Bryan Martyniuk lives in Thunder Bay and sent along pictures of 4446 from today. 4446 will be the next new streetcar to join the TTC’s fleet. It’s a little too far for me to get up to Thunder Bay to see the new streetcars or GO Transit coaches roll off the line so it’s great to have Bryan be there.
4446, a Flexity Freedom, and GO 4020, a bilevel coach. The GO coach is in primer paint and will head to North Bay for the final paint job. Photo credit Bryan Martyniuk.
Photo credit Bryan Martyniuk.
Check out this post by Steve Munro on the TTC testing out the pantograph on their new streetcars. What’s the big deal Chris?
1) It’s looks cool;
2) It’ll improve reliability – the pole tends to pop off at intersections and during turns; and
3) What about the historic look of the pole? No problem – visit Halton County Radial Railway. It’s a museum. They have ice cream. It’s fun.
On Tuesday, September 12, 2017, the TTC began operation of its new Flexity streetcars with pantograph power collection on the 509 Harbourfront route. This is a short, comparatively isolated route running entirely with Flexitys where problems, if any, can be ironed out on a small piece of the network. Any off route moves including carhouse trips are done with trolley poles, and the normal changeover point between modes is at Exhibition Loop.
Here is a small set of photos of the route.
I was cycling at Strachan and Lake Shore Boulevard West and noticed that the new portions of the Martin Goodman Trail have opened.
West of Strachan
East of Strachan
This new portion of the Trail is a great addition and provides a smoother and safer path than the old route as shown below.
The old route pictured above was sometimes used by cars and had a very abrupt right-angle turn a little off in the distance.
This new portion of the Martin Goodman Trail will also provide an easier way to get to the new park at Ontario Place.
Update: Here’s a map of the western side of the new trail:
On the east, it’s pretty good but I think a small extension would help avoid the conflict with Remembrance Dr.:
While my fiancee was at a bridal store for a wedding party she’s in I was able to do something I really enjoy in Toronto: walk along a street and find a cafe I’ve never been to.
That’s the exciting party of a vibrant, mixed use street. You never know where you’ll end up.
Bookshelf at Enigma on Bloor Street West.
Cozy!
The Bloor-Dundas hub has a lot of potential in my mind because of the excellent transit service:
Location of Enigma.
The other fun part of finding a new, local, small cafe is that you know you’re supporting hard-working small business leaders, just like my friends at T By Daniel in Brampton and on Main Street. It’s also accessible by good transit service and worth checking out.
I was lucky enough to see the eclipse today (pictures here and here) from my office through our cardboard box viewer which was put together by a colleague in a couple of minutes.
Here’s an interesting map for eclipse day 2017 and where the eclipse will be for Southern Ontario in 2024.
Traffic patterns matching the eclipse route HT https://twitter.com/dicktoblerone/status/899714921000312833
Route of the eclipse in 2024 HT https://twitter.com/AnthonyFarnell/status/899740151353548800
I was thrilled to see a tweet by Councillor Joe Cressy that a pinch point for people walking and cycling along the Martin Goodman waterfront trail will now be eliminated. Right now the sidewalk and the bicycle trail merges for a short distance just east of Bathurst St. There is a “cyclist dismount” sign where cyclists are asked to walk their bikes along the trail/sidewalk before resuming.
This has been a challenging and unsafe situation since it opened and it’s great to see that it will now be fixed.
Blue = Martin Goodman Trail, pink = sidewalk, orange = expanded deck to create more space.
Toronto is blessed with many ravines that offer an escape from the busiest of city life. Had some free time so I walked in the Nordheimer Ravine. I started at St. Clair West and ended up at the Summerhill TTC subway station.
Nice wooden bridge just ahead.
Sadly you’ll sometimes see plaques like this in Toronto covered in graffiti. Thankfully this one wasn’t.
I appear to have left Canada. Background on the Republic here (HT Steve Munro): http://spacing.ca/toronto/2016/01/29/the-republic-of-rathnelly/
I enjoyed seeing this YouTube video posted today by the Eglinton Crosstown LRT team. It shows the construction work on the surface portion of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. The LRT will open in 2021 and yes, I’ll be there opening day. More details on the project here.
Great to see this update with a timeframe for the trail to re-open.
Metrolinx has issued permits for third-party work required before City contractors can complete the trail work. The third-party work includes a cable utility relocation at the new Belleville Underpass, and the trail crossing over the active rail line by the new Pottery Road trail bridge. The rail crossing work can only happen on weekends due to weekday commuter rail traffic.
Meanwhile, City contractors are assembling all the plant material and new soil required for site restoration and enhancements, ready to mobilize when the third-party providers have completed their work in the next few weeks. Re-grading and paving the affected portions of trail will be the last step.
Plans are coming together for a re-opening event and celebration of Toronto’s ravines in September. It will be announced here, and we hope you will join us to ride, walk, and enjoy the new connections and underpass.
Helpful article here by Marvin JS Ferrer on the Barrie Line weekend GO train ridership. Check it out. Marvin is a student at the School of Public Policy & Governance, University of Toronto.
I’ve used the weekend service when coming back from the cottage this summer. Some pictures below.
Chris James Drew 