Raise the Hammer

What are the economic advantages to a train that costs $50+ Billion to build and loses money every single day of the year? What transit line is there in Canada that doesn't lose money? Transit has lots of advantages like reducing pollution(unless of course that 35 ton bus is driving cross the city with only 2 or 3 people in it and we have that happening every evening) reducing congestion etc but economic advantages aren't real high because the city has to subsidize every single fare.


Where does Metrolinx get it's funds? Are they a gift from Bill Gates or are they tax dollars?

I never said a train traveling up the escarpment isn't possible we do have them today. How fast will they be? How long a track will you need? How expensive will that be? How useful will an East west line be without the north south line? Then we'll have 2 rail lines losing money every single day. How are we going to pay for that?

I have heard people tell me that they were going to park their cars and start taking the bus ever since gas hit $0.50 per GALLON. But wait, talk to them today and those people are still driving their cars.

It's easy to say I will take the train on a poll but guess what? People don't follow through. Taking transit from Burlington/Oakville to Toronto seems like a no brainer. Look at the QEW its full of cars going from Burlington /Oakville to Toronto every single day. Talk to those drivers and how many will tell you they are going to start taking transit? How many said the same thing yesterday? last week? last month? last year? ten years ago? They get in their cars and head to the train but then its too cold or too hot or too rainy or too snowy or they're too late or they need their car at lunch and its easier to do what they've always done. Drive to Toronto.

How do you figure "...Hamilton's population will increase mostly by infill and condo/apt style developments in the Core..." Hamilton has been expanding every year that you can get stats for. Sure there will be some infill but they are going to build lots more houses.

You haven't even begun to answer the questions and problems you choose to ignore them. You're living in a fantasy world.

I showed you some numbers about population and area how do you plan on overcoming them? There was no green wave with Model T's because we were too backwards and didn't have the technology. In the 60's and 70's we had the green wave and downtown flourished. We had the T.H. & B. rail line what ever happened to it? What ever happened to CP rail service? CN rail service? I'll give you one hint they're all in the same place. We have no commercial passenger rail service because it loses money. Even the states which has a population 10 times bigger and a much smaller country has no commercial passenger rail service, only Amtrak. How many Billions has the U.S. pored into it and it faces fewer challenges than a Canadian Rail line.

I don't base my arguments on partial data I base them on common sense, experience and realism not pie in the sky wishful thinking.

I'd love to see transit be a viable alternative but until some of the numbers change cars will dominate our roads, our economy and our lives. You don't need to like cars but you need to respect them.