ships to come in and directly dock in Toronto with access to the rest of the Great Lakes. Also, submarine manufacture, licensing and excursions for individuals.
-A huge Canadian scientific effort to cure all deadly viruses, bacteria and cancers. Starting with AIDS.
-Find a disease-resistant elm, and bring that beautiful tree back.
-Free University
Side projects for Toronto:
-The bulldozing and resettlement of entire inner suburbs (in stunningly advanced and gorgeous housing) to develop an immense central park for the city of Toronto.
Density transfers from the amount of land recovered would encourage an urban edge to the park with a strong emphasis on streetlife - theatres, clubs, and variegated delights that address the park.
Here I've placed it between the Allen Expressway and Don Mills road, Eglinton and the 401. Special attention would be given to the restoration and care of the ravine system. Also, the creation of some gentle hills over the centre of the park, to allow significant views in all directions. I've assumed the science centre will undergo a major expansion as part of this project.
This project could also go in the Portlands. All of the Portlands. This would coincide nicely with:
-A greenbelt and canal around Toronto's city core to act as both an animal expressway and habitat - plus a picturesque place for scenic boatrides.
-The burial of the Gardiner expressway, Lakeshore Boulevard and the downtown east-west rail viaduct going into Union Station. The removal of all rail lines and highways from Toronto's ravines. (Scenic wandering lanes and the odd trolley allowed). Mammoth, deeply-laid tunnels under the suburbs and downtown instead - with multiple levels and compartments, containing both industrial and passenger rail, subways, plus automotive and utility uses. This would mean at least tripling the number of rail lines coming into the core and least four times the subway lines we have. With express lanes, ring routes, etc., etc.
Oh - and beautiful subway stations while we're at it. That, and escalators that work. Because if we can solve the escalator problem in this city, we can do anything.
At the same time, this would be accompanied by the general picturesque and soothing narrowing of downtown streets with accompanying widening of sidewalks and full tree cover
-An urban cathedral that will take a two hundred to thousand years to build by hand.
-A 2000 foot high cubist-honeycombed semi-hollow artists co-operative. A baffling and beautiful superstructure strung together with bridges, beams and atriums, it would be a vertical community free to any working artist with an established portfolio and yearly output. Non-established artists could secure living space via an intake program. All ceilings would be a minimum of twenty feet high, and the bare concrete studio rooms - at least thirty feet square each, would all have sufficient ventilation, soundproofing, and light. Special zones would be set aside inside the structure for speciality trades like heavy industry experimentation, noise works, the chemical and biological arts and transport play.
-The hiring and dedicated application of thousands of artists from all over the world to beautify Toronto - working in tandem with scientists, shamans, energy healers, housewives and ecologists and nerds.
-A spaceport for Canada! Sudbury might work, with its barren landscape. A Canadian moonbase and hotel, too, eh?
-Coast-to-coast maglev high-speed rail, from St. John's, Newfoundland to Vancouver, British Columbia. Stops:
St. John's - Halifax - Moncton - Fredericton - Quebec City - Montreal - Ottawa - Toronto (w/ a branch to Hamilton as the gateway to London-Windsor or Niagara Falls-Fort Erie branches) -
- Sudbury - Sault St Marie - Thunder Bay - Winnipeg - Regina (w/ branch to Saskatoon-Edmonton) -
- Medicine Hat - Calgary (w/ branch to Red Deer - Edmonton) -
- Lethbridge - Vancouver.
-The complete conversion of the country's electrical needs to solar production - making us independent of any need for nuclear, gas, oil, coal or hydroelectric sources.
-A working fusion reactor. Just in case that solar bit takes awhile. Gee, that looks safe.
If neither of the above work, a giant battery that can absorb and store the power of lightning strikes.
-A "'Manhatta" project that would link up major scientists from all over the world to find the natural and renewable counterparts to all the components of distilled oil now used in every application - from fertilizer, to transport, to medicine, to electronics. Canada's agricultural interests could be shifted to suit, making us shortly oil independent - and help us also be well off by exporting the encycopedic knowlege gained.
-Canadian cities could each use an enormous year-round indoor summer park. Each of these parks would be, say, two to five miles across, and tremendously high inside. High and huge enough, in fact, that the structure would practically disappear. Buckminster Fuller's domes still might be the best way to do this. With artificial full sunlight and deep heating mimicking the summer in the depths of winter, these parks would help relieve seasonal affective disorder. Their size would guarantee return visits, as it would take years to "see it all".
If this size is prohibitive for most cities, they could have smaller ones. That, or we could entreat Cuba to join Canada. Or build a giant touristy-resort one of near-ungraspable dimensions in high-north Nunavut or Baffin Island, with a 'Polar Express' rail link. See: fusion reactor.
A varied and thriving canadian electric car/personal transport/conveyance industry. Oh, and make 'em glamorous.
-Not so much a mega-structure as a mega-law: Invisible, ongoing boundary walling of cities, towns and hamlets in Canada. Draw a line or circle around each settlement, however big or small. Once it fills up, it only goes up from there. Not out. Quickly, there would be no sprawl. None.
In the city and need to get out? Cross the street!
-Re-Widen the St. Lawrence Seaway, allowing cruise ships to come in and directly dock in Toronto with access to the rest of the Great Lakes. Also, submarine manufacture, licensing and excursions for individuals.
-A huge Canadian scientific effort to cure all deadly viruses, bacteria and cancers. Starting with AIDS.
-Find a disease-resistant elm, and bring that beautiful tree back.
-Free University
Side projects for Toronto:
-The bulldozing and resettlement of entire inner suburbs (in stunningly advanced and gorgeous housing) to develop an immense central park for the city of Toronto.
Density transfers from the amount of land recovered would encourage an urban edge to the park with a strong emphasis on streetlife - theatres, clubs, and variegated delights that address the park.
Here I've placed it between the Allen Expressway and Don Mills road, Eglinton and the 401. Special attention would be given to the restoration and care of the ravine system. Also, the creation of some gentle hills over the centre of the park, to allow significant views in all directions. I've assumed the science centre will undergo a major expansion as part of this project.
This project could also go in the Portlands. All of the Portlands. This would coincide nicely with:
-A greenbelt and canal around Toronto's city core to act as both an animal expressway and habitat - plus a picturesque place for scenic boatrides.
-The burial of the Gardiner expressway, Lakeshore Boulevard and the downtown east-west rail viaduct going into Union Station. The removal of all rail lines and highways from Toronto's ravines. (Scenic wandering lanes and the odd trolley allowed). Mammoth, deeply-laid tunnels under the suburbs and downtown instead - with multiple levels and compartments, containing both industrial and passenger rail, subways, plus automotive and utility uses. This would mean at least tripling the number of rail lines coming into the core and least four times the subway lines we have. With express lanes, ring routes, etc., etc.
Oh - and beautiful subway stations while we're at it. That, and escalators that work. Because if we can solve the escalator problem in this city, we can do anything.
At the same time, this would be accompanied by the general picturesque and soothing narrowing of downtown streets with accompanying widening of sidewalks and full tree cover
-An urban cathedral that will take a two hundred to thousand years to build by hand.
-A 2000 foot high cubist-honeycombed semi-hollow artists co-operative. A baffling and beautiful superstructure strung together with bridges, beams and atriums, it would be a vertical community free to any working artist with an established portfolio and yearly output. Non-established artists could secure living space via an intake program. All ceilings would be a minimum of twenty feet high, and the bare concrete studio rooms - at least thirty feet square each, would all have sufficient ventilation, soundproofing, and light. Special zones would be set aside inside the structure for speciality trades like heavy industry experimentation, noise works, the chemical and biological arts and transport play.
-The hiring and dedicated application of thousands of artists from all over the world to beautify Toronto - working in tandem with scientists, shamans, energy healers, housewives and ecologists and nerds.
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Register123
Active Member
Or fill the plastic lined skydome with gravy, the worlds largest gravyboat. Woohoo.
kEiThZ
Superstar
@CanadianNational
If this was China, none of what you've put down would seem far-fetched.
If this was China, none of what you've put down would seem far-fetched.
TonyV
Senior Member
What a lovely thread.
I endorse (heartily) all of CN's list.
I don't know if my suggestion is in the wacky category, and perhaps it is far too serious for this morning's entertainment. It's just that I've been taking long walks in the great summer weather we've been having, and one nagging thought comes to mind: while Toronto is actually wonderful, it needs one thing: a "grand gesture" and I don't mean a supertall or a spiral condo. The "grand gesture" that I've been thinking of is in CN's list - a huge central park.
I could go for a second "grand gesture" too - an eye-grabbing fountain in Lake Ontario, but fountain designs, well, they can get to be so mundane. Can someone come up with a truly wacky (and hopefully also slightly tacky) fountain design for middle-harbor, enroute to Toronto Islands? Go for the gusto! Add in an enormous statue in the harbor if you wish, but not a statue of a hockey player.
I endorse (heartily) all of CN's list.
I don't know if my suggestion is in the wacky category, and perhaps it is far too serious for this morning's entertainment. It's just that I've been taking long walks in the great summer weather we've been having, and one nagging thought comes to mind: while Toronto is actually wonderful, it needs one thing: a "grand gesture" and I don't mean a supertall or a spiral condo. The "grand gesture" that I've been thinking of is in CN's list - a huge central park.
I could go for a second "grand gesture" too - an eye-grabbing fountain in Lake Ontario, but fountain designs, well, they can get to be so mundane. Can someone come up with a truly wacky (and hopefully also slightly tacky) fountain design for middle-harbor, enroute to Toronto Islands? Go for the gusto! Add in an enormous statue in the harbor if you wish, but not a statue of a hockey player.
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denfromoakvillemilton
Senior Member
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Honestly?
Open Summerhill
Extend Eglinton to the Airport
Sheppard to Morningside
DRL Dundas West to East York
Finch West to the Leslie Spit.
Yonge to Richmond Hill
Bloor Danforth from Cherrywood to Square One.
Open Summerhill
Extend Eglinton to the Airport
Sheppard to Morningside
DRL Dundas West to East York
Finch West to the Leslie Spit.
Yonge to Richmond Hill
Bloor Danforth from Cherrywood to Square One.
Markster
Senior Member
Forgive my lack of knowledge of communities in Toronto et al., but where is Cherrywood?
BMO
Senior Member
I'm assuming around Islington station since it would essentially be extending the existing subway which ends at Islington, all the way to Square One.