 Hello, everyone. So I am currently Just getting things set up with the stream here trying to change a few things of these settings Taking a look at the chat here Got some people joined up. Of course as usual, I'm not gonna start like properly chatting until About five past the hour just so that people have a chance to get into the stream Let me quickly Go along and change this Okay, cool. So we have lots of exciting stuff to talk about today. We have some news items, which are cool I'm excited to talk about those We also have some mail which I'm gonna open up on the stream, which would be fun. Hey guys And so lots to lots to talk about and of course, I happy to chat and answer questions about the channel about transit, etc Yeah, it's been a busy week and excited to just kind of Get on to the stream. So if you are new to the stream I should I should let you know that we're going to be streaming every other week So our next stream will be on February 7th at the same time 3 p.m. On Sunday Eastern time Here in Toronto. I'm trying to think if there's anything else. I want to mention I Hope everyone enjoyed the patron Metro map. We're bringing that back Which is cool. I think that that was one of our favorite projects. We got to work on in in recent Yeah news indeed in recent Months and so it's cool to bring that back. It's really fun to kind of design it and work with pretty skilled map maker to to make that and Yeah, you know, I think that's Very exciting stuff. I'm just gonna add a news item here But yeah, we're gonna get started if you're just coming on now, we're gonna get started about 305 I can take these headphones off my hair is hair is crazy, of course because of COVID But you know, I'm looking forward to when I can get a haircut. It's been a long time. So Very very exciting. I'll try to do something a little crazy With the hair, you know, because I'm in so many videos So if I do something a bit crazy with my hair, you know, everyone the whole world gets to see it I'm trying to think what else I want to bring up We have some exciting new videos coming this week more construction updates more opinion stuff and talking heads We'll have you'll see on an alternating basis between when we're doing live streams We're gonna be releasing kind of like our big videos. So our our demystified high-speed rail explained Perhaps other series if they if they come up in the future And so, yeah, it should be, you know, that's it should be pretty exciting Just checking the chat here lots of people joining in very exciting So yeah, again, we're starting at 305 Yeah, no hairstylist unfortunately at the moment Yeah, let's take a look Do you go on r slash TTC? Yeah, I don't really go on reddit that much. I Used to in university, but reddit is just kind of an endless rabbit hole, right? So it's impossible I really like to if you're on the discord and I totally recommend people join the discord There should be a link in the description of this stream If you're not joined the discord But something you'll know if you're on the discord is that I on a regular basis go through every message on the discord And I like this kind of ability to exhaust something and I find with reddit, you know, I'm in dirty 40 subreddits This is impossible too. Hi. Hi out in Laval We're gonna get going in about a minute. So yep, just Giving people chance to join in I know sometimes with streaming on on YouTube It's a bit weird with when you're able to see the stream or not How do you film all your background shots for your videos? So you're talking about Like the b-roll. I'm not really sure maybe if you can send another message healthy. I'll be able to answer that So I'm gonna get started Welcome everyone to the stream During these live streams. I you know answer questions talk about different transit topics a few news items I collected during the past two weeks. I thought were interesting And I'll I'll bring them up I'm just trying to think what else. Oh, yeah, of course I've got some mail people have sent me as well And so yeah, if you send me mail, which you can do via a link in the chat or sorry a link in the description of the video I'll open it up on stream. I really you know always interested in getting interesting transit tickets Smart cards maps, etc from different places around the world Or you know, even just ones in in North America that are kind of unique So feel free. I really appreciate when people send me stuff, especially from kind of, you know unique locations So if you have a cool transit card, you know, let me know Let me take a look before I get into the first news items. I Want to just go through the chat here hmm I don't know about our slash TTC getting those posts 12 o'clock in Vancouver, BC. So I think you're four hours ahead of me. Nope. It's three o'clock here in Toronto We start the stream at three o'clock greetings from Detroit. Yeah, so hey Detroit has the people mover It's kind of neat. It would be cool if the people mover was like expanded into a full SkyTrain system I think that'd be a pretty interesting thing Generally I have shots of all the Canadian transit systems at this point except for Edmonton. Sorry Edmonton So I use those shots from previous videos I've filmed for those because I used to just do a lot of videos of transit, which I do less of now I mean, I'm still interested in it, but I can't go outside. So Yeah Regarding like pictures and stuff. I just get those from creative comments I'm gonna answer one or two questions and then I'm gonna get into the news So in the Greater Montreal area, there's a lot of controversy when it comes to the REM because they're advancing it way faster than other transit projects Well, I think that that's probably not the reason that it's controversial, right? It's kind of the unique funding source via the CDPQ and some other things so You know, I think that It's definitely too complicated of a question to really answer like is that the right way to fund transit? but what I will say is kind of the proof is in the pudding right Montreal is building transit and Previously, it wasn't really building a lot of transit. And so, you know, even if you're opposed to kind of like Calling the CDPQ private is a little weird But even if you're opposed to the CDPQ funding transit, I mean, they're building it, right? And so it's kind of you know, it's kind of you have to be a bit pragmatic If that's the the best way to get transit built and we care about getting transit built that might be the model We have to accept Just going to take a look at a few of these So have you heard of Jerome Horn? Yes, actually. Yeah, I chat with him here and there on Twitter and stuff. He's a very cool guy He's actually he's moving I think to Baltimore from Indianapolis. He posted on his Twitter. So pretty cool Yeah, so let's uh, let's talk about the news. So the first news item I'm going to share today I'll just share this with the chat is this huge TOD going on at Bois Franc in Montreal It's very interesting. I think I'm just going to open it up on my screen as well It's really cool to see kind of the REM Becoming the spaces for TOD and obviously that's part of why the CDPQ was so interested in in funding it, right? I think that this is a great model across North America because you know, we often don't have a super transit support of city form, right? So kind of building the transit and the density and the housing and offices, etc. At the same time Makes a ton of sense. I've been looking a lot at Singapore I know I haven't covered Singapore in a lot of videos But you know, Singapore is one place that obviously does that very well as with, you know, Hong Kong and in Vancouver in in uh, North America And I know Montreal is pretty heavily influenced by Vancouver in the whole REM project So it's it's just great to see this this level of development You know, if you if you go through here the cool thing about it is as you can see in kind of the top render There's a metro logo and that's because of course the plan is hopefully to extend the orange line of the metro to Bois Franc and you know That could be a pretty awesome hub, you know, I think anywhere where you have two rapid transit lines Crossing you know, you have a lot of potential for for connectivity and it's a very high value location, right? So I find this very exciting Montreal is a strange place sometimes, but I definitely think a lot of their new development and their TOD is really excellent And I think the REM is only going to accelerate that and I hope to see, you know A pretty rapid expansion in the REM and given the fact that we're already seeing the REM East REM B as I like to call it I think that that's something that we're going to see more of going going forward So it's very exciting and I think that it's very much a model for what we can do in North America Now I'm going to share a link to something called transit con So I'm going to both be moderating a discussion on Canadian transit as well as also I'm going to be doing a talk a 30 minute talk on kind of the future of regional rail in North America So I've linked that in the in the chat. I'm also going to probably see if I can put it in the description Let me do that Yeah, yeah, my French pronunciation is bad, but Thank you for pointing that out But I'm going to be doing this talk at transit con I'm going to link their website in the description and I put it in the chat But yeah, you know, I would be happy if people came and checked it out. It's free So it's you know, if you're I know a lot of people who watch my channel Maybe aren't professionally involved in transit going to these kind of conferences, etc Especially when they're free It's a great way to kind of get into the industry a bit, you know, meet some professionals Go to talks, etc. And so I think it's a great opportunity And yeah, my talk will be about regional rail. So it should be pretty interesting I'm just going to get a sip of water here And I'll continue So I'm going to answer a few more questions before I continue with more news items Uh, so let's just take a look here What's your opinion on the cta red line extension and cta modernization and fast tracks? So this is chicago um You know on the whole I think it's it's great that chicago is is working on its rail system I think the the red purple modernization is very exciting And I I saw pictures recently of the one of the flyovers I think it's for the brown line to fly over The red and purple which is very exciting. Uh, but you know, chicago is a city that's not doing enough in transit You know, chicago used to be kind of this world-class city for transit and Well, it's still a more extensive system than toronto subway Um, albeit it will not be that long for that long because toronto subway is growing really rapidly You know chicago doesn't have super high ridership compared to toronto I think it still has 24 hour service on the red and purple line I think that's something that maybe needs to be reconsidered so that more time can be spent for maintenance, etc That might already be happening for red purple modernization, but it's just something I think is important You know, I think that chicago again, it has really good bones But there are a lot of money needs to be spent You you know, you have this city with a very radial network, which is often good But you have no basically circumferential lines So, you know having a loop line like it's funny like yes, there is a loop But it's in the center of the city having something that literally circles the city and it could be a light Automated metro maybe a REM style sort of thing Uh, which of course I'm a fan of you know doing something like that would make a lot of sense I also think you know, you have metro, which is you know got a ton of lines But it's not the best system, right? It's it could definitely use a go rar style modernization You know widespread electrification There's as well as modern rolling stock, you know Chicago in general the rolling stock is a very dated style Even the new cars being produced by crrc are are very dated and so I think that chicago Chicago is a city that has You know some great history to it, but it needs to really reinvest to get back to being a world-class transit city You know, I think it's kind of where toronto was maybe 10 15 years ago in that sense um Next up, what do you think of the proposed exhibition station on the ontario lion above ground and at the edge of the residential area? Well, you know, it's not that long of a walk. First of all Second, I think that oh someone sent me a super chat. Well appreciated pineapple juicer Yeah, if you send me a super chat, uh, make sure I'll make sure to respond quickly But uh much appreciated um What do you so so yeah, I might not go into as much detail on some of these questions, but uh You know, I think that at the end of the day having a station that connects with other rail lines is really important I think the the good to see someone registered for transit gone. Um, but I think having uh Having that connection to the go line is super important I think people still do not understand how important go is even now But in the future with go rer, you know, these lines are are are going to be Almost as important as subway lines. So connections need to be really, uh, you know prioritized Okay, how are you doing? I'm doing well um If you had both a roadway that was overbuilt and could easily give up lanes and a heavy rail corridor running roughly parallel What would you develop for transit? Yeah, I mean someone said both and I think yeah, both is probably the answer to that um You know, I actually am kind of a big fan of the You know, I think if you have a wide boulevard, there's no reason you you know Brt actually might make sense like if you can already have a heavy Like a fast rail service, you know run a fast rail service on that dedicated rail corridor And if you can give up lanes build brt and allow that to serve not just local trips But you know the great thing about these brt busways and something I will be talking about in a future video Is kind of how brt busways are and there's a lot of transit like this There's transit that exists as infrastructure That doesn't exist on the map like in toronto. That's the missus aga transit way And I think that maybe part of the challenge here is how do you represent this unique infrastructure on a map? so that people get a sense for how Valuable is but I think part of it is to realize that not everything important for transit appears on the map And I think that uh this kind of uh infrastructure is is one of those items What are your thoughts on the winnipeg brt? uh Winnipeg brt is good But I think winnipeg should probably start looking at like a calgary or edmonton style light rail system And I think that you know the winnipeg brt is good, but it's not as extensive Like you know, it would be way more impressive if it was a really extensive brt But since it's not that extensive, you know, it's I'm not amazed by it But you know, it's positive to see any transit progress uh What would you consider the worst rapid transit system on the continent? That's a great question Uh, so I there's a bunch actually that I think I could list as so maybe let's think of a few So detroit people mover, you know, if you can call that a rapid transit system. It's truly not very good. Um Uh Let's think a lot of the acrid light rail lines, you know the vta in uh, san jose is really truly horrible um From a service perspective and from a network design perspective Um, and you know, it doesn't have to be there's changes that can be made. So it's it's it's better But you know, I think this obsession with the acrid light rail has really hurt them. Um Let's think what else is there? um You know a lot of the stuff la does is pretty weird as well There's a lot of bad transit systems, but you know, I think that there's a lot of potential as well um What do you think of smart track? Dropping new stations from its program. So smart track is, you know, It's a funny thing over time. You know, I think a lot of the drop stations There's already kind of uh parallel stations on other lines. Uh, so I think it's it's mostly okay I just wish the name smart track would die now Because it's not really what it was originally intended to be. Um Yeah, so edge of edge edge edge being a hundred meters away, right? Like a hundred or even three or four hundred meters is not out of walking distance, right? So our loop subway lines more efficient uh Not necessarily right a lot of a lot of uh cities with loop subway lines have converted them to be not looping, right? So uh good example the circle line in london, obviously also you have line I think 15 on the grand purse express, right? It's not going to be a proper loop Uh, you can only do like a proper loop when you have really regimented and skillful operation, right? So like moscow or Or uh, tokyo on the yamanote line and even that then, you know, not all services are are are going to just keep looping so um It can be good, but uh, it could be hard to operate right because think about it You're basically operating two independent rail lines, right? Because there's no terminal or turnback point. It could be hard to recover from Uh A delay or whatever. So so that's that's part of the problem with the looping subway line How do you build a new hsr line without destroying homes? Well In some places you don't need to because maybe there's a lot of uh open land, etc But uh, the reality is that in some places for transit lines in general you need to remove homes and expropriate and You know, I think at the end of the day It's it's kind of, you know, what do you have to do for the greater good of society, right? Because transit's so important to society and You know, I think it's it's interesting because we forget that like You know, I don't know folks have seen the uh, uh, great book, uh, you know Hitchhikers guided the galaxy, right? But it's kind of like at the beginning of that like, you know Highway gets built your house might get leveled too. So if it's a positive transit infrastructure, I think that that's You know, it's it's unfortunate and I obviously it's stressful and difficult for people, but uh, you know At least in canada you get compensated. I think same case in the u.s. And so You know, sometimes that's necessary. I think you you can avoid it to a degree But it becomes a cost-benefit thing, right? If you have to go take a slower route or you have to spend way more money to not Uh expropriate a house then, you know, you have to consider what the best option is Thoughts on second avenue subway. Um, you know, it's just way too expensive. Uh, and at those prices You know, toronto will have built A bunch of subway lines, uh in the time that new york has just completed second avenue And actually to be fair toronto is spending a ton on subways too So it shocks me that new york is not more dedicated to getting it done and it shocks me that the federal government At least previously wasn't, uh, you know, finding that project. It's obviously very important. Um Let's look Still waiting on the winnipeg subway saint louis. What could they do? I think, you know densify don't build so many lines out into the middle of cornfields With the metro link. No, no metro link is kind of a cool system. And I think, uh, You know, just keep building and uh frequent bus services is kind of a general north american thing that we could work on um Do you think finch west and surface parts of eglinton will be as bad as the vta? Uh, no, probably not because, you know, they're not as long as the vta and the development will hopefully be more Uh transit supportive, uh, that doesn't mean i'm a fan of them though Um, so let's look at the next thing now. This is something I don't usually talk a lot about I'm gonna share it in the chat, but this is a new park opening in richmond quite near, you know Some of the canada line spurred development and you know, I saw this park and I was like This is a beautiful park. You know, it's really awesome. I think that Parks are underappreciated right and I think that Urban parks are awesome and what I like about this park is I like the integration of all this stone into the landscape I like the use of water like it's kind of a creek. Um, I think we we have I like how to This is a bit of a you know geometric design It looks it looks like it was obviously planned, but it still looks really beautiful And you know, I think public spaces like this are awesome and there's a lot of this type of stuff in vancouver and Uh, and singapore as well actually since I was mentioning singapore before and I think that You know, uh stuff like this is just great and it really adds to communities and it makes High density living better because one of the things that I always tell people about high density living right is that You basically are just giving up like I mean, I live in an apartment. So I'm pretty familiar I've also lived in the suburbs and in rural areas and and part of the benefit of high density living is yet You give up your backyard But in exchange you usually get a lot of parks, etc that you get access to and so beautiful parks like this You know, you're never going to have a backyard as beautiful as this with with this kind of amenities and stuff and so Uh, that's uh, it's a very cool thing to see and I'm happy to see transit Uh beautiful parks like this being built near transit. I think um You know, that's one thing toronto lacks is a really fantastic park and hopefully something like the rail deck park can happen someday and We can have a great downtown park Let's go through a few more comments. Uh, I'm still I'm going to get to the mail I think I'll get through it about uh About 3 30 I'll open up these these mail items. So people are interested in in seeing what people sent me and uh Is well remember if you want me to open up your mail or your unique transit cards on stream Just uh, check the link in the video description and uh, send it over Uh so next Our thoughts on transit on demand for suburban locations Um, I think it's an okay approach, but I think that too often like these transit on demand schemes just lead to worse transit Um, I think you should you know, it's it's it's like everything. It's a trade-off So you might you might get transit on demand, but I think if you could have a regular frequent bus service That's better. I think the only place where this sort of really makes sense is like rural areas Will be uh, will the whole go train fleet be upgraded with rar? Nope part of it will be um Uh, we'll still be by levels and diesel locomotives, but the core fleet will be replaced or it will be supplemented I don't think a lot of the by levels are still pretty new Um, I'm sure some of the older ones which are like 30 years old older than that even will be replaced What would an improved canadian intercity network look like so I think for me that's You know high speed rail in the corridor and between calgary edmonton And then maybe some of the other prairie cities because you know, it's a lot easier to build in a lot of the prairies um And then intercity buses everywhere else and from there You know, you've got this base you can slowly expand out and you can uh link up with your intercity buses um Worst transit system in canada. Oh, that's so negative, but um You know if we're talking about major cities, uh, the prairies tend to do kind of the worst, right? um Like calgary is not it's you know calgary has a lot of good stuff about it, but it has a lot of big flaws So no smart card fare payment, you know, which is kind of uh, Something that almost every other major city in canada is going to have uh, no air rail link Poor bus service. No night service. You know, these these are things that I think really degrade The experience in calgary calgary has a lot of great stuff about its transit But I think that for a big canadian city it has the worst uh transit service um Why are canadian cities generally better than us cities for transit? Uh, I think we You know took more inspiration from europe and asia because we have really high immigrant populations I think that's that's probably part of it. You know, we had stronger ties to the uk You know than than the u.s. Certainly I think that because of our immigrant populations in canada being so substantial, especially in our large cities You know, we're very worldly as a country, right? The u.s. Is very inward-looking. So, you know, when and I people write about this You know when people in the u.s. Think about good transit. They just think of new york, right, which Is good, but you know on in terms of big cities, you know, new york is not as good as london or moscow Or berlin or tokyo or shanghai uh for transit or and in many ways not even as good as toronto You know, like the bus service, for example, is is far behind and so I think um The problem in the u.s. Is this inward-looking attitude As well as you know, a lot of social policies and attitudes which are just not conducive to transit, you know um It's kind of seen as a social service Which it is to be fair and and you know, that's often not super supported in the u.s. In a lot of areas, right And it's often, you know treated as something that needs to be profitable and it's not funded super well So service isn't very frequent. It's it, you know, this this is a you could write many books on this topic um Work has begun on the future rem station Uh At do montaña very nice to hear exciting Yeah, hitchhiker's guided the galaxy is a great book. Um Yeah, exactly Yeah, we had no problem destroying homes for highways and we destroyed it especially in the states, right For the interstates in downtown cores, which you don't see very much of in in canada is large highways in downtown cores When there is one, you know, it's usually adjacent. It's usually Um, not like in a trench like in a lot of us cities. Um, so yeah, that that destroyed a lot of communities and there was a lot of um, you know Racism involved in a lot of that. It's very sad Um Transit on demand. Yeah, I saw jeff marshall's video. That was pretty cool But you know, I do wonder about, you know This is the uk and this is north america. I I sort of wonder if If it would be different if we implemented a similar system here Let's look You should become the canadian minister of transport one day. Well, I would I would probably love to I think it would be It would be cool I don't think barred is the worst transit system, but it has a lot of problems Talking about the park lots of interesting comments here Uh, so I'm going to get back to some of these comments, but first let's open some of this this mail I received. So this is from Uh, patrick in vancouver And so we'll see what patrick sent over here Trying to be gentle with this envelope. Not you know, not tearing it and such Um, again, if you want me to open your mail on the stream and talk about You know, the transit cards or transit maps of your city Feel free to just fill out the form that's in the video description Uh, and uh, I would much appreciate it if you sent me something. So there's a letter here. I'm not going to Uh, read what is written here, but uh, I I do appreciate these and I read them, you know separately off-screen But uh patrick has sent me this This very interesting Compass ticket. I'm not sure what's called a grad pass. I'm not sure Uh, what it's necessarily for I'm looking a grade 12 student Interesting. Okay. I never got one of these. So I you know, I was in grade 12 in british columbia So that's very cool. And then the covid inspired Transit card, maybe one of the only in the world this, uh, it says be kind be calm and be safe And it says dr. Bonnie henry who is the british columbia um, kind of uh, public health Doctor in charge of the covid response. She's been pretty iconic And so very cool. Thank you so much, uh patrick for sending me that I'm gonna answer some more questions and then maybe I'll do another news item and then I have another mail item I'm gonna open up Okay, so let's look where was I if okay, so So yeah, I mentioned, uh, demand responsive transit a little earlier on the stream um Fixed root fixed timetable. Oh, yes Will you be getting nimby rails or have you seen it? So let me share a link to this. Um So I actually have early access to nimby rails, uh, via some Via a contact, um, which is pretty cool. I'll send a link to this game, uh in the in the chat It's a pretty cool game on steam, you know, indie game, uh, where you can build a transit network So, uh, yeah, yeah, I already have access to it. Uh, it's pretty good. It's pretty cool. I sent a sent a link in the chat What do you think of public transit and suburban neighborhoods? I think, uh, toronto is a great model for doing public transit in the suburbs and I think, you know I think we have to redesign our suburbs a bit and I think we need to be a bit creative But I think we can make transit work in in the suburbs and so I think it's an important thing we focus on Um Regina public transit when while I was actually in regina this summer, um, personal favorite transport network in europe That's a very hard question. I like london. I like paris. I like I like pretty much most of them. Um, you know the Basically every country in europe has good, uh transit You know, there's some that don't but most of the western european countries have really good transit and central and northern european countries And eastern european countries europe is great for transit. You know, what can I say? Um Should we bring back an american rail car manufacturer like bud so we don't need to keep importing european designs? Well, uh, you know, the u.s. Doesn't really import european designs, right? It still has these wacky regulations that, uh, you know have led to the rolling bank fault style of car um, you know, um like the silver liners that uh denver and and philadelphia have they might be made by hondae in korea, but they certainly don't look They look very american to me. So uh, actually I think bringing more european and asian designs that actually just look like the one like the designs in european asia would be great for the states because um You know the cars have lots of european and design uh an asian design trends which are very nice looking and I think You know, we should follow the lead in transit vehicles too Yeah, winnipeg might have worse transit than calgary. I mean most likely because it's not rail based, but uh, but calgary is much bigger Thoughts on the south shoreline expansion and double tracking. I think it's a good progress for transit in chicago How long is the delay between you and us? I think it's about a minute With electrification happening on various lines In montreal and toronto Well, there's only really electrification of main lines happening in toronto main lines in montreal are not being electrified They're being sort of converted to metro use right the du montaña line So I think that's a big part of it. There's no reason you need to be dual mode if you don't If you don't have to be I think that since electrification, you know, we're not putting up pulls yet So I think when vsc's that that's happening. Maybe then they'll start looking at dual mode locomotives, but You know, I think because most of via's corridors are not Electrified, you know the cost of getting a dual mode locomotive more expensive less efficient Um is probably a bit too high for them to consider doing that right now Uh opinion on ttc buses, they're great bart has a lot of uh cool features. Yes, it does You know giant trains that look quite cool elevation in some areas Kind of regional metro service. There's a lot of good stuff about bart Should california high speed rail get canceled after the initial operating segment You know, it's a hard hard question to ask I think that it a reckoning is needed because california high speed rail is Has a lot of problems Which is sad because it's such a desperately needed service Is work on go are you are ongoing? Uh, yes, but it's not like a phased thing, right? It's a piecemeal project where grade separations and station upgrades And tunnels in some places etc are being built and You know, you can expect more coverage from me on on those various works You know, I've covered a lot of station expansion works. I'm going to be covering grade separation and tunneling works And so yeah, like work is ongoing. That's why corridors are being expanded and stations, etc They're all being built with electrification In mind so clearances, etc are ready for electrification and electrification should happen in a you know, a couple years from now What do you think about bringing back the north lander train between toronto and cauldron? I'm going to get a sip of water I think bringing back the north lander and having you know intercity transit Is great. I think especially if it serves union station, uh, that would be really cool Maybe they can use some old go-by levels. That would be interesting Um, but yeah, no, I think it's a great program and I would love to see more rail service across ontario Maybe with something kind of like amtrak california, but with via rail So via ontario something like that where you get via branded trains But they serve, you know various communities in ontario that via wouldn't otherwise serve So it's kind of province supported Uh, the missus haka brt works pretty well on the side of the road going under intersections Why do all these lrt and brt lines run in the middle of the road? It's ideology, right? Like there's this kind of Opinion in the planning world that you should be in the middle of the street for whatever reason Maybe because it's symmetrical or because it's aesthetically pleasing or because you know grade separation is too jarring Right, uh, I think it's largely an aesthetic thing And I don't think that a lot of planning is necessarily necessarily always aligned with what is functional, right? And I think that it's important to balance Uh, you know functional Approaches to solving problems with something that is aesthetically pleasing. So I think that that's a big influence on that Do you think new york will have a light rail line apart from the statin island one? Well statin island is not a light rail line, right? It's a subway line. Um, there is a light rail in kind of new work in hoboken Uh in new jersey, um, like new york might get a light rail line in the future How important is high quality suburb to suburb transportation and how can we address this? I think it's, you know, really important because Uh, especially post-covid a lot less people are going to necessarily be commuting to downtown cores and if you want people to You know drop their car and start doing more trips on transit They need to be able to get to the grocery store and their doctor on transit and those places are not always downtown, right? Not that you can't, uh, you know live Kind of further out in the city like I do and commute downtown for Doctors appointments, etc. But a lot of people, you know, don't want to so I think Better bus service really between suburbs things like busways where necessary and Regional rail to cover long distances quickly is how you create that better suburb to suburb connection Um, let's open up our next mail item. This is quite a big item. It's it's from australia Which is cool. Uh sent to me by mica From adelaide. Uh, so i'm gonna open this up. Uh, hopefully don't don't mess Mess this up at all. Uh, it's pretty. I'm pretty excited to see what we have here Again, you want to send me your mail so I can open it on stream. Please do so link is in the video description I need to make sure i'm not uh, not forgetting anything in here Always cool to receive mail from, you know, another country. Interestingly, we have another kind of another Hell item this was returned. So basically mica sent it to me. I moved from vancouver To toronto and then mica resented to me. So I very much appreciate that. Um You know open this Kind of a bit awkward opening on you're like trying not to rip the lead the the envelope but this inner envelope that they might rip because Trying to get it open hastily. Oh my we've got lots of stuff here. So let's uh, let's take a look at what we've got Okay, lots lots to look at so let's take a look at what we have so we have some photos of Adelaide some trams and adelaide very cool Let's look at this. Oh, we've got a bunch of photos. So this is awesome. Oh, this is very cool So the adelaide obon something. I don't know how many north americans have seen this, but you know Very cool. It's a guided busway Uh, you know, I'll try to center that Yeah, I think that's that's super awesome to see Um, australia is an interesting place For transit Some mainline rail Adelaide metro Some diesel units here Beautiful pictures. I'll put these on my wall. Maybe somewhere somewhere off off to the side here. I don't know. Um, you know And then more trams beautiful Let's take a look now some of this other stuff. So we've got So these are very cool, you know, I love love when people even send me stuff like this. So these are timetables, right? So Various tidetables I'll have a deeper look at these a bit later off stream Trying to they're kind of like Hold it up here But very cool to look at they're all 2018 2019 schedules And it's cool if you look at the little compass rows in the corner It tells you which direction these lines run in which is cool We've got the trams Very cool very cool A map of australia with adelaide pointed out. I do know where adelaide is but for those of you who don't It's right there awesome A little bit of a of a long letter. I'm not going to read this on stream, but I will pull out the I will pull out this very nicely Attached metro card from adelaide. This is really cool to get and this is something that is that is awesome If if everyone wants to send me a package like this from your city with you know, some pictures of the system You know the metro card some timetables. I would really appreciate that, you know, like Thank you so much for this package Micah and You know, I hope to I hope to visit adelaide when I can Hopefully With covet being done with in the next two years um, I try to get Myself back in focus This is a little frustrating. I don't know if I can Oh, no Well, we might have to do the rest of the stream out of focus if I can't Oh, there we go. There we go. Okay. So so we're back in focus We're back to uh to answering questions. Uh, so let's uh get back to it Um More suburban off interiors should adopt brt. It's a cheap mode of rapid transit That when done right is effective. I couldn't agree more. Uh, it's definitely Definitely a great option. Uh, what do we do about high fares? And because of it not many people use transit Well, you've got to bring the fares down get more a government subsidy typically, right? Or make your transit better. You need to do one of them. Otherwise, uh, people are just not going to to ride You know, some places with great transit like london have super high fares Some places with great transit Uh, have super low fares like deli for example Um, you need either you have a lot of demand and then you can afford to have high fares Or you need to provide a really good service, right? So What do we do? Okay here. I like to imagine the fra finally lets up an explosion of european and asian design Trains happens. Well, that's kind of already happened, right the the fra is starting to allow a lot more exceptions to rules And that's that's how the cal train kiss trains got through and and uh, we hope to see more Of that happening soon What's your favorite transit system in the world? I don't think I have one. Um I think one of the cities that I would If I if I were to say cities that I You know if I could show someone one city to try to convince them that transit's a great thing It would probably be tokyo So I think that's if that means anything to you, uh-huh How likely do you think it is for via hfr to actually happen fairly likely? Uh, at least the non-electrified version Wait go rer will have tunnels where uh under the 401 and 409 there's going to be a tunnel Uh, you know, it's not a central city tunnel, but it is a tunnel. It's pretty substantial So it's very interesting. Um, and who knows maybe downtown in the future Uh, no california high speed rail must continue. Uh, you know, it's important that california high speed rail eventually gets built But the current way it's being built is not Not good because it's gonna, you know, it's it's wasting money Uh, it's not, you know, as good as it could be And worse is that if you build something super overpriced, you're going to Either one abandon the idea of doing it in other places because wow that was so expensive or you're just going to Um, you know, or you're just going to waste even more money building the same overpriced thing in other cities So, uh, it needs to be avoided Is there demand for passenger rail between uh, between portland and seattle to boisey and salt lake city? There might be. I mean salt lake is a place. I've been quite a few times to ski so for maybe for like skiing um, uh You know, I think that that could be very valuable. Um Just generally providing rail service between various cities though You know, it's the thing where you have to provide the service to really realize if it's you know, if there's demand for that service No bike lanes in the middle of the street, please from odio odi urbanity. Uh, yeah, no bad idea California high speed rail being canceled as it is right now. I don't think it would be a catastrophe I think it would be a reckoning with the fact that it is not a great project at the moment, right? So I think that the current project probably Should be canceled. Um, at least Beyond the initial operating segment and it needs to be like reviewed and a lot of things should be changed And then yes, it should be built. But obviously the way it's being built right now is super problematic You know, it's at super high costs uh Running brt in the median is a result of much fewer driveway conflicts Yeah, but again, there's not there's other options too that that could avoid a lot of conflicts Let's look thoughts on the bogota trans millennial brt super iconic system and I believe it's bogota. That's also that's replacing the central section with a with a metro with lots of bike access So, yeah, I mean south america and bogota and colombia in particular kind of Uh, created the idea of brt, right? So it's it's awesome thoughts on milton transit. I don't hear good things about it. Um Planning to cover the elizabeth line when it opens. I would love to you know, get out to london and cover a lot of stuff If travel restrictions Would end I would you know, I'd be in london. Hopefully pretty quickly. Um, Probably not as quickly as i'll be in new york and uh east coast of the u.s. But I would love to visit london multiple times and cover the various transit and railway networks there Opinions on the recently announced lakeshore road median brt in miss saga. Uh, I think uh, you know It's good. Yeah produce More brt and more Dedicated bus lanes as long as they're being used by buses, right? That's the problem with like viva You spend all this money and it doesn't get used. Well, that's just a bad business case, right? Why would you spend money for so little benefit? Um, at least so little transit benefit the ontario line so Continuing up that direction to dundas west, etc Doesn't make any sense because you're just paralleling go, right? so Picking a western route that that actually covers new ground and doesn't duplicate coverage makes a lot more sense when you have Not that much coverage to begin with the new metro train cars are okay, but they're still so americanized, right? They have like the silly um, like Pattern on the end to I think make them more visible. They have like they're super stainless steel They're just not They're not they don't follow a lot of the great designs that have been introduced in other countries like europe Right in across europe. So, uh, they're okay, but you know, we should be aiming higher They should also be multiple units, right if they're going to be used at least on on the electrified lines Uh, what cancelled transit project in ontario? Would you like to see brought back eglinton subway? Please instead of the akraeid crosstown No, honestly, I think uh go alrt probably right like I think we still kind of need the A region crossing line in the northern area of the toronto region Uh Let's look Yeah, but ontario place isn't the terminus right the terminus is that exhibition station, which is a major rail station and streetcar stops So no, I don't think it's uh, I think it's a pretty good Terminus and it's also it's nice to have connections to like major stadiums event grounds and stuff on transit And so that's what it's also going to provide as well as that connection to liberty village, which is a core growing area of toronto Will you make a video about the I'm not going to pronounce it because I'm going to butcher it But in south africa in uh in johannesburg. They have an express rail service Uh, which was built for the world cup. Will I talk about it? Probably eventually it's an interesting system uses some very british rolling stock Um, how do you feel about metro finally getting new? I think I kind of already talked about this When you make it to lovin to lovin london, don't forget to cover temslink Yeah, no, I'll definitely cover temslink. I mean, okay in london I want to cover the tube the overground the trams the dlr temslink Crossrail, uh, you know the various suburban railways the cable car obviously because it's a weird oddity Um, very like the tube itself is gigantic the dlr is gigantic the overground is pretty big Crossrail in itself is a large line. Heathrow, you know, you could talk about the transit at Heathrow There's tons to talk about in london Is there a convenient rail connection between detroit and windsor? Uh, yes, but for freight rail Which which should be the minimum frequency for lrt lines of 15 minutes Uh, yeah, so let's just talk about a few more of these news items. So one of them is a little, uh A little self-serving here. It's the point defiance bypass testing. So You know open this up. So if you don't know about the point defiance bypass basically south of seattle On the amtrak cascades rail corridor, which is one of the most successful rail corridors in north america There's you know, this this line typically follows the coast. So it's very, uh circuitous and this point defiance area It kind of goes like this and then up and then back down and so bypassing that with a bypass Allows you to cut travel times substantially. And so that's what this project the point defiance bypass aims to do um Basically cut travel time on the corridor between vancouver bc and portland organ by 10 minutes, which is pretty substantial You know on a couple hour trip 10 minutes is is is quite a lot. So Uh, it's a great change. Unfortunately, this line was actually open previously But what happened was there was a crash, uh, which some of you may remember on the first revenue service due to some some overspeed issues over uh over a viaduct and so Uh, yeah, it's sad story, but it's good to see that this line is is uh, you know Getting put back into use and hopefully it can you know increase service on the cascades route can lead us to hsr eventually um So that's the last news item for today. There was not a ton of news. I saw this week of super high interest Um, so I'll answer a few more questions and then I'll probably close out the stream Uh, I was streamed for like two hours the last few times. I'm going to try to keep it to one hour today Um, so folks have questions Uh, you know, feel free to ask them. Also, please do consider joining our discord Uh server. It's a great place to come and chat about this stuff all the time We have a lot of very interesting people and transit experts on the server Uh, so lots of good discussions are always happening You know, also consider uh following us on instagram and twitter Consider supporting us on patreon if you can uh, and send us your transit related memorabilia via, uh, The via your national mail service. We have a link in the description on how to do that So i'm gonna answer a few more questions now Thoughts on the new silver liners that septa is planning on ordering. I don't know about them But if they're anything like the last ones then that's not good. Um The new metro cars are only going to be used on the diesel routes Okay, I still think that uh, like a diesel multiple unit would be a better option though, right or even just I don't know. I just think that they're not the most aesthetically pleasing things Uh of the u.s cities and canadian cities without proper metros, which one should get to one next? That's a very interesting question seattle Austin those are both cities. I think could really use a proper metro I mean, I guess you can call link a proper metro in parts Um, but yeah, austin could definitely justify one Uh, you know, let's think what other cities i'm trying to i need to spend a couple seconds here Um, you know, there's a lot of cities in the in the u.s. That are kind of rapidly growing. Um, where you know, I guess there's a lot of actually a lot of cities have like a small metro system in the u.s. I think in canada Uh, cobeck city could probably justify one. Um Calgary and edmonton could both probably justify them like as an automated light metro. So Why only a one hour stream today? I'm trying to keep things dent dense um Because I you know, I don't want to I don't want to talk to for too long. Um It's uh, it's it's better if I if I kind of try to keep it Tight and dense and then You know, we can go into further discussion in two weeks at the next stream Can you see the future ontario line filling in for transit city going east and north? Yeah, no for sure, right? Like uh up don mills, obviously and on jane. I think it makes a ton of sense to continue the ontario line A video on the rise of battery trains and possible introductions into areas without electrification would be cool Yeah, definitely something i'll consider doing. I think battery trains have have a lot of opportunities What do you think about transitioning vancouver's trolley lines into tramways? Well, I think that's a little unnecessary because None of the trolleys are are kind of like overcrowded at the moment And and why I get rid of them when you already have them. I think you could build parallel trolleys I mean, sorry parallel tramways Our beauties is obviously a great north south corridor for a tramway or hopefully a sky train But if we can't get a sky train built a tramway Um, there's you know benefits in the downtown core I think to having a tramway in a few places to kind of provide some high quality connectivity In some super dense areas, uh, like around false creek. So lots of places in vancouver. I could see them building tramways What is your opinion on the miami metro? It's called metro rail, I believe My my my opinion on that is uh, you know, it's a cool elevated system, but it's like one of the classic Uh, us metro systems seems like it has good bones, but it's underfunded. It's not very up to date. It's not that extensive Um, so it has a lot of problems. Miami's a giant city. Like, you know, it could have way better transit service if there was, um You know supportive politicians and policy in place to to generate Uh, to build that system. So, you know, hopefully we'll see that in the future in miami Yeah, the the sea train is has a lot of good features, but it does have some big downsides I did not see that windsor was doubling their transit budget. It is definitely awesome But it might be a case where you know doubling something small is still still can be pretty small So it would be interesting to see what happens Do you see a future for these kind of these uh people movers and prt's etc? In the us not really. I think that in europe you would definitely see these either, you know, rebuilt as modern lines that do equivalent things Or you would see the construction of a new line that kind of replaces the need for that line In the u.s. I feel like they'll just be removed and replaced with Either buses or in the worst case just, you know, bigger roads Um, uh Yeah, I definitely think extending uh Extending some of the toronto street cars in general like a little further along their lines would be interesting I think it'd be a good decision, especially as we have more rapid transit lines that kind of intercept them So, you know, you have you might have a long street car or tram line But uh, if you have a metro line cutting through the middle Well, then you can keep extended being extending because what you do is you You capture a ton of riders as you're going to the metro line You drop a ton of them off now your vehicle is almost empty again and you can refill as you're heading downtown So you actually you know, you get even more benefit uh from the From the local transit line when you do something like that um Favorite up-and-coming metro system sydney metro is pretty cool, right? I think that's a very like kind of one of the more aggressive Plans for a city that didn't have a metro previously Uh, I think heart in honolulu, you know, if it wasn't having so many budgetary and scheduling issues would be an awesome system Um, I still think it will be an awesome system, but it's very cool to see that up and coming Um, a cow is doing kind of a metro system. That's pretty cool. Uh, in my opinion Uh, you know and and many of the canadian systems are up and coming and so I think you know, those are all very exciting Okay, I'm gonna answer answer a few more questions and then I'm gonna shut the stream down for today Uh, is the eglinton east lrt extension still going to happen or what's your opinion on it? I think it's you know, pretty low priority. I don't think that You're basically just replacing a bus service with often something that's going to be less convenient, right? Because right now you have eglinton east serves a ton of corridors and when you replace it with lrt You're gonna have you're gonna require people to transfer onto a mode that is not much faster than their bus So I think you could actually hurt ridership, right because you're basically saying hey Now now not only do you have to take this long slow trip, but you have to also transfer So I think it actually you know could hurt ridership and I think that Uh, providing rapid transit or better bus service is uh, is a better model in a in eastern scarborough What keeps the 512 st. Clair from being considered rapid transit or lrt? You know, it's kind of a wash. It is basically a toronto lrt Uh, it has like most of the features of a toronto lrt Mainly just the fact that it's connected to and uses legacy street cars Um You know, this is a fine line. It's a question many people have asked and I don't think there's a great answer to it What do you think about implementing car free sundays on some corridors? Robson and vancouver young in toronto to encourage biking and walking. I think it's a great idea I think, uh, it's fantastic. I actually remember attending university at the university of toronto and often You would see that like major streets downtown would get shut down on the weekend and you'd be able to walk around and people would you know Just hang out and walk around with a lot more space, especially young street in toronto is Like maybe the most pedestrian hostile street in north america based on like how much pedestrian traffic there is Versus how much sidewalk space there is so no, it's a great idea uh I didn't hear that the mbta might be doing that but uh disappointing if that's the case I think that uh part of why transit lines don't perform great in the us and canada when they don't is that they're not providing a great service and so I think the solution to underperforming lines is to provide better service typically sure sometimes you should cut a line But it shouldn't be the first response Well, I think that's it for today's stream. I really enjoyed talking to everyone If I see a few more questions come in i'll answer them, but uh, yeah, I appreciate everyone coming on and watching If you're not already, you know Go follow us on social media join the discord and come chat with us there And send me your you know, wonderful transit related memorabilia and transit cards and maps from around the world Via the link in the video description We really appreciate it and we'll open it up on our next stream, which is happening in Happening in two weeks on the 7th of february. Um, so watch out for links, which will be provided to that um In the next couple days and weeks No, I don't think it should be on king instead of queen because you want to you want to be in between the subway and the The go lines so queen makes more sense Uh for that, uh, yeah, I think some of these the Flemington park is not really a freak like a, you know, tightly packed station. So Um, I don't think it should be dropped. No Uh Let's see. What's your favorite ice cream flavor? I don't know. I uh, I have lots of flavors of ice cream. I like Uh, no, I don't ontary line on king is not a good idea. It's uh, it's a pretty pretty poor idea I think and again, it's because you have a rail corridor Not far south of king and you also have a street car that's really highly performing on king You might as well put the ontary line In the middle between, uh, you know blower and the rail corridor. So you can maximize coverage Uh, and again again, you have the rail corridor. That's just south of king So you can provide good rail service there and people from king will be served and as well people on king are served Via the ontary line because most of the locations, you know on king are are connected via the path Yes, I do know how to play piano Uh, interesting transit related question there. Um, okay, I'm going to end the stream now. Thanks everyone for joining me And I hope to see you in two weeks. Thanks. Bye