Other countries try to figure out how to improve public transit and reduce congestion and pollution. Ontario’s Conservatives try to blow the entire budget on absurdly expensive roads that will soon become as congested as the present ones.
Conservatives: We keep trying it and it keeps not working but I can’t handle change so I’m gunna pretend that my way is, like, morally correct or some shit and make it everyone else’s problem. Just one more lane bro. Just one more tax break bro. Please bro just one more private utility bro.
Also Conservatives: We’re the party of fiscal responsibility! Sure none of our ideas make any sense and always cost more in the longterm but they make the selfish and economically illiterate people feel better about themselves so that’s a win for us!
Ontario has a locust problem
Ontario government proposes a solution … more locusts!
So how much is he planning to get in kickbacks? Ford only considers projects with financial benefit to himself.
How i imagine this wwent down:
Ford; “Just one more lane. It’ll work this time I swear.” Sane people: “No it wont and besides, We don’t have room for another lane” Ford: “But what if…”
Anyway. Let’s just build a damn train track. On land. One not owned by a freight service but dedicated to passenger transit.
Let’s go hog fuckin’ wild and build TWO. Electrified.
Amd it’d still cost way less then a gaint tunnel in both building and maintenance.
He said the tunnel would serve as “a new expressway for both cars and transit” from Brampton to Mississauga in the West to Markham and Scarborough in the east […]
Drop the cars, dedicating the tunnel strictly to transit, and your ground level gridlock will solve itself.
Doesn’t even have to be solely trains, but a few lanes of busses would help with shorter/End of Line trips as well.
Though this is worth noting that ventilation concerns with tunnels are always a nightmare (one of the reasons there aren’t tons of tunnels). Its now turning into an issue where roads cross our 400 series highways, and one of the reasons they’re often bridges. As the highway reaches ~4lanes each way, they need to install ventilation of some kind, which has caused problems and forced design adjustments. Look at Barrie where they have a few roads running under the 400. Now that they’re trying to widen to 8 lanes, all those crossings are extending into “tunnel” category and have additional requirements. They’ve been forced to split the highway with an open air section in the middle over those roads in order to ensure proper airflow. This means more land acquisition and higher pricing to build.
Ventilation still a problem with just electric trains with metal rolling stock?
I could be off, but I seem to remember that the requirements for ventilation are less if there is no combustion engine + exhaust fumes present. I’ll see if if I can dig up the actual design standards.
Also I wonder how does the train movement affect ventilation. I recall the mountain train tunnels in Italy. Since the tunnels are just wide enough, the trains act as pistons, pushing and pulling air in and out of the tunnels. I recall experiencing pretty strong wind coming out of the tunnel prior to the train emerging out of it. I wonder if this is enough to circulate enough air. I’m not expecting an answer, just wanted to share this shower thought. 😄
It is an issue, but an ICE burns far more fuel than a human. (food is fuel that the body burns!) That means if your have ICE engines in a tunnel you need a lot more air to get rid of the CO2 (ideally no other pollutants - though I wouldn’t bet on this) and get enough O2 there for everything to burn. If we only run electric trains we still need some air for the people to breath, but much less as they are breathing much less
So fucking stupid.
First of all, if you’re going to bury a highway, bury the Gardiner, and built a high capacity subway alongside it running the entire length of the lake. It would connect Union, the Ontario Line’s ex station, and provide robust public transit along a major East West route that doesn’t have it, both out to the beaches and to south Etobicoke.
You could then sell literally all the land that the Gardiner is on for development to pay for it.
Why would you stack another highway, under our existing highway? And why would you potentially build an East West train literally next to the Eglinton LRT?
Every now and then I see his name in a headline and I’m just amazed that his career continued. How is that even possible?
Drugs and fraud.
Citing increasing gridlock and little room for highway expansion
MOFO, you’ll do anything but what works for every other place on earth that has this figured out, eh?
And the irony that this Conservative government is trying to reduce bike lanes while also complaining about car traffic is just the type of stupidity you can’t make up!
I actually support the Bradford Bypass and 413.
But this idea is fucking stupid and ridiculous.
What a goofy idea…
A rapid transit line would take so many more cars off the road. The 401/DVP/427/Lakeshore needs a separated lane circular BRT which would be orders of magnitude lower cost and better for traffic relief. Even a giant bridge above all the highways running skytrain would cost less than a 60km tunnel.
I remember this guy. Whatever I read about him was vile. I don’t need to spend time reminding myself, I already know he sucks.
