Tag Archives: GTA

On A Midnight Train To Beijing

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A definite theme of this trip is beginning to emerge.

Sitting on the overnight train to Beijing from Nanjing, I can’t help thinking that I am a member of a society on the decline. If the 20th-century belonged to America (one in which we’d hitched a ride on the coattails of), things are most definitely not trending that way in this one.

I mean, come on! Here we are on what is a regular high speed train route, covering 1,100+ kilometres, in relatively comfortable if cramped quarters, as a simple matter of fact. At least, I assume it’s matter of fact based on the ease with which our two Chinese, non-English speaking cabin mates share their bottle of clear, solvent tasting but with a hint of blue cheese liquor with us. They regale us with grand stories of adventure, I assume, given their reaction to the tales they tell. We all sleep like babies until I stumble out to the bar car a couple of hours before arriving in Beijing in order to take in the passing scenery.

At home this kind of trip is treated as a novelty. Train travel as a throwback to an earlier time; something to do when you’ve run out of other vacation options. A relic of the past that has no real bearing on the future.

A side blurb in a Macleans magazine issue last month talked of China’s negotiations with 17 Asian and European countries to develop high speed train travel traversing the two continents, culminating in a Beijing to London link over some 8,100 kilometres in 48 hours. And we can’t even get our shit together enough to come up with a comprehensive plan to build a modern rail system throughout the GTA and Golden Horseshoe region. No, diesel does not qualify as a comprehensive plan, people. It’s merely indicative of small-minded, short-sighted thinking and a lack of leadership and balls. (The emerging theme for those who just tuning in.)

Oh sure, I hear you mumbling out there, a half a day behind me, we could be all out on the forefront and cutting edge too if we gave over to authoritative, autocratic rule. Making the trains run on time is easy if you set aside democracy. If China’s so great, why don’t you just move there, you slavering, pandering, useful idiot Sinophile? (Huh. A passing side thought. If you’re a fan of Chinese movies, does that make you a Sinocinephile?)

You know that’s not what I’m having you suggest I’m suggesting. It is far from perfect here. Even ignoring the political reality for a moment, China is still very much a developing country in many, many aspects. It is dirty, polluted and does consume an ever increasing amount of the world’s resources although it does seem to realize that and is investing heavily in alternate sources of energy to a much larger extent than we are in the west. There is a sense that by watching the emergence of China we are being offered a glimpse through the window of what our very own industrial revolution might’ve looked like. It is a very relevant question of whether or not China is attempting to sustain what is not sustainable.

But this is not about China. It is about us, the former masters of the universe, the west in which the sun is very much threatening to set upon. We are being eclipsed not because of imbalances in trade or democratic principles. We have simply lost our way, locked as we are in a useless and unimaginative ideological either-or standoff. Money, and the accumulation of it, has replaced vision and grand dreams of progress and enlightenment. There is an assumption of superiority on our part owing to the fact that we have already overcome the battles China is now waging. Been there, done that. We are waiting for greatness to return, assuming somehow that it is our birthright. This is how it shall be for it has always been thus.

History doesn’t work like that. It is largely trial and error, learning from our mistakes and adapting to new and varied environments. Past success does not guarantee future success. In fact, as we who once were giants might slowly be realizing, resting on our laurels is the surest, quickest way to find ourselves standing at the back of the que as the rest of the world blows on past us faster than, well, a high speed train on its way to Beijing.

— wistfully submitted by Urban Sophisticat

Manifesto Of Independence

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If it wasn’t abundantly clear to everyone before the McGuinty Liberals handed down their latest budget last week, it certainly should be now. Their interest in the future welfare of Toronto is fleeting and politically mercurial. They do what is expedient not what is right. Continuing to hope and depend on the good graces of the province to look out for our best interests should now be considered pathologically negligent.

So… So… To paraphrase the words of some olde scribes:

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume…the powers… entitle[d] them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

It has become increasingly apparent that since 1995, successive provincial governments have proven themselves incapable of properly governing this we call Ontario, as it has evolved since its conception some one hundred and forty-three years ago. Now over 13 million people strong with nearly half of those living in what is known as the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and more than 2.5 million in the city of Toronto itself, this is no longer the Upper Canada of Confederation. We are now a territory of two solitudes; predominantly urban where once we were rural. Ancient rules of rule cannot stand.

As Jesus was quoted saying in Luke 5:37-39: And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’

Even battered and bruised as it has been with the economic turmoil of the last 18 months, Toronto and the GTA remains the economic engine that drives the province. More money is extracted from it then is returned in goods or services, and while equity throughout the province is a laudable goal, it cannot be achieved to Toronto’s detriment. This has been the situation for the past 15 years but now has become untenable.

When the Liberals swept to power in 2003, they did so with the promise of undoing the fiscal damage inflicted on this city by the Harris-Eves Tories. Over the course of their 7 year reign, they have been slow to imperceptible in doing so. The latest example came with the budget declaration of deferring $4-billion of previously announced support for transit construction. This was the biggest budget cut in what was a lower than expected deficit and amounted to nothing more than one big Fuck You to Toronto and environs.

An already starved transit system is now being further deprived. Despite all sensible advice and opinion, the Liberals are displaying a shameful neglect of a much needed necessity if this region is to continue to grow in a manner that benefits all and compete successfully at an international level. By reneging on their previous commitment to build a better transit system in this city, the provincial government has once more abdicated their authority to govern us.

And what did the major contenders for Toronto’s top job say about this matter when they gathered together last night for the first official mayoral debate? Rob Ford wants to save the city a few thousand dollars by eliminating free rides on the TTC for councillors. George Smitherman demanded the resignation of TTC chair, Adam Giambrone.

These people are campaigning to be nothing more than mere window dressers. Errand boys and girl Friday bidding to do the dirty work of cutting, burning and slashing as demanded by their provincial evil overlords. Rather than pushing back, they are meekly bending over.

We here at All Fired Up in the Big Smoke are now looking for candidates who recognize the lay of the land and know what needs to be done. The process of separation must now begin. Pure and simply Toronto, and any of the contiguous region that wants to be a part of it, should demand provincial status. Those who now occupy Queen’s Park on a part time basis, representing an electorate outside of the 416/905 area codes are to be rejected and replaced by a legislative body who’s primary concern is Toronto. There is no other way to properly ensure our interests.

While it may be too late for this campaign, a caucus of candidates (not a party, you understand, because that’s forbidden at a municipal level by the provincial government) needs to begin to coalesce around the idea of an independent Toronto province. A Block Toronto, if you will, to push the agenda into the public consciousness. To argue persuasively about its viability. Toronto First, Toronto United!!™©®

When our elected officials refuse to listen and willfully ignore our requests, what alternative do we have? Sitting on our hands and only speaking when spoken to is no longer an option.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the a united States of America Toronto…do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these this Colonies city, solemnly publish and declare, That these this United Colonies are city is, and of Right ought to be Free and an Independent States province; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown Ontario government, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain province of Ontario, is and ought to be totally dissolved… blah, blah, blah.

Toronto First, Toronto United!!©™®

— patriotically submitted by Cityslikr

We Gonna Rock Down To Electric Avenue

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I hesitate to wade into this particular fray, ill-equipped as I am with the raw data necessary to fend off a wave of readers who will invariably deem me to be a pampered downtown Toronto know-nothing partisan hack. Exactly what happened when I innocently got caught up in the ongoing TPA-Porter Air-Community Air saga at the island airport. Just minding my own business, throwing a few thoughts out there…

Yet, the more I look at this whole Metrolinx-Georgetown Corridor-Fixed Link to Pearson contretemps, the less I can stay silent on the matter. The main sticking point, the only sticking point, the entire enchilada is the matter of diesel. I mean, WHAT?!?!? How backward thinking is the brain trust at Metrolinx and its overseers at Queen’s Park? Diesel?! Really!!? Why not just swing for the fences on this and step right into the way back machine and decree that we’re going to de-mothball the old Iron Horses?

Has no one at Metrolinx taken a moment to look around the world and see what’s going on in terms of train travel? China, that old emission spewing, polluting boogeyman that’s still technically speaking a developing country, just unveiled the world’s fastest passenger train that runs basically off the electrical grid. Nevermind their electromagnetic Maglev trains they use for shorter hauls. Japan and Europe have been operating high speed electrical trains for decades now.

Cue the start of the second decade of the 21st-century and we here in Ontario, unveiling our biggest public transportation expansion in decades, are hitching our wagons to diesel. It is more than mystifying. Nonsensical doesn’t describe it. Unconscionable barely does it justice. Flat-headed, myopic, lily-livered, atavistic, primitive beyond the pale only begins to scratch the surface.

Money, they say. We don’t have enough of it to electrify the corridor. The people at the Clean Train Coalition disagree. Using Metrolinx’s own numbers, they contend that going electric from Union Station to Brampton will cost only 17% more than the present plan, some extra $150 million. On top of which, electric trains are cheaper to operate than diesel and the extra money it’ll cost to set up an electric system would be recouped in 10 years from operational savings alone. Not so fast, say those at Metrolinx. We’re going to spend $4 million to crunch the numbers and we’ll get back to you at the end of the year.

And frankly, I don’t buy into the assertion that it’ll be diesel initially and then electric down the rails sometime, let’s say 15 years. First off, once you’ve fully entrenched one system, the sheer weight of inertia will make it that much more difficult to jump tracks (the puns are almost involuntary). I mean it’s taken 30 years just to get around to this kind of talk about transportation infrastructure expansion. Secondly, what’s the economic sense to be spending some $1 billion on diesel only to pledge to redo it all a decade and a half later?

Financial jockeying aside, it’s just seems like further proof that our leaders have their heads firmly planted up their asses while sitting down in the sand when it comes to looking into the future. We’re coming to the end of cheap oil, gentleman. We should be weaning ourselves off our dependence on fossil fuels. Building a system powered by electricity opens up the possibilities to alternative sources of energy like wind and sun.

Without even getting into to the health and noise pollution arguments – we’re talking a substantial increase in train traffic affecting some 300, 000 people – there’s other mitigating factors as well. Electric trains are faster. They can stop more often than their diesel counterparts. And, for a train buff such as myself, they are far more aesthetically pleasing. They look cool and have better names.

So what exactly are the benefits of the diesel train aside from a lower initial cost? They already exist? Well, sort of. The highly touted (at least by Metrolinx and the provincial government) Tier 4 clean diesel technology is very new and not yet thoroughly tested. So its air quality claims cannot be viewed as rock solid. Furthermore Steve Munro, as unbiased a public transit advocate as you might find, questions the passenger load numbers that Metrolinx is throwing around in terms of exactly how many cars the Georgetown expansion will remove from the road as drivers start to take the trains.

The unfortunate fact of the matter seems to be that after years of inaction that has allowed this region’s public transportation system to fall behind those of some 2nd world countries, we are now scrambling to simply catch up to where we should’ve been two decades ago. Exhibiting a continued lack of boldness, initiative and vision, those at the helm of the transportation expansion are threatening to leave us at that exact spot. Twenty years behind the time.

— mystifiedly submitted by Cityslikr