Posts Tagged: Toronto Star

02
Oct

2013

Subways, LRTs, Busways & Gondolas

It’s important not to forget the importance of small victories.

For example, last week a newspaper columnist wrote the following in Canada’s largest daily newspaper:

“Can’t decide between an LRT or a subway? A busway or a gondola? Don’t expect help from these characters. Sorry. You are on your own.” 

The quote comes from a recent column by Royson James of the Toronto Star. The “characters” in question are Ontario’s provincial transportation agency, Metrolinx.

Now there’s absolutely nothing unique about a major Canadian newspaper calling out Toronto politicians and administrators for mishandling the public transportation file. Transportation in the Greater Toronto Area is increasingly nightmarish with little hope of a wake-up in sight.

But neither that — nor Metrolinx’s capabilities — are the point.

The point, instead, is that here we have a major columnist in a major publication using subway, LRT, bus and gondola technology in the same breath to describe the various transportation options we have before us.

Typically, when newspapers talk about gondolas they do so because — let’s face it — cable cars are an oddity. And oddities drive readership (Chinese Tunnel Bus™ anyone?). More often than not, major media treats gondolas as an interesting sideshow, nothing more.

Not so here. The fact that Royson James didn’t call attention to the ridiculousness of gondolas; the fact that he merely listed it as one of several options is important.

That’s a win. A small win, yes, but a small win with very big implications.



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23
May

2012

Toronto Star Profiles Toronto’s “Only Cable-Propelled Transit”

Image via Toronto Star.

Yesterday, the Toronto Star profiled Toronto’s “only cable-propelled transit” system – Pearson Airport’s Link APM cable car connector.

It’s a good article and worth taking a look at, especially as they discuss how an upcoming rail connection to downtown Toronto will integrate with the existing system. Apparently the rail line will arrive “on a rail spur that runs right down the middle of the two LINK guideways.”

(One caveat though: As per the image above, the arm that connects the cars to the cable is not a bogie, it’s called the grip. The bogie is the wheeled carriage the vehicles travel on.)



Want more? Purchase Cable Car Confidential: The Essential Guide to Cable Cars, Urban Gondolas & Cable Propelled Transit and start learning about the world's fastest growing transportation technologies.

04
Jan

2012

The Gondola Project Profiled In The Toronto Star (Again)

Yesterday The Gondola Project was featured in The Toronto Star in a piece called Looking to the skies for answers: A second look at gondola transit. It was, for all intents and purposes, a follow-up piece to their story from 2 years ago about the work we’ve been doing around these parts (which landed on the front page of the paper, above the fold).

The basic gist of the article is to demonstrate the progress the technology has made over the last 2 years, and to question why Toronto – with it’s rather unique urban topography of ravines and valleys – has yet to explore the possibilities, which is odd given the degree of attention the technology has received from other Canadian municipalities.

Toronto's "network" of ravines and valleys (in green) demonstrate that while the city is commonly thought to be flat, it is anything but - hence providing a topographical opportunity to implement gondola technology. Image via the City of Toronto.

The article’s conclusion is not unlike Nick Chu’s post from a couple of weeks ago that argues the reason cities like Laval (Montreal), Calgary and Burnaby (Vancouver) are more positive on the technology than Toronto is due to their proximity to world class alpine ski resorts.

It’s an opinion I certainly share but am hesitant to believe that to be the sole factor. At the same time, I’m not entirely sure what other factors may be coming in to play.

So as a great deal of our readership comes from good old Hogtown (Toronto), let’s throw the question out there: Why is Toronto reluctant to look at cable transit? Is it merely a question of not having used the systems at world class ski hills? Or is there something else that needs to be considered?

I’d certainly love to know because as we’ve pointed out before, Toronto would be a perfect fit for the technology.



Want more? Purchase Cable Car Confidential: The Essential Guide to Cable Cars, Urban Gondolas & Cable Propelled Transit and start learning about the world's fastest growing transportation technologies.