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Reposted by Jedwin Mok

Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 19h

I would pay to have a regional railway network around Montréal like Sydney has. I would probably go visit some new corners of QC every other weekend.

Do we have a plausible theory why Australia went all in on electric suburban trains from the 1920s, but Canada didn't?

Every Sydney Station @sydneystations.bsky.social · 19h

LEURA, 108km from Central, is another charming station - everything is so charming up in the Blue Mountains - serving retail strip of cute cafes and shops popular with tourists. It has two platforms cut into the sandstone, accessed from an overhead concourse on a road bridge, with a lift. (1/3)

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Carlos Cadena @papaclimatico.bsky.social · 2d

This partly explains the "Medellin miracle" - www.youtube.com/watch?v=m83M... @universidad-eafit.bsky.social @eiturbanmobility.eu

How has Medellín’s cable system changed communities?

YouTube video by Urban Mobility Explained

www.youtube.com

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Blair Lorenzo / The Fox and the City @thefoxandthecity.com · 2d

Print this and frame it on the wall with the title, "Why North American Transit Construction Costs are So High"

Ryan Packer @typewriteralley.bsky.social · 2d

I just can't get over the differences in scale between Ballard Link's Westlake Station as proposed and the original Westlake Station, off to the left.

Ballard Link's Westlake has two separate entrances underneath separate buildings, with one showing a long tunnel to get to the train guideway. They are at least five stories deeper than the original Westlake, which is tiny and only around 10-15% of the size

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 6d

I *love* this new protected intersection. I think it’s the most exciting new bike infrastructure in Montreal since the REV Saint-Denis.

I sure hope there aren’t any major mayoral candidates planning to pause or remove cycling infrastructure. That would be awfully inconvenient right now.

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sick public transit, gloria @seung.bsky.social · 8d

despite how Lee Myung-bak's legacy turned out, he was a truly CEO mayor who led three big projects of major consequence for Seoul:

1) the Cheonggyecheon creek restoration
2) the bus network reforms
3) support for Platform Screen Doors at Seoul Metro stations

Melissa & Chris Bruntlett @modacitylife.com · 8d

Every bold urban transformation asks a question: what will people remember—the controversy or legacy?

Showing great leadership, Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak bet on the latter, replacing a motorway with a waterway.

Two decades later, absolutely no one regrets the decision or remembers the controversy.

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Jedwin Mok @jedwinmok.com · 8d

Even in its terribly debilitated state GO Expansion still is the infrastructure project with the highest BCR on the continent. Easily a top national priority.

In any sane developed country this is a 5-year modernization program. Our incompetent institutions live in fear of doing literally anything

Brendan Dawe @dawe.bsky.social · 8d

What I mean is that Toronto has a solid thru-running central trunk. It has mostly dealt with core freight conflicts. Mostly has a comprehensive regional network to work with. It just needs to hang the wires, buy the EMUs, raise the platforms, add some extra tracks, grade separations and run trains

Brendan Dawe @dawe.bsky.social · 8d

I think Toronto regional transit planning is really conceptually quite easy! improve the infrastructure, spam more trains, improve the infrastructure, spam more trains. Like there's not huge trade offs or mega projects you just gotta figure out how to do the basic stuff.

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Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 8d

Reposted.

Pic unrelated

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Reece Martin @rmtransit.bsky.social · 12d

LinkedIn is the worst

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august 🍂 @auguststreet.ca · 11d

scarborough-rouge park just elected neethan shan - adding to a progressive wave of councillors in scarborough.

bus lanes were a key election issue.
the two runner-ups campaigned to rip out bus lanes. they lost.

lesson: don't mess with scarborough's bus lanes. suburban transit riders vote, too.

election polling. Neethan Shan - 5174 votes, 26.86%
Anu Sriskandarajah - 3374 votes, 17.52%
Shawn Allen - 2934 votes, 15.23%

photo of person in a suit holding a hockey stick with a bus lane in the background. headline: Business Leader has idea for bus lanes.

Link to article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/scarborough-rouge-park-byelection-1.7621668

photo of a person holding a flyer

My priorities for West Hill

1. Red Bus Lanes: These lanes on Kingston and Morningside have created traffic backups and frustrations for drivers. I will push to make these into carpool lanes open to cars during rush hour and on weekends, easing traffic congestion

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Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 12d

Copenhagen's deep metro stations have a very lean fire evacuation strategy.

Most egress capacity is provided by the 8 escalators (4 paths x 2 levels) normally used for vertical circulation with a single additional enclosed fixed stair at one end of the platform.

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 18d

It’s sad that, when it comes to transit construction costs, Quebec follows the Anglosphere pattern instead of being able to build cheaply like France.

We could have a tram in Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières, Saguenay. Multiple trams in Gatineau and Québec City!

Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 20d

The most underappreciated issue in urbanism is the Anglosphere’s transit construction cost problem.

It’s not just that we’re spending too much money on any particular project.

It’s that we could be getting *much more transit* for the *same amount of money we’re currently spending*.

How This Small City Built Light Rail For Cheap

YouTube video by Oh The Urbanity!

youtu.be

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Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 19d

A couple of years ago, the ARTM told us that any kind of above ground transsit grade-separated alignment is necessarily unsightly.

Copenhagen didn't get the memo, I guess.

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Jedwin Mok @jedwinmok.com · 19d

Unfortunately Canada Line / REM are exceptions to the rule rather than the trend.

Montreal’s Blue line ext. is $1B+/km & PSE tram is close to 500M/km in planning stage estimates.

Vancouver has traditionally cheap but their new extensions are rising in price, Broadway $500M/km, SLS at $275M/km

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 20d

The most underappreciated issue in urbanism is the Anglosphere’s transit construction cost problem.

It’s not just that we’re spending too much money on any particular project.

It’s that we could be getting *much more transit* for the *same amount of money we’re currently spending*.

How This Small City Built Light Rail For Cheap

YouTube video by Oh The Urbanity!

youtu.be

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Jedwin Mok @jedwinmok.com · 19d

So glad to be featured in @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social excellent video!

High costs in Canada have been accepted as an inevitability - as projects are descoped & cancelled.

ION & REM show that another way is possible…

…given the humility to abandon our Anglo roots & learn from global best practice.

Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 20d

The most underappreciated issue in urbanism is the Anglosphere’s transit construction cost problem.

It’s not just that we’re spending too much money on any particular project.

It’s that we could be getting *much more transit* for the *same amount of money we’re currently spending*.

How This Small City Built Light Rail For Cheap

YouTube video by Oh The Urbanity!

youtu.be

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Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 20d

NYC: we need a ventilation building for air intake and smoke extraction, so it's at least 40 feet above street level. Actually, we need two for each station.

NFPA 130: extraction/intake should be a couple of feet above street level, so one can't park above it.

Copenhagen:

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august 🍂 @auguststreet.ca · 21d

santiago and cdmx both have successful metro systems originating from the 1970s.

CDMX largely stopped building metro after 2000 amid austerity, opting for more BRT. metro-building costs have only worsened since.

meanwhile, santiago continued building its metro, and costs are at record lows!

chart comparing metro expansion in santiago and mexico city from 1970 to 2030. the mexico city trend slows down after the 2000s and flatlines, while the santiago trend picks up around the same time period.

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Eric Lombardi @ericlombardi.bsky.social · 24d

Housing has always been at the center of my civic work, through @MoreNeighbours and my writing.

So of course, my first memo for @build_toronto is housing related:

OLD TORONTO MUST GROW TO RELIEVE THE SUBURBS.

- - - 🌆 🏗️👇- - -

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august 🍂 @auguststreet.ca · 21d

many write off REM's low cost, large scale, and quick delivery as a result of reuse of an existent commuter line, but this misses other important factors - how procurement incentivized effective and useful service, to optimized station design, public policy, and more.

this piece dives into that:

Jedwin Mok @jedwinmok.com · 23d

“The time [REM] went from ‘doesn’t exist’ to [revenue service] is mind blowing...”

A masterpiece from @hudsonyuen.bsky.social featuring @chittimarco.bsky.social & @englishrail.bsky.social. So proud to have played a small part.

MUST WATCH for planners who believe the status quo is inevitable

How Montreal’s miracle metro could change everything

YouTube video by The Flying Moose

youtu.be

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 21d

This new bike corridor is 500 metres from an existing parallel route. What’s the point?

1. Relieves congestion. The other route is very popular.

2. More direct for many trips. A friend’s round-trip to a sports league is now 10 mins faster, avoiding 2 km of detour (4×500 m) each day he goes.

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Jedwin Mok @jedwinmok.com · 23d

At this point I’m starting to think this says more about ECLRT than REM 😂

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Jedwin Mok @jedwinmok.com · 23d

“The time [REM] went from ‘doesn’t exist’ to [revenue service] is mind blowing...”

A masterpiece from @hudsonyuen.bsky.social featuring @chittimarco.bsky.social & @englishrail.bsky.social. So proud to have played a small part.

MUST WATCH for planners who believe the status quo is inevitable

How Montreal’s miracle metro could change everything

YouTube video by The Flying Moose

youtu.be

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Reece Martin @rmtransit.bsky.social · 24d

A piece in the Star today along with Jonathan English and Narayan Donaldson on fixing the very slow, but very high potential Spadina streetcar.

www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

This is how we fix the terminally slow Spadina streetcar

We don't have to spend billions to fix one of Toronto's most important transit routes.

www.thestar.com

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Jedwin Mok @jedwinmok.com · 24d

I know Main Street Cupertino when I see it. Trying to use quasi-curbless treatments to manufacture an urban pedestrian friendly space but really it’s just a strip mall in a trenchcoat

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Denis Agar (he/him) @denisagar.bsky.social · 25d

$22 billion for one light rail line? We can't keep accepting transit cost escalation as inevitable.

Ryan Packer @typewriteralley.bsky.social · 25d

We now have the project-level breakdowns for Sound Transit 3 light rail projects, outlining the $20-$30 billion shortfall the agency is facing through 2046.

Ballard Link's 2025 $ estimate is now $22.6 billion, a full 90% increase.

The Boeing Access Road infill station is now at $475 million.

Chart showing new 2025$ cost estimates for light rail projects
West Seattle $7.9 billion
Ballard $22.6
Tacoma Dome $6.1
Everett Link $7.7
Graham Street $200 million
Boeing $475 million
TCC Link $1.6 billion
South Kirkland Issaquah $6.3 billion

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