i spent all summer organizing for dedicated transit lanes against typical toronto nimbys who claimed that "emergency vehicles would get stuck in traffic and more people would die"
anyways, here's real life:
“It’s the end of the city. Toronto sucks.”
“This is the beginning of a quiet decent neighbourhood in our city being destroyed simply because it’s on the new subway line.”
Totally normal reaction to a six-unit, three-storey residence being built near transit.
115 km of tunnels is like if the approaches into Milan were tunnelled from Vercelli to almost Piacenza, or those into Rome from Orte to Anagni.
This is just unbelievably long.
as we rode last weekend for run on a holiday, I did wonder what it would be like when crowded and that maybe ... maybe ... it should have been a high floor subway w no wheel wells and stations/platforms raised.
Don't know what the final cost ended up at, but this was planned to cost €186M and I just desperately want Toronto transportation planners and councillors to think long and hard about why the shorter extension of the 509 Harbourfront to Ookwemin Minising is projected to cost 8x this value.
Very excited to say that the stars have aligned and NYU Marron/Transit Costs Project have landed a grant that will fund a second edition of Momentum, which will apply the high-throughput framework to major regional rail networks beyond the NY area.
Our three big new cases:
- NJT
- SEPTA
- METRA
I've been thinking about how to modify the at-grade portion of the #EglintonLRT so that the experience & operations are more like the underground portion. I've put some words and drawings together & I'm happy to hear your thoughts! #TOpoli #Transit #TTC
kevinrupasinghe.substack.com/p/improving-...
Comparison of Line 2 and Line 5 between Keele Street and Yonge Street
Between Keele and Yonge, the new Line 5 Eglinton is somehow slower than the Bloor subway even though it makes fewer stops and is entirely underground.
The most frustrating thing about the sanctimonious nature of a lot of the transit city and surface "light rail" talk in Toronto is that it is distinctly not *light rail* that we built, but the St. Clair streetcar with nicer stops.
Very happy to have collaborated with CSA Group on this report examining successes and challenges in transit project construction in Canada and the lessons we can learn for future projects.
www.csagroup.org/article/publ...
"Maybe the city's full" says the man living in a 2.7 million dollar house on Palmerston, while sipping $170 scotch after defeating a multiplex proposal across the street.
www.pressreader.com/canada/toron...
From a pure operation expenditure efficiency perspective, making only the buses free means pushing users into a mode with higher marginal costs of production.
If really free transit should be, it's definetly better to have it mode-neutral.
Doing the good work. We also are spinning up a little group to advocate for changes @fasttracktoronto.bsky.social
I was in Shantou two days ago, the heart of arguably the largest metro region (with +10 million people) in China without urban rail. However, they are constructing a Regional S Bahn system connecting the region's airport, high speed railway stations and 3 major centers. A 🧵
We're proud to present A Better Billion: how New York should be spending an extra $1b a year on subway expansion, in lieu of Zohran Mamdani's free bus proposal. transitcosts.com/a-better-bil...
See gift article for a New York Times writeup here:
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/n...
41 miles of new subway for the cost of free buses. Here’s an audacious, expansive plan to expand the subway’s reach & catalyze housing to attack the affordability crisis. An incredible effort from NYU Marron team. Excited for this to be out in the world:
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/n...
We have a consultation problem. I write about a Toronto rec centre that will have taken 14 years to plan, cost at least three times the original budget - and be a bad building.
www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...
![Can we transform our cities despite resistance to change? [Podcast]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:r5zcobxml6y37tbqgssfqjpe/bafkreidqihcmgciboumx5yw6qbid74klyfg4jdqhfs3fbsx5yqaqkvcc6i@jpeg)
What if better cities require short-term sacrifices? 🤔
In our new #UMX video podcast, experts unpack why urban change often meets resistance and how it leads to healthier, more liveable cities.
▶️ Watch now & join the debate 👇
youtu.be/LQ_hg2LI1X4?...
Consultancies know the political environment and institutional processes inside and out. We’ve seen cases in Canada where consultants can negotiate for percentage kickbacks of project budget, which clearly is a perverse incentive
A ton of interesting stuff in here: The Lenox Ave and Broadway station structures look ~rightly sized. The box looks to be about 20% bigger than the platforms, which is a *huge improvement* from the SAS 1 and SAS 2 designs.
They're just massively expensive because they're 100+ feet deep.
BUT...
Good piece for people to think through. If you want housing prices to stay where they are now or (gasp) decrease further, we need to reduce construction costs and so you have to pick the pathways to push on. Your menu of options is here.
I’ve just learned about state-issued baby kits and now extremely pissed off to learn that this is no longer a thing.
Update: the new mayor of Montreal, Soraya Martinez Ferrada, has cut this program.
Dear North American station designers, this (first two pics) is not how you deal effectively with vertical circulation on a 120-130 ft (35-40 meters) deep station.
It's either the Moscow way (long inclined escalators) or the Barcelona/E-M REM way (elevators-only).
NEW VIDEO: North America’s Elevator’s Problem
Elevators are absolutely essential to modern cities..... and it turns out North America kind of sucks at them. We partnered with @sightline.org to look into the many issues plaguing our elevator industry, and what it might take to fix it.
Skinner "I'm I out of touch" meme .gif
The recently opened 19km long underground fully automated Xi'an Metro Line 15 Phase 1 costs less to build per km than the Toronto Finch West Tramway and the project is overall cheaper to build than the 19km long Phase 1 subway-surface Eglinton Crosstown tramway.
The Pfaffensteig tunnel to connect Stuttgart airport to the Gäubahn (railway to Zürich) has been approved.
Big problem is that it’s a single tracked railway with not much in between Stuttgart and Zürich. Do it hasn’t been upgraded and is now getting a billion euro tunnel that’ll be empty
selfie of 4 people inside a train at night wearing winter clothes
love welcoming my best friends to toronto by making them suffer on our worst transit line 💜
I know you've been thinking "we need way more podcasts".
Your prayers have been answered!
@chanface.bsky.social and I have a podcast about transit advocacy in Canada and around the world!
LISTEN TO IT
