Hog-town Blog

"There are none so blind as those who will not see" is a saying that - in different variants - has multiple roots. In 21st century Toronto - were this saying to be invented - it would be traced to the streetcar pushers. I don't mean the vehicles that the TTC runs out many times a day to push the a disabled streetcars along, but rather those who continue to foist - in other words "push" - these noxious, useless contraptions upon the general populace.

A dearly held falsehood among the streetcar pushers is that we (as a society) must endure the presence of these machines and their visually polluting wires, because they are magically able to carry untold numbers of passengers. The huge costs and poor service is the price we must pay to squeeze more souls along out thoroughfare.

The trouble is, it's not true - as I've written here before. Last fall this subject arose in a thread on on a the Metronauts discussion group. An individual named Karl Junkin started a discussion on subway construction. As invariably occurs, the discussion under a given post strays from the original subject - as does normal conversation for that matter.

At some point - after much discussion - I introduced the published fact that the highest 2-way achieved capacity for the TTC streetcar network - i.e. on the King St 504 route - was 3,450 pphpd (peak person per hour per direction) was about 1,700. This is documented in plan B&W in the TTC analysis of the the service on King St:

Commission Report - March 21, 2007

which states (page 9 or so) that the highest 2-way volume is 3,450 - the overall table I give here:

7-8 am: 2170
8-9 am: 3450 <==This is the high
9-10 am: 2680

3-4 pm: 1570
4-5 pm: 2860
5-6 pm: 3060
6-7 pm: 2510

Upon posting these official figures, I was subjected to replies ranging from disbelief, denial and ultimately verbal abuse.

I eventually went down to King and Spadina to record the morning peak hour passenger counts. My raw data is as follows (time, count)

7:50 - 80
7:51 - 25
7:51 - 52
7:52 - 20
7:53 - 50 (ALRV)
7:54 - 15
7:55 - 28
7:58 - 85 (ALRV)
8:01 - 45
8:03 - 65
8:05 - 40
8:05 - 10
8:10 - 75
8:12 - 75
8:13 - 75
8:14 - 10

Which gives in total:

750 passengers in 16 vehicles over 25 minutes

Average = 47 passengers per vehicle
pphpd = ( 750 * 60 / 25) = 1800 ++

easily attainable y fewer regular buses than actually the number of streetcars I counted!

(++ In the earlier discussion - in my haste - I had added the figures up incorrectly to be 785.)

After I published these 1st have counts, all hell broke lose. Mr. Junkin basically called me a liar - upon which I launched heavy barrages of well-deserved invenctive against the boy. The really good stuff was purged from the board.

The point of the mater is that:

1. The argument that we need streetcars for capacity is an out and out lie
2. The streetcar pushers are intent on hiding and denying this.

Steve Munro - chief streetcar pusher - did contact the TTC for a clarication of the published figure. To this day, they have not refuted this - and figures published by the TTC about the Queen Streetcar refute Junkin's assertions.

But these are the willfully blind. Facts, figures and logic don't seem to sway.

Labels: TTC

I have been lucky enough to attend two recent TSO performances.

The first was a Wednesday Masterworks with guest Midori. I saw Midori with the TSO about five years ago - and really enjoyed her playing. In the previous concert, she treated the audience to a good eight to ten minutes of Bach's Partitas as an encore.

Well - no encore in this year performance. This was quite understandable - as the Shostakovich Violin Concerto she rendered likely left little in reserve. This was a work I had never heard - live or on recording. The first movement was very slow. One of the reviewers thought it was played TOO softly. For me, that's hair splitting - long orchestral works should have different tempos in different movements. I enjoy the contrast.

The second and fourth movements were especially rousing. Midori plays masterfully. It was disappointing that there were so many empty seats (about 15% seats were not filled) - perhaps the Wednesday performances are like that.

On Saturday, it was Charles Duttoit conducting Berlioz' Damnation of Faust. This was a huge piece - with a full orchestra, multiple choirs and four solo singers. Despite it's length - and lack of a break - I enjoyed this immensely.

The only criticism is that Roy Thomson isn't set up to allow the subtitles to be projected. The audience were provided copies of the libretto. This resulted in a lot of distracting page turning. In addition, it's hard to read the page and focus on the orchestra, conductor and singers - you have to choose.

Why is there is picture of the sign at the entrance to Bondi Beach on a post about buses? Simple - because, the best way to get to Bondi Beach from the center of Sydney is by bus.

One of our mandatory outings during the stay is Sydney was to get to the famous Bondi Beach. On our first day in Sydney, we had taken the ferry from Circular Quay to Manly - and Manly Beach. Now it was time to try Bondi.

We inquired from the Sheraton-on-the-Park concierge as to how to get to Bondi. He indicated that the 381 bus - available with good frequency from the far side of Elizabeth St - would take us all the way to Bondi.

We also inquired as to the fare. To my astonishment, the concierge indicated that the bus driver would make change up to an A$20 note.

As usual, our concierge proved 100% correct. The bus came to the Elizabeth St stop along Hyde Park at the scheduled time. I passed the driver a $20 and got proof of purchase and change in return. About 40 people boarded at this and the next stop. Most were tourists headed for Bondi. The change issuance did slow the process down somewhat - but with a city full of tourists, the feature is a big plus.

The bus was clean. As with all Sydney buses that I saw, it was LNG-powered. Here in Toronto - for whatever reason - gas-powered buses proved problematic. (The TTC can make a problem out of anything.) In Sydney - obviously the transit system is happy with them.

The bus took a left to turn East. It stopped at a major bus terminal (Bondi Junction) and then headed north towards the beach. In Toronto, the TTC would insist on forcing customers to transfer three times - or worse yet, to include a streetcar ride along the way. It seems that Sydney get's it - provide a reasonable service that takes into account where people wish to travel. In Toronto, the high gods of transit insist that buses must follow the grid, and that routes (especially streetcar carrying ones) are sacrosanct.

On the way back, we boarded the 330 - and express bus. Sydney Transit had someone selling the tickets (pay before boarding) and encouraging people to get on the express.

Oh - yes. Bondi is a great beach. However, if you want a quiet day in the sun, go to Manly.

I feel for the students at York University - the vast majority of whom have been kept out of classes by trough-grazing CUPE members intent on blackmailing the University and taxpayers. The strike is apparently a precursor to a larger 'action' (Orwell would be proud) on the part of CUPE planned for 2010, to shut down all of Ontario's universities.

Now a real university doesn't have so many non-tenure track teachers. At my university, all courses - expect for small freshman writing seminars - are taught by tenured, or tenure-track professors. Graduate students conduct study sessions outside of formal lectures.

However, the idea to shut down the university - unwittingly on the part of CUPE knuckle-draggers - may have some merit. Let's face it, York - and York is not alone - shouldn't be a university. It might be a university if 80-90% of its so-called university programs were dropped.

Look at YU's website. There are new programs listed as follows:

- BA in Race, Ethnicity, and Indigineity
- MS in Social Work (with no BSW required as a prerequisite! - you don't say)
- MA in Disaster and Emergency Management (not even a BS!)

Im scared to look much further.

Let's face it, York consists 90% of students who shouldn't be in university, in programs that have no business being taught anywhere, taught 90% by people who either are not or should not be professors.

Let's close 90% of this 'University' and get the students into some societally-useful course of study - like basket-weaving. We could use some of the buildings to train these CUPE members skills such as pipe-fitting and welding.

OK - as usual the TTC is giving us a project that will deliver less than promised and cost more. I've updated this post based on the fact that the proposed line has now been shortened. I didn't realize this until I went through the material a bit more carefully:

The original proposal calls for the Sheppard East line to be 13.6 km long. The maps now provided (at the EA consultation and online) have the line going from the Don Mills terminus to Morningside. This is only 12 km long.

I've adjusted the stop spacing listed in the text below - all three posts. Obviously, this will reduce the speed on this s-LRT (slow LRT) even further.

As we wait to find out if there will be a TTC strike tomorrow, I'd thought I'd wrap up some last thoughts on the Sheppard LRT.

Here are my conclusions:

COST

This line will end up with a cost of about $1.1 billion for the 12 km - from the Eastern end of teh Sheppard subway to Morningside. I expect the option to be recommended for the Don Mills interchange will be LRT under the 404. Additional cost items include:

- a service/storage depot for the streetcars - say $100 million
- grade crossing elimination at the GO line - say $150 million
- the 404 tunnel (as above) - say $150 million
- street-scaping (which is or isn't included in the $550 million - $40 million
- 10% for underestimation on the general line construction costs - $50 million

(I'd note that if there are indeed multiple rapid transit projects ongoing, particular engineering and skilled trades will be in short supply. This is going to add to the price.)

Add this up, we get: $1.045 billion

BENEFITS

- negigibly faster transit service (most of the benefit is washed by the longer stop spacing and service). [Note - if the Don Mills interchange forces people to trudge down to subway level - most people will actually have longer trips overall.]
- new street-scaping - which could be done without the streetcar line

DISRUPTIONS

- four year construction period (2009 - 2013).

UNKNOWN

- potential traffic impacts. If the TTC sticks with the 5-minute headway, there should be minimal disruption to the N-S arteries that cross the route
- any option for the Don Mills interchange will help with the 404/Sheppard congestion.
- trucks might have a problem with the U-turns

DEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL

A chunk of the route is a city designated 'avenue'. In the 'avenue' concept, the city provides 'high order transit' - and this will turn the streets into a lush, tree-lined, walkable avenues.

I don't really buy this for Sheppard - and in general. The staff at last Tuesday's consultation were unable to tell me where this concept had worked. There are many cities with trams - but the trams go in and out of already built-up areas.

No doubt there are some lots on Sheppard E. that can be redeveloped. However, it's not true that there are vast sections.

My take is that the growth projections were picked to justify the LRT - i.e. "buses can't handle it and it's not enough to do a subway or RT". My A++!

WHAT COULD BE DONE

Sheppard could easily handle 3000 peak passengers (current is 1900) with a few adjustments:

1. Add 'scoot' transit priority - in Montreal, buses get a 10% speed improvement (and hence capacity) - $8 million
2. Add articulated buses for 50% of the schedule - gives a 25% capacity increase - $18 million

This pushes capacity to 2740 per hour - without any dedicated bus lanes. With a dedicated bus lane over the 404 (which would cost $$) , we'd be at 3000/hr peak direction easily - and speed would improve without taking away local services.

Labels: Light Rail, Toronto, traffic, Transit, TTC

Yesterday I penned some notes and observations on the TTC's initial public consultation on the Sheppard East LRT proposal. Here is more:

4. Connection to subway at Don Mills

The proposed LRT will connect to the Sheppard Subway. The TTC gives three options:

1. Surface connection at Don Mills - This would require expansion of the bridge over Hwy 404.

This is likely the least expensive option - but it stinks as a connection strategy because of the configuration of the Don Mills terminus.

2. Underground connection at Don Mills - This requires a tunnel under Hwy 404.

3. Extend Sheppard subway to Consumers Rd and build LRT connection there.

As the printed material provides suggests, this is likely the most expensive option - but the best for riders.

Note - in the original proposal, the connection at Don Mills would be underground:

Light rail service would operate from the underground transfer terminal at Don Mills Station, rising to the surface to operate the rest of the way in a dedicated right-of-way.

In option #1 above, the connection is not underground - but via stairs/elevators. This means that the TTC determined that it was not feasible to cross the 404 at surface AND have the streetcar line connect level with the subway.

As the TTC's printed material admits, going under Hwy 404 - with the subway or streetcars - is going to add even more to the project cost. (Transit City is already at $8.4 billion - on its way to $11 billion I'm going to guess.)

Labels: City life, Development, Light Rail, Toronto, traffic, Transit, TTC

I've updated this for the corrected stop spacing.

Yours truly attended the TTC's initial public consultation on the proposed Sheppard East LRT.

Here's a rundown of the details - good, the bad and the we're not sure yet - with my two cents worth:

(Information is from the display boards, Gary Carr of the TTC and Praveeen John from URS consulting.)

The details:

1. Stops and spacing

The TTC presented a board showing:

Red - existing stops
Green - agreed upon stops
Yellow - To be determined

Counting the Green + Yellow, it seems to work out 550 metres between stops. The TTC guy explained that the stops are closer together (i.e. proposed) in the retail intensive stretch between Victoria Park and McGowan - and thus spaced wider along the residential stretches.

The stop spacing issue is the Achilles' heel of this streetcar plan. The stop spacing the TTC is floating here is slightly longer than I've read in other spaces. This is comparable to the Strasbourg tram - which has average speeds of about 21 km/hr. This is negligibly faster than the Sheppard buses today.

The drawback is longer (roughly double) walking distance to and from stops - especially in the residential sections. With the walk to Sheppard plus walking along, many people will be looking at walks to and from getting up to 1 km each way.

If you live on Sheppard, and are at a stop you'd be in luck. If not - the extra walking means that you lose the time you've gained due to vehicle speed. The improvement in speed (20 km / hr ==> 21 km / hr) gains the average rider (based on 7 km) 0.9 minutes each direction each day. However, the rider loses 1.8 of those minutes by having to walk another 150 meters at 5 km / hr.

My two cents - the 21 km / hr is an insufficient improvement to attract riders. The increased spacing actually make using the service less attractive for quick trips - because of the added time walking (and distance carrying groceries.)

My guess is that public pressure will result in more stops and lower speed. I'd guess that speed will end up about only 1 km/hr faster than today's bus service.

2. Street layout

The streetcars would run in a semi-private right-of-way - similar to those on Spadina and under (interminable) construction on St. Clair W.

The cross section diagrams presented showed three of the typical proposed cross sections:

1. Mid block - no station

Here there is no sidewalk cut. There are two traffic lanes. The traffic lanes are reduced by 20 cm from the current standard (now 3.5 m - proposed 3.3 m). There is space for bike lanes (1.5 m) on each side - and some street-scaping (shown as little trees on the schematic.)

2. Mid block - with streetcar station

The station locations will require 2.5 m of sidewalk cut on each side.

The stations themselves will have platforms 3 meters wide and 60 meters in length.

3. Intersections

The signalized intersections will provide for a U-turn phase for vehicles to access locations on the far side. There will be two traffic lanes in each direction (widths as described above) and a left-turning lane of 3.0 meters in width.

The length of the turning lane is not specified.

There was no information on the turning radii support for commercial vehicles - the issue that the TTC and city swept under the rug on St. Clair.

My two cents - I didn't have a chance to explore the section of Sheppard under study. It's hard to tell how much the sidewalk cuts will reduce the attractiveness of the street for pedestrians. The intersections on Sheppard have a bit more space than on St. Clair W - so perhaps the stuck trucks problem wont be as bad at is in St. Clair.

3. Trains

The TTC is proposing to run two car trains at 5 minute or so intervals.

My 2 cents - I actually agree with this approach. The non-train-based Spadina service is impossible to keep 'on track'. A 5 minute service interval allows signal systems to give the LRVs priority without completely stopping traffic in the other directions.

I would note that extrapolates out to about 32o LRVs for the overall proposed Transit City Network with 20 % spare factor. Add some cars for the Eglinton line - which might be three LRVs per train - and we're close to the 386 I calculated back last year. (See: http://hogtown.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html)

Of course, riders will lose about 1 minute for each wait - since the headway on Sheppard E is currently about 3 minutes. (Average wait will increase from 1.5 minutes to 2.5 minutes.)

MORE TOMORROW

Labels: City life, Light Rail, Toronto, Transit, TTC

Here's The Star's Christopher Hume ranting about retailers. hmm - make them build up and insult them at the same time.

Christopher Hume's idea to require retailers to build may have merit. However, he seems not to have noticed that retailers are already building up. All Ikea stores are two stories. The new Canadian Tire at Leslie and Lakeshore is two stories. In addition, warehouse stores such as Home Depot use the space above the retail floor to store goods - which eliminates the need for a separate footprint for warehouse space.

Hume closing rhetoric is uncalled for. Most cities grew out of market places. In Ancient Greek cities, the agora- the trading and meeting place - was foundational to what became cities and city states. The agorai were open air - in essence a zero-story buildings!

Urbanity is based on the trading of goods and services. Instead of ranting against retailers, Hume should head back to school for a refresher course on architectural history.

Today, Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman announced there would be no bailout of a number of hospitals in the East end of the GTA. The Rouge Valley Health System has announced it is cutting 72 nurses and 36 beds in order to balance its budget.

Smitherman is quoted in The Star:

"The hospitals have been poorly run and now must live within their budgets"

and

“It wouldn’t be fair to bail out Rouge Valley for activity that other hospitals are not involved in..”

Now, this is exactly what the Harris government said about the Toronto District School Board after it has seen the board squander $900 million in transitional funding. Of course, it did end up forking over more money to the cry babies - and McGuinty continues to treat this spoiled brat of an agency with kid gloves.

The teachers own McGuinty lock, stock and barrel. The sad thing is that we have no shortage of schools. The TDSB is practically drowning in surplus real estate. There is a glut of teachers on the market. In contrast, there is a severe shortage of hospital beds and nurses.

I saw this film in the theatre last year some time. This evening, I watched it again on DVD on my computer.

There are only a few pieces of film or TV that I've found engrossing enough to merit a repeat viewing. This is the only one one where I depend on the sub-titles to follow.

The Live of Others is a German film ("Das Leben der Anderen") set mainly before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The protagonist is a Stasi agent (the Stasi were East Germany's secret police) who is assigned to spy on a prominent playwright. I shall not recount the plot here. Sufficeth to say that this is gripping tale - more than deserving of the 2007 Academy Award for best foreign film. It's one of the best films I've ever seen.

Ontario education minister Kathleen Wynne was quoted earlier in the day that Ontario teachers might have to work a little longer to earn their pensions. Per The Star:

“There are a lot of healthy, retired teachers, and it’s the baby boom issue, you know, there are pension plans all over the world dealing with these concerns,” Kathleen Wynne told reporters before a Liberal cabinet meeting. ..“It’s one of the things that the partners at the table have to talk about.”

Later in the day - but not much - Wynne clarified that:

“I just want to be clear: our government has no intention of putting forward a position that the 85-factor should be pulled.”

(The 85 factor is a formula that combines of age and years of service to qualify for full pension.)

Wynne was probably feeling the first few wisps of the gale-force wind of teacher union indignation that was headed her way.

What does this say? Given the very tight leash with which the teachers unions control McGuinty and Co with, it's likely that the taxpayers are going to be on the hook for mega$$$ to close the $12.5 billion or so gap in the Teachers' pension fund. (Yes the one that owns all the sports teams and soon Bell Canada too!)

Wynne's rapidity in clarifying her position is clear evidence of the taxpayer pain to come.

Earlier this afternoon, The Toronto Star (online that is) posted the following article:

Ottawa flunks green audit

However, the article was initially posted as:

Tories flunk green audit

Check the Google search quick and you'll see what I mean.

For those you don't think The Star is full of hard-line partisans, this is your proof otherwise. The Star's editors just weren't quick enough this time to completely cover their tracks.

Of course, it is the Liberals who mismanaged the environment file - and helped block new environmental legislation last fall.

The Conservative government is putting together legislated fuel efficiency levels for car makers. Watch for the Liberals to try and block these.

It seems that membership in the Liberal Party can turn seemingly polite people into raving rude ones. First we have my MP - Maria Minna - who stooped so far as to call the PM a "Neanderthal". Now we have a rant on Bob Rae's blog complaining that Stephen Harper is personally sabotaging Mr. Obama's campaign for teh US WHite House.

Well Bob. I've really lost all respect for you. I'm not sure I'll be able to stomach going to the TSO anymore. I'll be looking at pulling my subscription.

Anyone in the Chicago consultate could have picked up an errant copy of the NAFTA-gate memo - and I'd venture that there are some interested American's working at the consulate. Likely someone pocketed this of the fax machine and the rest is history.

However, Obama has only himself to blame. First - for being two-faced. Second for having young, eager advisers giddy at the thought of power and all-so willing to run at the mouth. As much as Goolsbee protests, it's clear that the memo was based on a taped conversation - if you read the PDF on the web, you'll see at least one anotation that makes this apparent.

Rae and the lib-lefters are just upset because one of their own has been caught being a blatant demagogue. Then such is the nature of their cause. As H.L. Mencken once wrote:

"One who preaches a doctrine he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots."

The idiots are the Rae's, Minna's and the rest of the nasty lib-left cloud.

hmm - the TTC may have chopped some routes from its Transit City plan. Reports the National Post's Peter Kuitenbrower:

From In a rush? Get off and walk - Feb 28 2008

Longer term, the TTC has its Transit City light-rail plan - outlined in some detail at yesterday's meeting. It plans longer streetcars in dedicated lanes on Eglinton, Sheppard East, Finch West, Don Mills and the Waterfront West.

Mr. Stambler went through a slideshow of sexy streetcars in Barcelona, Paris and San Francisco, "to remind us of what Toronto will look like at some point in the future."
But not only is that future at least five years and $7-billion away, it does nothing to solve the problems of streetcars that fight mixed traffic on east-west routes downtown.

There is now no mention of the Jane or Malvern lines - and the price has been 'chopped' from $8.3 billion to $7 billion. Maybe the TTC will get smart and use the money to build heavier lines with the needed cuts under intersections to make the scheme slightly more viable.

Labels: Toronto, Transit, TTC

One of my business-school classmates stated in jest:

"Give me Lotus 1-2-3, and 2 hours and I can make any company look profitable."

I think this was at least partly in jest.

Now it seems that the same is true in climate science. It looks as if one of the "foremost" scientists behind the global warming (or is it climate change) parade has been found fudging the data.

Dr. Michael Mann - the academic behind the now infamous 'hockey-stick' of rising temperatures - has been caught playing with the data. Researchers looking to reconstruct Mann's calculation came across archived data that was labelled 'censored'. It seems that Mann had tried to cover his tracks - but wasn't smart enough to fully clean up the archive.

So why would a scientist - especially one involved in such a controversial field:

1. Delete the active data
2. Label data as 'censored'
3. Be so cagey about his methods.

The obvious answer is that Mann was the bagman for solving the IPCC's (the UN commission investigating climate change) big problem - the fact that the Earth's climate changes due to natural factors. A great deal of research money was at stake if they couldn't blame human activity for a few warm years.

Enter climate bagman Michael Mann. His assignment - to rig a model that would 'eliminate' the Little Ice Age (LIA) and the Medieval Warm Period (MWP). It looks like Mann did this by over weighting a few data points from tree ring measurements.

Mann is like my B-school classmate - give him a computer and a few hours and he can make any planet look warm!

Based on the 'hockey-stick' graph, the LIA and MWP have been deemed by the IPCC to be localized to Europe. Tell this to all the researchers looking at the climactic change in the North American Southwest during that period!

Here is a quote from one abstract:


Recent tree-ring reconstructions of summer drought over most of North America have
revealed unprecedented periods of elevated aridity and megadroughts, particularly in the western United States (the “West”) prior to A.D. 1600, with three particularly intense periods of drought occurring between A.D. 1021-1051, 1130-1170, and 1240-1265. These megadroughts fall within the time period variously described as the Medieval Warm Period or the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA). The MCA is also a period of overall increased aridity that lasted roughly 400 years (A.D. 900-1300) in the West.

(TREE-RING RECONSTRUCTIONS OF NORTH AMERICAN DROUGHT:
THE CURRENT STATE AND WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
EDWARD R. COOK Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Palisades, New York 10964 drdendro@ldeo.columbia.edu)

Aw shucks - what does an Ivy League professor know anyway? Let's all bow to Mann's fraud and the Kyoto sham. Science is passe.

(Will Dr. "Fruit Fly" David Suzuki want to put me in jail for writing this?)

After a number of false starts, today's promised allotment of snow is finally arriving. I find watching a gentle snowfall grace my street in the evening to be the best part of winter.

Of course, we still have a great deal of snow from the earlier storms. The city was supposed to be biting-the-financial-bullet to remove the banks of snow encumbering traffic on our narrow side streets.

I was away for almost a week - and I expected to see the snow removed when I returned late last night. However, I saw no evidence of this. Neither my own street (which has parking on both sides), nor even the main thoroughfare, have seen snow removal. The East-side curb lane of Woodbine between Queen and Kingston Rd. is still a series of ice humps.

Saturday evening I attended the Toronto Symphony Orchestra will guest conductor Charles Dutoit deliver Brahms Double Concerto (for cello and violin) and Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique.

Mr. Dutoit was the long time music director for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (MSO). He put his stamp on the MSO, and put the MSO on the world's musical map. A couple of years back, the MSO musicians union got stupid (ok more stupid than the usual union c++p) and Dutoit bid the morons adieu.

It was a pleasure watching Dutoit conduct the TSO. The Symphonie Fantastique is one of the most exciting pieces to see and hear delivered live - and Dutoit is obviously one of its masters.

I also enjoyed the Brahms concerto - which by remarkable coincidence is a key part of the score of the movie "There Will be Blood" that I attended Sunday night!

Anyway, Dutoit and the TSO get a grade of A from me - even if the tuba sounded a bit off. (I'll blame the acoustics on RTH - which must have been playing tricks.)

My GF was away, so I TTCed it to the RTH (she WILL NOT take the TTC period, full stop). The journey downtown was great - 37 minutes by bus and subway from my front door to being seated in the mezzanine - 29 of these minutes being from me getting to the stop to getting off the subway at St. Andrews.)

On the way home, I decided to give the TTC streetcar a try. Per reports I've been reading while lurking on http://www.stevemunro.ca/, the TTC has been taking measures to try and make the service work. "Why not give it a try?" I thought.

All went well for the 1st 15 minutes. Within three minutes, I was boarding the 504 King in front of RTH. There were no people getting on - i.e. other than me. Twenty people were waiting for taxis. As I walked towards the streetcar, someone said "that's mine". She thought I was taking her cab. It didn't occur to her that someone would get on the streetcar.

I got off the 504 when it got onto Queen and took my spot (alone) in the shelter to await the 501. 20 minutes passed - nothing.

After 25 minutes, a 501 came along. Wait though, it's not slowing down! It was a CLRV towing a disabled ALRV.

"Great" I thought. That explains it - there should be three or four 501s in 'hot pursuit'. (Ok the 501 and TTC streetcars in general are never in hot pursuit - but you know what I mean.)

Another 25 minutes later - after 50 minutes of waiting - a 3/4 full ALRV pulls up. I board, glaring at the conductor.

I can understand that a breakdown will cause service to be disrupted - and this happens very frequently. However, five or so Kings cars had gone by Eastbound and at least four Queen cars had gone by Westbound. Surely the TTC could have rerouted one of these to pick up the shivering people waiting on Queen for the Neville Park-bound service????

A big fat F for the TTC streetcars. It will be a cold day below before I try that again. Obviously all those waiting for taxis were the smart ones.

Labels: Reviews, TTC

Big boxes are big issues these days.

Close to my neighbourhood, the local policticians are up in arms about the possible use of some now unused land along Eastern Avenue for a 'big box' retail area. My understanding is that the owners have already tried to have the land redeveloped as residential. This was turned down. Now the politicians - specifically Councillors Sandra Bussin and the Trotskyite Paula Fletcher - have come out in opposition. Community Council apparently has voted to restrict any retail to 200 square foot shops.

I think this is just nasty. There are 200 sq ft retail spaces along Queen St in the Beaches - but even these they are empty despite the good foot traffic.

There isn't much hope for new industrial uses along Eastern - especially if the car haters on Council push through a plan to narrow the road to 2-lanes. What kind of industry will locate where its deliveries and shipments would be caught in a traffic jams?

Fletchher proposes finding a different area that 'might be suitable for retail' - such as south of Lakeshore. OK - south of Lakeshore is zoned industrial. This would still deplete industrial space no different than the site on Eastern. Furthermore, S. of Lakeshore is not handy for walking. Aren't we supposed to be encouraging walking?

There are many people in the area that would benefit from having a Walmart - i.e. people with limited income. They need a good discount retailer so they don't have to slog up to the Danforth.

hmm - funny how Fletcher et al didn't complain about Canadian Tire and Shoppers setting up on the former site of the Beer Store's distribution center. This land wasn't zoned for retail. either. Could there be a different standard for Walmart than other retailers?


The other big boxes in the news - the big recycling boxes that the city is ramming up our a++s++s.

Labels: Toronto

No, this isn't about good old Levis bluejeans. It's about Toronto's 501 streetcar route.

This is the route that meanders all the way from Long Branch in the west (near Toronto's border with Mississauga) to Neville Park (at the very East end of the Beach.) This route has been in the news recently.

On the plus side, The National Geographic Magazine has named the 501 Queen one of the 10 'best' streetcar routes in the world:

Toronto Star - Toronto streetcar named among world's best

Now the bad news, the service stinks. Practically every local paper has had articles outlining the severe service problems. Here is one such article among a host:

Toronto Sun - Trolley follies Queen-sized - Rachel Sa - Jan 18 2008

Miss Sa, I notice, uses the same term that I do.

There is also a great deal of discussion about the 501 on this website:

Steve Munro's website

So, as usual, there are many fine words printed, and perhaps many a fine speech and deputation given, but where does that get us.

For now at least, the TTC has dispatched scores of supervisors onto the routes to help keep the streetcars properly spaced. How much is this helping? I'm not sure. My gym has a great view of the intersection of Queen & Kingston road. While I'm busy trying to keep the lbs off, I can still see streetcars being short turned. Is the short turning more of less frequent than before - who knows?

However what happens beyond this is more important. The TTC has an RFP out (I think it was actually tendered out officially) for even longer 'light rail vehicles'. 'Light rail vehicles' is the term for vehicles that run on the light rail systems that run in other cities - such as Calgary and St. Louis. The TTC plans to run similar vehicles as streetcars.

We'll have fewer vehicles than today - which inevitably means longer spacing between the cars - and longer waits.

After the current firestorm abates, and when the TTC gets tired of paying so many supervisors, and later still when the larger vehicles arrive and replace the current monstronsities, where will be then?

Going nowhere fast is a likely answer.

Labels: TTC

The National Post (at least the on-line version) has a thought-provoking column on Led Zeppelin's recent concert and the band in general:

Susan Fast on the success of Led Zeppelin's reunion concert - Dec 18 2007

Fast is a professor of English & Cultural Studies at McMaster University. I don't completely agree that a rock band should be the focus of study for a university professor - but I'm tempted to attempt to acquire her book on the subject of Led Zeppelin. (On the other hand, I know most everything about the band's history and music - so I might not.)

Fast poses a rhetorical question in the following paragraph:

Led Zeppelin always controlled their exposure in the 1970’s — very few interviews, a dearth of information about the band on album covers, long intervals between tours, and a tendency for them, the press and fans to mythologize what little information did emerge. But is this model for success based on absence the only one available for Zeppelin, or does it merely uphold some myth about rock authenticity — and perhaps the very concept of authenticity itself — that needs to be reexamined?

My take is that although Led Zeppelin did control their exposure in terms of interviews as an example, this was not the 'model for success'. The success built on the series of astounding albums and live performances. Zeppelin didn't need to hob-nob with the press to sell albums and concert tickets. Zeppelin fans appreciate that this sets the band apart - but is not salient to why we listen.

Yesterday's snowstorm was actually quite fun. It fell on a Sunday - and the weathermen were pretty well spot on in the forecast.

I planned to coccoon - and expect for a round of shovelling and a walk down to Queen St to do some Christmas shopping - coccoon I did. On Saturday, I had provisioned the house with more food than I can cook in a week. For Sunday dinner, I cooked a roast chicken and enjoyed the 2nd installment of a '97 Barbaresco I had opened on Saturday.

(The wine was still a robust, tannic brute of a Nebbiolo - but quite ready to drink.)

Beachers were taking the storm in stride. There were quite a few people shopping - despite the fact that this backward thinking city doesn't clear sidewalks. I walked, waddled, and vaulted depending on the footing and obstacles until I reached Mastermind.

The store has been expanded to include that used by Living Lighting (which has moved to the other side of Woodbine.) As usual, the Mastermind staff were delightfully helpful. I ended up with seven gifts. (I could have used a sleigh and some reindeer on the return trek.)

Globe columnist John Barber has never been more right (quite a feat for a leftie!) than in his latest column:

City cabs: Get your meters running, head out on the highway

City councillor Howard Moscoe has been turing the licensing committe into his latest circus. As Barber points out, Moscoe was eased out of the TTC chair to 'because Mayor David Miller urgently needed to contain the damage his old friend was doing to the TTC'.

Well - if you remove the bull from one china shop only to set him free in another, there still going to be damage. And yes, Moscoe is one big load of a bull!

The ultimate losers again - regular Torontonians trying to get a limo to the airport.

Labels: Moscoe, Toronto

I had a fun day of driving yesterday.

The morning started with the normal - suffering from the awful drivers in Toronto. On the way to work - right now out near the airport - I'm waiting to turn left on an advanced green. The one driver in front decides to open his door to spit and misses the start of the advanced green. Seeing this, an oversize tractor trailer in the opposite direction decides to take advantage of the spitting to filter right. He blocks the entire road - no way to turn left.

The advanced green ends. Meanwhile - the spitter wont advance into the intersection to allow more vehicles to turn at the end of the normal green cycle.

In the afternoon, I head to my dentist in Yorkville. After the cleaning, I do some shopping - but at 6 pm, decide to go home for some dinner. I turn right onto Yonge heading south. Traffic is moving - but I'm soon stuck in complete gridlock - not the normal gridlock, but far worse.

The radio explains why: there is a power failure over most of the south est section of downtown. It's too late for me - I'm in the dreaded no turn section of Yonge. The first chance to turn will be Adelaide - and that turns out to be crawling.

I'm soon in the darkened section. Everyone is dutifully treating each intersection as a 4-way stop.

Now - there are police all over - on foot, car and on bike. Are they directing traffic though?? God forbid it. One officer is leaning against his bike watching a stopped up intersection at Queen & Chruch. You'd think - at a minimum - that the police would keep the transit routes moving. However, you'd be wrong.

Labels: Toronto, traffic

The TTC's capital budget is now available:

2008-2012 CAPITAL PROGRAM AND 10-YEAR CAPITAL FORECAST

As predicted in this space (i.e. by yours truly) back in March of this year, the 'expected' $6.1 billion cost was severely lowballed. (See Sunday, March 18, 2007
More on the Transit City - Cost approaching $10 billion.)

Per my earlier analysis:

Despite the staggering cost estimate, it appears that the scheme is being low-balled. The TTC does this consistently - so no surprise here. One obvious delusion is the plan to use only 240 vehicles. Although the vehicles would be larger than todays CLRVs, and even so than the ALRV versions, the 240 vehicle fleet size works out to an unrealistic load factor in terms of riders per service hour.

Applying the benchmark from Calgary C-train (122 riders per service hour) , using 240 vehicles for 175 million passengers a year would require vehicles to be in service an average of 16 hours/day. This doesn't seem realistic.

You can read the details, but basically, the vehicle requirements I see for the Transit City lines is for 386 LRVs - rather than the 240 in the proposal.

Now, in the TTC capital budget, I am proven right (I can't read the figures in the details because of the way the TTC publishes therir reports in tbe web. I will be requesting a hard copy tomorrow.)

It should be noted that the $6.1 billion figure included early estimates of vehicle requirements, however it did not include costs for the necessary maintenance and storage facility requirements to support this expanded LRT network.

Vehicle requirements have also been reassessed to determine more realistic assumptions for LRV loading standard capacity, average operating speeds and maintenance spares ratios. Total costs for Transit City are currently estimated to be in the order of $8.3 billion.

Estimate costs for the new LRVs to be (mis)used on the downtown streetcar network are now about $7 million/car. For 200 cars, we're at about $1.4 billion.

Are we at $10 billion yet? -No - but $9.7 billion is pretty close. Give this a few months and more costs will come out of the trackwork.

Bemoans one local LRT advocate (Steve Munro) who earlier asserted "I believe that the TTC’s estimate is in the ballpark." in response to my analysis.

Meanwhile, both the new streetcar procurement and Transit City are getting more expensive as cost estimates are refined. This is not making friends among Councillors who want so badly to be pro-transit, but who are sideswiped by the TTC’s inability to price their projects.

Well - I'll gladly help review the cost estimates!!!!

Labels: Light Rail, Transit

Is it just me who is wondering if it's wise for Canada to spend even more money investigating the Schreiber affair.

We're going to have another RCMP investigation. We're going to have a full inquiry. Didn't we have full investigations before.

Now we are going to spend more money on account of statements from someone is trying to avoid deportation to Germany - and likely jail time.

I think Karlheinz Schreiber would say anything not to get deported. Is this going to be another wild goose chase than the past incarnations - that cost millions to investigate and even more to pay for a libel settlment?

Jim Stanford - the Globe's main representative from Canada's trade unions - is practically always dead wrong.

In his most recent column:

Flaherty's far-fetched pleas - Gbobe & Mail - October 24th 2007

he has surpassed even his usual standard in 'wrongness'.

Stanford lamely tries to poke fun af federal Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty for his meeting with representatives from Canada's retail industry. He pooh-poohs the idea that governments and business should actually talk.

Well, apparently, Mr Standford - are you listening or just re-reading those sections of Marx that you find so interesting - government jawboning can work.

Since the Flaherty meeting, Walmart Canada, Sear Canada and now Ford have decided to aggressively cut prices. It's a good thing that these companies heard Mr. Flaherty and didn't hear or listen to Mr. Stanford. It also proves they aren't stupid.

Richard Florida is a welcome addition to the Globe & Mail. His recent column:

Wake up, Toronto – you're bigger than you think

implores Torontonians to think of this city as the hub of a large regional economy - which Florida labels as “Tor-Buff-Chester”.

The concept of a megalopolis is not new - in fact I have a book from my childhood identifying 'Bos-Was' and 'Chi-Pitts'. Now we have the extra-extended Golden Horseshoe.

It is important to realize that we can leverage our place in a regional economy. Improvements to the transportation links are important - but so is mindset.

Of course, for the prototypical downtown Toronto socialist dinosaur, thinking of Toronto as part of a region is going to cause headaches - especially when that region extends into the United States.

A "prime" example of the non-regionally aware dinosaur is Florida's fellow Globe columnist John Barber. Barber writes as though Toronto consisted of the very center of the city - and even more restrictive view than simply the 'old' city of Toronto. Barber doesn't seem to recognize North Toronto as part of the region. (hmm - but the Muskokas probably are.)

Barber is not alone. I still see signs up in my neighbourhood opposing the Megacity.

I do disagree with Florida on his assertion that regions are economic engines. Companies, institutions and people are the engines - not the region itself.

Admitted Arch-Liberal and National Post Columnist Warren Kinsella's recent column had me leafing through the Yellow Pages looking for someone to test the local H20 for hallucinogens. Kinsella reportedly lives nearby - and perhaps the water has corrupted his mind.

Writes Mr. Kinsella in a recent article:

How Dion can get his groove back

'He [Dion]can do that by saying, to all who will listen: "We are the party that will ratify Kyoto, not kill it. We are the party that will bring back our young men and women from Afghanistan within a year of our election, and not at some distant date inthe future. And we are the party that opposes dismantling federalism by stealth, as Stephen Harper promised to do in his Throne Speech. Under a Liberal government, Ottawa will not become the headwaiter to the provinces.

Warren - iIt's more like the following:

The Liberal Party of Canada is the Party that:

- Signed Kyoto and did nothing to implement it. The rise if GHG emmissions during the Chretien/Martin regime is well-documented.
- Sent our armed forces to Afghanistan without a plan. Cretin-man recently admitted that he wanted to keep our troops in a safe area around Kabul - but he apparently forgot to tell his successor.
- The Febfibs started the head-waiter act with Ken Dryden 'national day care' handout. (Can you believe Dryden is a Cornell grad - this is a complete embarrassment.)

So Mr. Kinsella, start filtering and boiling your water.


PS - exactly when did Dion have a groove anyway?