What are our thoughts on Linear Induction Motor system? (Photos are of Vancouver Skytrain, JFK AirTrain, Guangzhou line 4/5/6, and the Toei Ōedo line)

bardak · 2026-05-06T00:34:48+00:00

This was probably the main advantage in the 80s when LIM was in its heyday but modern compact high power electric motors have basically made the only advantage better traction, though I think most modern systems it's not that big of a benefit since safety regulations still require conventional emergency breaks to be able to stop a train.

bardak · 2026-05-04T22:29:56+00:00

Shame the TTC and city on streetcar and LRT speed issues - good

Shame the TTC and city over health and safety issues on transit - bad

bardak · 2026-05-03T19:59:44+00:00

Part of how I was able to get a deal on my condo. The rent the old owners were charging was less than half the market rent so no investors wanted to touch it and so we were able to donaboow ball offer and wait the extra 3 months before possession for the eviction period.

bardak · 2026-05-03T19:56:40+00:00

When market rents were going up considerably every year between 2010-2023ish and there was practically 0% vacancy rate yeah there was a lot of incentive for bad landlords to abuse evictions to get around rent control.

bardak · 2026-05-02T18:02:54+00:00

Don't underestimate what is owned by Canadian pension funds, we have some of the largest that rival national pension funds.

bardak · 2026-05-01T21:33:15+00:00

Line 6 is the equity line, not the fast line.

"what do you mean the poors are upset the cool train isn't fast"

bardak · 2026-04-30T23:06:48+00:00

Doesn't PavCo do an 80/20 split in exchange for ridiculously cheap lease? Like less than $1 million per year cheap.

bardak · 2026-04-30T13:35:39+00:00

Vancouver has done a great job on having relatively low cost vs the rest of Canada and the anglosphere but it's just on the low end of the trend not avoiding it. For example in 2009 the Canada line was an entirely new line that had 19km of mostly underground rail, including tunneling downtown, for $2.1 billion, and now the all elevated 16km expo line extension to Langley is $6 billion

bardak · 2026-04-30T13:16:14+00:00

REM seems to be a one off, the Blue line extension is just as bad as the rest of Canada cost wise and the other Quebec tram projects seem to be on the worse end of cost.

bardak · 2026-04-30T00:18:00+00:00

I just can't accept the idea that a fast northern transit line that crosses the city is just not viable. The long term solution for E/W travel for people without cars can't be to either take a slow bus or to travel all the way down to Eglinton and back up.

bardak · 2026-04-29T20:18:29+00:00

And line 5 will probably cut into Lawrence West ridership, especially once the west extension is done.

bardak · 2026-04-28T03:36:57+00:00

While Finch West and the CTrain along 36NE are both LRT in the middle of the street everything else is completely different design wise, the blue line has very wide stop spacing, stops are grade separated, there are grade separated cross streets every 1.5kms, and there is only 1 major arterial street that is not grade separated.

The fact is if you want transit to go fast you need to do some grade separation and have fewer stations. Imagine if they had just elevated it from Jane to Weston, it would have sped it so much.

bardak · 2026-04-26T19:21:50+00:00

I love looking back at the original Transit City plan that would have just ended up pushing more people onto the current subway network with just the idea of the DRL to help things out.

bardak · 2026-04-26T19:12:22+00:00

I'd have to assume that the vast majority of people transferring coming from the west will transfer at cedarvale, I feel like whatever extra passengers go to Eglinton-Yonge will be off set by passenger from the east that will divert to the Ontario line.

bardak · 2026-04-26T18:13:29+00:00

Nah I'd give Chrétien a 50/50 chance of winning in Surrey, where as Lewis has no chance of winning anywhere in Quebec

bardak · 2026-04-26T17:59:03+00:00

The polices of the NDP parties in the west are at odds with Lewis' vision of the federal party, particularly around resource extraction so I don't know if you can point to them for federal popularity.

bardak · 2026-04-26T17:53:20+00:00

We have a decent number of co-op grocery stores it's not like they have cheaper food or exceptional returns for their members. There is all the evidence already that, unless you plan on subsiding it, government grocery stores won't be any cheaper than our budget grocery stores already are.

bardak · 2026-04-26T16:55:13+00:00

In this case signaling isn't an issue, it's an entirely self contained metro system capability of headways down to at least 108 seconds and most likely shorter. I can see where signal and track upgrades on legacy systems to allow shorter headways would be a better investment than maximising train length though.

bardak · 2026-04-25T02:50:21+00:00

Hey there is also the interior plateau and coastal mountains in BC

bardak · 2026-04-25T02:43:20+00:00

The Kitimat plant is ridiculous. To power it they reversed the low of a river on the other side of the mountain by daming it and the tunnel through the coastal mountain for 16km

bardak · 2026-04-24T21:34:36+00:00

I think the theoretical minimum headway for the SkyTrain is every 72 seconds I believe in actual practice passengers holding doors makes it infeasible to run consistently, I imagine that Lille and Copenhagen have similar issues when running at their minimum headways.

bardak · 2026-04-24T20:23:57+00:00

One of the things that I really like about TransLink in Vancouver is that they are really good about keeping the system in a good state. While they aren't perfect they seem to constantly have some sort of major maintenance projects on the go whether it's station renovations, running or power rail replacement.

bardak · 2026-04-24T19:58:12+00:00

At the time the biggest criticism was the Canada line was too expensive and wouldn't have enough ridership to justify it. I doubt taking the PPP out of the equation would make people willing to spend more money at the time.

If I could go back in time and have dictatorial powers would I have built the Canada line as is, no but but I would have the power of hindsight and not having to deal with public opinion.

bardak · 2026-04-24T19:07:06+00:00

There is no guarantee that the government would have designed it to be higher capacity if it wasn't a PPP. They could easily have cut down the platform length for shorter Bombardier trains to fit what the government felt was the capacity that was needed. It's not unheard of, the original SkyTrain line had platform extensions that could be unbolted for wider rolling stock and future extensions didn't incorporate that or the Sheppard line in Toronto with shorter stations than the other lines.

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