Reece Martin
@rmtransit.bsky.social
Writer, Learning Enthusiast, Urbanist, Optimist, Traveller, Canadian.
Passionate about making the world better.
https://cinqpersonnes.substack.com/
https://nextmetro.substack.com/
Passionate about making the world better.
https://cinqpersonnes.substack.com/
https://nextmetro.substack.com/
Pinned
Reece Martin
@rmtransit.bsky.social
· May 17
RMTransit -> Reece Martin
Wild that in the next few years GO will likely overtake the 24/7, higher frequency, and much larger LIRR in daily ridership. Can only imagine how much higher it will be as service continues to grow to rapid transit levels.
Fare and service integration and a *nice* system clearly help.
Fare and service integration and a *nice* system clearly help.
November 26, 2025 at 1:38 AM
Wild that in the next few years GO will likely overtake the 24/7, higher frequency, and much larger LIRR in daily ridership. Can only imagine how much higher it will be as service continues to grow to rapid transit levels.
Fare and service integration and a *nice* system clearly help.
Fare and service integration and a *nice* system clearly help.
Revisiting the things I've dismissed over the years has done me a lot of good. Read my latest article now: open.substack.com/pub/cinqpers...
Don't Dismiss It.
On the value of keeping an open mind.
open.substack.com
November 25, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Revisiting the things I've dismissed over the years has done me a lot of good. Read my latest article now: open.substack.com/pub/cinqpers...
Canada can be better at urban rail transit today, heres how we do that:
- Prioritize speed
- Prioritize reducing opex
- Improve Capex efficiency
- Upload more transport responsibilities to feds, Overhaul approach to create a national strat. and standards
- Increase int. collab., reduce US collab.
- Prioritize speed
- Prioritize reducing opex
- Improve Capex efficiency
- Upload more transport responsibilities to feds, Overhaul approach to create a national strat. and standards
- Increase int. collab., reduce US collab.
November 25, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Canada can be better at urban rail transit today, heres how we do that:
- Prioritize speed
- Prioritize reducing opex
- Improve Capex efficiency
- Upload more transport responsibilities to feds, Overhaul approach to create a national strat. and standards
- Increase int. collab., reduce US collab.
- Prioritize speed
- Prioritize reducing opex
- Improve Capex efficiency
- Upload more transport responsibilities to feds, Overhaul approach to create a national strat. and standards
- Increase int. collab., reduce US collab.
Reposted by Reece Martin
I've driven both long-nose and cab-over trucks, and the experience is night and day. Much more visibility, quicker stop times, better turn radius. Much safer having flat-nose trucks in urban centers.
Great post on how our unsafe trucks (they’d never be allowed in Europe) kill so many pedestrians, and how our governments and companies do almost nothing about it despite endless safety theatre.
open.substack.com/pub/lloydalt...
open.substack.com/pub/lloydalt...
A crossing guard dies in Hamilton, Ontario, due to regulatory failure and bad design
Meanwhile, in London, the government says, "safe vehicles save lives."
open.substack.com
November 24, 2025 at 6:45 PM
I've driven both long-nose and cab-over trucks, and the experience is night and day. Much more visibility, quicker stop times, better turn radius. Much safer having flat-nose trucks in urban centers.
Great post on how our unsafe trucks (they’d never be allowed in Europe) kill so many pedestrians, and how our governments and companies do almost nothing about it despite endless safety theatre.
open.substack.com/pub/lloydalt...
open.substack.com/pub/lloydalt...
A crossing guard dies in Hamilton, Ontario, due to regulatory failure and bad design
Meanwhile, in London, the government says, "safe vehicles save lives."
open.substack.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Great post on how our unsafe trucks (they’d never be allowed in Europe) kill so many pedestrians, and how our governments and companies do almost nothing about it despite endless safety theatre.
open.substack.com/pub/lloydalt...
open.substack.com/pub/lloydalt...
I have to say, the REM is so fantastic, it's going to make the Eglinton Crosstown feel even more like a let down. Ironically, the Eglinton stations seem a lot more impressive, but the REM is just so fast, frequent and high capacity by comparison.
I really hope CDPQ does more . . .
I really hope CDPQ does more . . .
November 24, 2025 at 2:17 AM
I have to say, the REM is so fantastic, it's going to make the Eglinton Crosstown feel even more like a let down. Ironically, the Eglinton stations seem a lot more impressive, but the REM is just so fast, frequent and high capacity by comparison.
I really hope CDPQ does more . . .
I really hope CDPQ does more . . .
This healthcare news out of Alberta is absolutely wild
November 22, 2025 at 8:08 PM
This healthcare news out of Alberta is absolutely wild
Reposted by Reece Martin
Toronto's planning culture is so broken. Every argument here is backwards. www.thestar.com/news/gta/law...
Toronto community rallies to protect beloved Lawrence Plaza from redevelopment plans: ‘They become like your family’
Plans for Lawrence Plaza’s demolition and redevelopment were unveiled last year. “We recognize the plaza’s significance, and community engagement remains a priority,” the developer says.
www.thestar.com
November 21, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Toronto's planning culture is so broken. Every argument here is backwards. www.thestar.com/news/gta/law...
Fantastic piece, and a conversation we should have more often. House are not "better" than condos.
For the Star, I make the case for the condo/apartment as aspirational -- that the Canadian dream can also be an apartment in a dense neighbourhood and not, as is so often the case in this country, be taken to only ever mean a detached house. www.thestar.com/opinion/star...
Navneet Alang: Condos get a bad rap. Here’s why they should be part of the Canadian dream
My parents bought their first home for 11,000 pounds (approximately $20,000) in 1974. It was an ordinary small row house on a dour street in East London. Now, more than
www.thestar.com
November 21, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Fantastic piece, and a conversation we should have more often. House are not "better" than condos.
Reposted by Reece Martin
Beyond a certain level of traffic, you should dedicate the entire street to transit, dead-end half of the crossing streets, build platforms capable of having 2-3 buses stop simultaneously and/or stagger them.
Fundamentally, there is no way to do effective TSP in through gridded street layouts
Fundamentally, there is no way to do effective TSP in through gridded street layouts
November 21, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Beyond a certain level of traffic, you should dedicate the entire street to transit, dead-end half of the crossing streets, build platforms capable of having 2-3 buses stop simultaneously and/or stagger them.
Fundamentally, there is no way to do effective TSP in through gridded street layouts
Fundamentally, there is no way to do effective TSP in through gridded street layouts
Maybe @gspeng.bsky.social knows, but what is causing the poor air quality in Toronto today?
November 21, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Maybe @gspeng.bsky.social knows, but what is causing the poor air quality in Toronto today?
Hannah Ritchie's writings on the data behind climate change and the energy transition are fantastic, this recent post about a frequently cited IEA "Current Policy Scenario" being trumpeted as "oil demand is going to keep going up!" feels particularly insightful.
open.substack.com/pub/hannahri...
open.substack.com/pub/hannahri...
Will oil and gas consumption keep rising through 2050?
Unpacking some of the assumptions behind the IEA's policy scenarios.
open.substack.com
November 21, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Hannah Ritchie's writings on the data behind climate change and the energy transition are fantastic, this recent post about a frequently cited IEA "Current Policy Scenario" being trumpeted as "oil demand is going to keep going up!" feels particularly insightful.
open.substack.com/pub/hannahri...
open.substack.com/pub/hannahri...
A City Like Victoria should really be looking at building a higher order transit system with tech like this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnmV...
HESS lighTram® 25 DC - Nancy
YouTube video by Carrosserie HESS AG
www.youtube.com
November 21, 2025 at 12:36 AM
A City Like Victoria should really be looking at building a higher order transit system with tech like this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnmV...
One of the biggest problems we have in the public transit space is that people who should be leading conversations often say things which are just completely untrue. I talk about it in today’s article:
open.substack.com/pub/nextmetr...
open.substack.com/pub/nextmetr...
The Transit "Experts" That Derail Transit.
My Grand Theory of North America's Transit Expansion Failures.
open.substack.com
November 20, 2025 at 2:38 PM
One of the biggest problems we have in the public transit space is that people who should be leading conversations often say things which are just completely untrue. I talk about it in today’s article:
open.substack.com/pub/nextmetr...
open.substack.com/pub/nextmetr...
I’m doing my weekly trawling of the blogs and it is amazing watching disproportionately older people crush young people and their ability to have families under high housing costs - often through the vector of “nuisance” “I don’t want more shadows on my porch!”
brandondonnelly.com/the-causal-e...
brandondonnelly.com/the-causal-e...
The causal effects of rising housing costs on fertility
Benjamin Couillard is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto whose research looks at things like residential choice and housing supply. And in this recently published paper, he studies the causa...
brandondonnelly.com
November 19, 2025 at 5:21 PM
I’m doing my weekly trawling of the blogs and it is amazing watching disproportionately older people crush young people and their ability to have families under high housing costs - often through the vector of “nuisance” “I don’t want more shadows on my porch!”
brandondonnelly.com/the-causal-e...
brandondonnelly.com/the-causal-e...
This is an absolutely fantastic piece and I wish I didn’t live in a province that was trying to create exactly this type of environment. Imagine the social harms of springing on the gambling addiction of young men.
open.substack.com/pub/derektho...
open.substack.com/pub/derektho...
The Monks in the Casino
A brief theory of young men, "the loneliness crisis," and life in the 21st century
open.substack.com
November 19, 2025 at 4:53 PM
This is an absolutely fantastic piece and I wish I didn’t live in a province that was trying to create exactly this type of environment. Imagine the social harms of springing on the gambling addiction of young men.
open.substack.com/pub/derektho...
open.substack.com/pub/derektho...
Reposted by Reece Martin
Not for nothing, but now that Metrolinx has sadly sent the Europeans home...
I'd like a journalist, maybe for some reason one covering the Union electrification height clearance, to compare standard electrification vertical clearance to GO network air rights heights sold off. You will find something
I'd like a journalist, maybe for some reason one covering the Union electrification height clearance, to compare standard electrification vertical clearance to GO network air rights heights sold off. You will find something
June 11, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Not for nothing, but now that Metrolinx has sadly sent the Europeans home...
I'd like a journalist, maybe for some reason one covering the Union electrification height clearance, to compare standard electrification vertical clearance to GO network air rights heights sold off. You will find something
I'd like a journalist, maybe for some reason one covering the Union electrification height clearance, to compare standard electrification vertical clearance to GO network air rights heights sold off. You will find something
Reposted by Reece Martin
Remember, the REM is likely going to BOOST demand on the rest of the network, so the business case for these other lines is even stronger. As it is, I took the bus along the Pink Line corridor in Montreal Nord and the crowding was unbearable.
With the REM building wrapping up, and the Blue line well underway Montreal should be planning the following:
Orange Line Extension
Mascouche Line Upgrade
Pink Line (Likely with Similar Specs to Ontario Line)
Blue Line West Extension
Centre City / Plateau Trams
Orange Line Extension
Mascouche Line Upgrade
Pink Line (Likely with Similar Specs to Ontario Line)
Blue Line West Extension
Centre City / Plateau Trams
November 18, 2025 at 1:50 AM
Remember, the REM is likely going to BOOST demand on the rest of the network, so the business case for these other lines is even stronger. As it is, I took the bus along the Pink Line corridor in Montreal Nord and the crowding was unbearable.
Reposted by Reece Martin
Wild that Toronto, which is Canada's largest city and has Canada's first subway system, now has the smallest metro system in Canada by quite a margin. I don't think it is the busiest either.
November 18, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Wild that Toronto, which is Canada's largest city and has Canada's first subway system, now has the smallest metro system in Canada by quite a margin. I don't think it is the busiest either.
This is hilarious all around. It seems Toronto’s regional transit agency may have not realized it needed to keep the rights to the space above its tracks so it could actually electrify them. Perhaps why we’ve been hearing so much about battery trains…?
November 18, 2025 at 10:03 PM
This is hilarious all around. It seems Toronto’s regional transit agency may have not realized it needed to keep the rights to the space above its tracks so it could actually electrify them. Perhaps why we’ve been hearing so much about battery trains…?
I wrote a long article about my personal trajectory and the path I’m on:
open.substack.com/pub/cinqpers...
open.substack.com/pub/cinqpers...
Trajectory.
The Path I'm On.
open.substack.com
November 18, 2025 at 2:01 PM
I wrote a long article about my personal trajectory and the path I’m on:
open.substack.com/pub/cinqpers...
open.substack.com/pub/cinqpers...
With the REM building wrapping up, and the Blue line well underway Montreal should be planning the following:
Orange Line Extension
Mascouche Line Upgrade
Pink Line (Likely with Similar Specs to Ontario Line)
Blue Line West Extension
Centre City / Plateau Trams
Orange Line Extension
Mascouche Line Upgrade
Pink Line (Likely with Similar Specs to Ontario Line)
Blue Line West Extension
Centre City / Plateau Trams
November 18, 2025 at 12:19 AM
With the REM building wrapping up, and the Blue line well underway Montreal should be planning the following:
Orange Line Extension
Mascouche Line Upgrade
Pink Line (Likely with Similar Specs to Ontario Line)
Blue Line West Extension
Centre City / Plateau Trams
Orange Line Extension
Mascouche Line Upgrade
Pink Line (Likely with Similar Specs to Ontario Line)
Blue Line West Extension
Centre City / Plateau Trams
Most of the REM Metro system in Montreal is now open, and Oh The Urbanity has a fantastic video (a real step up in production value) on it, check it out here!
youtu.be/4G1oeIAfxDU?...
youtu.be/4G1oeIAfxDU?...
Montreal’s Biggest REM Expansion Yet! (with Reece Martin)
YouTube video by Oh The Urbanity!
youtu.be
November 16, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Most of the REM Metro system in Montreal is now open, and Oh The Urbanity has a fantastic video (a real step up in production value) on it, check it out here!
youtu.be/4G1oeIAfxDU?...
youtu.be/4G1oeIAfxDU?...
Reposted by Reece Martin
It’s really hard to describe how exciting the REM is for the future of Canadian transit. We are so close to a revolution in personal mobility.
The biggest chunk of the REM in Montreal has just opened, and I’ve been reflecting not only on what it means for Montreal, but for Canada as a whole. Read my latest article now:
open.substack.com/pub/nextmetr...
open.substack.com/pub/nextmetr...
Is the REM the Future of Canadian Transit Expansion?
Reflections with the big REM Opening, and the idea of CanadaMetro.
open.substack.com
November 15, 2025 at 8:18 PM
It’s really hard to describe how exciting the REM is for the future of Canadian transit. We are so close to a revolution in personal mobility.
The biggest chunk of the REM in Montreal has just opened, and I’ve been reflecting not only on what it means for Montreal, but for Canada as a whole. Read my latest article now:
open.substack.com/pub/nextmetr...
open.substack.com/pub/nextmetr...
Is the REM the Future of Canadian Transit Expansion?
Reflections with the big REM Opening, and the idea of CanadaMetro.
open.substack.com
November 15, 2025 at 7:55 PM
The biggest chunk of the REM in Montreal has just opened, and I’ve been reflecting not only on what it means for Montreal, but for Canada as a whole. Read my latest article now:
open.substack.com/pub/nextmetr...
open.substack.com/pub/nextmetr...