https://toronto.citynews.ca/video/2026/01/15/finch-lrt-shut-down-all-day-due-to-weather-conditions It should have been a proper subway line, protected from the crappy snow & ice. In contrast, Edmonton & Calgary are mostly surface lines and can usually run through the terrible winter conditions.
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2026/01/15/line-6-finch-west-lrt-delays-snowstorm-ttc-updates/
https://www.ttc.ca/riding-the-ttc/Line-6-Finch-West
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_ThQ6K-cHE
https://www.gotransit.com/en/find-a-station/un/routes-departures
https://www.viarail.ca/en/explore-our-destinations/stations/ontario/toronto
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Station_(Toronto) , https://torontounion.ca
https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/visitor-toronto/path-torontos-downtown-pedestrian-walkway
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_station_(TTC) , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txjv6k9e6gA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Station_(Toronto)#Site_location
Unlike Toronto, the Chicago_Union_Station is far away from the lakeshore.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Union_Station#Connections
Unlike Vancouver, you can still take a streetcar to the Canadian_National_Exhibition in Toronto.
https://www.ttc.ca/riding-the-ttc/Updates/Take-the-TTC-to-the-CNE
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Canadian-National-Exhibition
https://globalnews.ca/news/10764365/cne-2024-attendance
https://www.dundurn.com/blog_/t43181/p159483-the-cne--canadas-annual-worlds-fair
https://www.theex.com/cne-history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exhibition_Loop#History
https://www.theex.com/getting-here/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dufferin_Gate_Loop#Future
1950s Toronto and 1960s Montreal were able to have 152.5m or 500 foot long TTC subway and STM metro stations. The 1970s underground Edmonton LRT stations were built to be 120m-130m long, because unlike backwards Vancouver, Edmonton planned for significant future capacity, just like Seattle would also do. Unfortunatly, backwards Vancouver only has 80m stations for the first 2 Skytrain stations. The 3rd line or the Canada (embasement) Line, only has 50m short stations. Vancouver has had generations of watered down infrastructure. Who knows where so much of the money went, because it sure didn't go towards proper big city trains & express bus bridges.
https://globalnews.ca/news/11188313/vancouver-council-byelection-long-waits/
Not properly preparing for the amount of people voting is all part of the multigenerational backwards Vancouver & BC mentality.
With so many narrow bridges in Greater Vancouver, there should have been a system of bus & HOV bridges built, instead of funneling everything into such narrow crossings.
Proper long-range urban planning would have allowed for easy future clearance to double the length of the first 2 skytrain stations & triple the length of the Canada (embasesment) Line. The first 2 lines only have about 80m for platform length & the 3rd line only has absurd 50m stations. In contrast, the high capacity Montreal Metro has 152.5m long stations, as does the TTC Subway.
Thinking big & building big has always been a problem for backwards Vancouver & backwater BC.
https://www.ttc.ca/news/2022/August/Take-the-TTC-to-the-CNE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exhibition_Loop
https://www.ttc.ca/news/2024/August/TTC-increasing-service-to-The-Ex-for-CNE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exhibition_Loop#Future
https://www.theex.com/getting-here/#public-transit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfront_West_LRT#Route_layout
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_streetcar_system
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_streetcar_system#Routes
It would have been devastating if Vancouver's backwards mentality had convinced Toronto, SF & Melbourn to get rid of their streetcars & trams.
https://transittoronto.ca/archives/weblog/2024/08/14-lets_go_--.shtml
So much money has be wasted over the years and a good part of it should have gone towards proper regional transportation planning & development.
https://globalnews.ca/news/11123828/metro-vancouver-cost-savings/
Crucial funds that could have gone towards a train tunnel by the LGB and the new D Island Tunnel.
https://vancouversun.com/news/metro-vancouver-board-begins-spending-review
A regional network of bus-bridges still isn't part of any official transit plan. Apparently, its better to just funnel buses onto the existing narrow bridges in the region.
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2025/02/21/metro-vancouver-regional-district-22m-budget-cuts
Despite most of the bridges being too narrow & inefficient for public transit, the SkyTrain was deliberately built to have stations that are much shorter than the Montreal Metro & TTC Subway stations.
BC has such a reluctant mentality towards thinking big. Thus, a chokepoint or congestive planning mentality has been firmly entrenched.
Long trains & bridges wide enough to properly accommodate bus lanes & HOV lanes would actually help to reduce transportation congestion.
Who knows where all the billions of dollars went over the past several decades, because not enough funds went towards a proper level of transportation infrastructure.
https://metrovancouver.org/about-us/budgets-and-financial-plans
Of course Greater Vancouver was one of the first urban regions to get rid of its streetcars & interurban tram-trains & it will likely be to be one of the last cities to bring them back.
https://dailyhive.com/toronto/eglinton-crosstown-opening-date
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_5_Eglinton
https://www.blogto.com/city/2025/02/eglinton-crosstown-opening-date/
https://www.metrolinx.com/en/projects-and-programs/eglinton-crosstown-lrt
https://www.infrastructureontario.ca/en/what-we-do/projectssearch/eglinton-crosstown-lrt/
https://www.blogto.com/city/2025/01/eglinton-crosstown-lrt-repairs/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/eglinton-crosstown-opening-june-ttc-1.7400691
https://www.aecon.com/our-projects/current/eglinton-crosstown-lrt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eglinton_East_LRT
https://www.blogto.com/city/2025/01/ttc-outage-emergency-rail-repair/
If every major subway & metro train line had 4 tracks, it would be so much easier to do maintenance & repairs. Even a triple track line would allow more flexibility.
https://www.blogto.com/real-estate-toronto/2024/12/1-delisle-ave-toronto/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Clair_station
https://www.ttc.ca/subway-stations/st-clair-station
https://www.blogto.com/real-estate-toronto/2024/12/135-st-clair-avenue-west-toronto/
https://toronto.urbanize.city/post/49-storey-tower-proposed-avenue-road-and-st-clair
https://urbantoronto.ca/news/2024/03/resubmission-bumps-st-clair-station-proposal-50-storeys.55425
Eventually, all such urban train networks will become fully automated.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ttc-subway-signal-problem-1.7407212
The loss of various jobs for people over the next few decades could be rough for people.
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2024/12/11/ttc-subway-signal-issue-line-1/
A totally AI run machine world could eventually produce a very efficient, but inhumane world.
https://nowtoronto.com/news/ttc-riders-faced-multiple-delays-during-monday-morning-rush-hour/
https://storeys.com/metro-vancouver-housing-deficit-fall-2024/
For several decades, multi-unit 4-5 story houses just weren't permitted to be built in Vancouver. Even the shoebox like, Vancouver special should have been allowed to have at least 3-4 levels. Plus, there should have been several 6-10 story block size apartment buildings or flats like in Paris & London. There was quite an emphasis on Vancouver stumps, especially, no 65 to 85 floor buildings like in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane & Toronto.
Very narrow bridges, which make it almost impossible to have a proper & efficient express bus & HOV network for the region. Fortunately, the backward BC mentality was never able to make it over to Australia to prevent bridge expansion or duplication.
Then even by late 2024, the first 2 SkyTrain lines only have 4 car trains of the newer coaches. The joke that is the Canada Line, still only runs 2 car trains. All 3 lines should have been designed to eventually have stations that could accommodate 8-10 car trains, but that would actually enable more people to efficiently travel around the region.
Fortunately again, this inept & horrible BC planning mentality was never able to infest & stop the Toronto Subway from having 6 car trains. However, by now, the TTC should have been running 8-10 car trains. It would have been chaos if the Montreal Metro was only running 3 car trains for the past several decades. Such an absurdity would be indicative of a, WHY EVEN BOTHER TO BUILD IT, mentality? Thats been the ongoing problem in BC since plumbing & electricity was first implemented.
Just to allow backwater BC to catch up to Alberta & Washington State would be challenging enough. Then to gradually think & plan on a scale of a Quebec & even an Ontario, might as well be just another Sci-Fi pipedream.
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2024/05/07/ttc-subway-trains-slow-speed-zones/
Of course Boston has had its slow train problems as well.
https://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2023/09/12/mbta-red-line-slow-zones-shutdowns
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/museum-of-anthropology-ubc-moa-reopening-june-2024-date
https://visit.ubc.ca/see-and-do/museums-and-art-galleries/museum-of-anthropology/
https://www.vancouverattractions.com/museum-of-anthropology-at-ubc
https://planning.ubc.ca/museum-anthropology-great-hall-renewal
https://www.cntraveler.com/activities/vancouver/vancouver/museum-of-anthropology-at-ubc
The UBC Subway Saga.
Some people are just as easily opposed to something like the-bloor-danforth-subway as they are with an expressway. That's especially the case in backwards Vancouver.
Fortunately, many other cities have been able to get a train to their main university campus much faster than slow-moving Vancouver is attempting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_2_Bloor-Danforth#Frequency The TTC Subway should have been able to run 10 car trains by now. Even an 8 car train would be a little better than a 6 car train. However, a 6 car train is only 138m or 450 feet long. A 9 car Montreal Metro train is about 152.5m or 500 feet long.
Of course the first 2 Skytrain lines only have 80m stations & the Canada embarrassment Line only has a level clearance for 50m stations. There should have been a proper oversight committee to make sure that the trains could ultimately be 10 cars long. At least have stations that could accommodate a 5 car train, not a 2.5 car joke of a train.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spadina_station
https://spacing.ca/toronto/2015/10/06/interchange-not-interchange-spadina-vs-st-george
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._George_station
https://transportation.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/Subway-Map.pdf
A tour of Berri-UQAM metro station in Montreal, Canada https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Suxkz8oc8vs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGill_station , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peel_station_(Montreal_Metro)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_station_(Calgary) 1987
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_station_(Edmonton) 1992
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Washington_station 2016
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=UBC-Broadway+Corridor
There can always be better redundancy by having enough parallel bus routes.
So whenever a train line is out of service, the number of buses can be quickly increased.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ttc-subway-kipling-jane-closure-1.7185757
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Bridge_(Seattle) WA
https://www.historylink.org/File/20389
The 2 level, 12 lane Ship_Canal_Bridge is right next to it.
The north end of the Montlake_Bridge is close to the University_of_Washington_station. The 380-foot-long (120 m) station_layout is almost as long as any underground LRT station in Edmonton. In contrast, the first 2 lines of the Vancouver Skytrain only have only 80 m stations. The 3rd line is a joke that is the Canada Line. It was only designed to have 50 m stations. The Montreal Metro & TTC Subway were designed to have 152 m. Unlike Seattle & Edmonton & especially Montreal & Toronto, building for longer trains isn't a problem. That's because they don't have anything like a backward BC mentality or a water it down, because its Vancouver, approach to things. Being from Vancouver, it's always amazing to see what other cities are able to do, simply because they don't take a backwater BC approach to things.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremont_Bridge_(Seattle)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballard_Bridge (Seattle)
MONTREAL
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Bizard_Bridge Even a backwater part of Montreal will get an upgrade from a 3 lane joke to a 4 lane bridge with wider sidewalks. https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/bridge-construction-causing-travel-nightmare-for-ile-bizard-residents-1.6564161
https://www.westislandtoday.com/post/the-construction-of-l-%C3%AEle-bizard-s-bridge-is-well-underway
https://montreal.ca/en/articles/building-new-bridge-pont-jacques-bizard-26379 Fortunatly, no one from Metro Vancouver was able to stop this Greater Montreal improvement. The backward BC mentality is terrible. It would be devastating if Quebec had ever started to emulate the BC approach to things.
https://globalnews.ca/news/10180724/new-jacques-bizard-bridge-west-island-traffic Unfortunatly, the new bridge won't have a couple of bus-lanes. https://www.ebcinc.com/en/2022/04/05/new-jacques-bizard-bridge A 6 lane bridge would have allowed for that. Perhaps a parallel bus-bridge might eventually be built there, someday. That's what Calgary eventually did with the the+Cushing+Bridge upgrade.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/fraser-valley-metro-vancouver-regional-rail-west-coast-express
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/translink-ttc-stm-federal-funding-request-2024-budget
https://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/search?q=Vancouver