Reece Martin

Writer, CS Guy, Learning Enthusiast, Optimist, ?.

Passionate about making the world better.

Trained AI on like 20% of what it knows about public transport.

[Reece Martin @RM_Transit]

RMTransit -> Reece Martin

[Jonathan English @EnglishRail]

You sometimes find amazing things poking around in the archives. In this case, it was a clear illustration about how ambitious North American cities once were when it came to infrastructure.

[Reece Martin @RM_Transit]

@TomPark1n Its not building the tunnel thats taken so long, its expropriation

[Reece Martin @RM_Transit]

@itsgenevababy I'd love to hear more. The units it may prevent from being constructed are a drop in the bucket.

[Reece Martin @RM_Transit]

It's remarkable that if you live in Toronto it seems that basically no level of government is doing even 2% what they should be to fix the housing crisis.

Someone mentioned to me the airport being a big topic and it is insane that it's such a big topic relative to housing.

[Reece Martin @RM_Transit]

@manojkarthick Transcription!

[Reece Martin @RM_Transit]

This is the kind of thing that needs to happen more if we want to reign in costs.

[Kenneth Chan @iamkennethchan]

BREAKING... B.C. government has FIRED the European contractor chosen in 2024 to build the new replacement George Massey Tunnel.

A new bidding process will now be conducted. #bcpoli #vanpoli #vanre

https://t.co/07g8cSo33W

[Reece Martin @RM_Transit]

@bentlegen @OtherStuffPod Perhaps for todays class of LLM, but methinks the future will not be that way. And I'd also guess this will bring down the barriers to writing more in langs like Rust.

[Reece Martin @RM_Transit]

Removing the bike lanes is beyond hackish, its just stupid. Bike lanes are arguably the only transport infrastructure can affordably build at scale at pace.

[Observing The City @observinthecity]

There were over 46k Bike Share rides in Toronto yesterday, more than the average ridership of the Queen streetcar. The cost to the city to operate that streetcar was over $50k/day in 2015. Bike share costs the city $8k/day. 6x as cost efficient. Smart cities invest in cycling.

[Observing The City @observinthecity]

There were over 46k Bike Share rides in Toronto yesterday, more than the average ridership of the Queen streetcar. The cost to the city to operate that streetcar was over $50k/day in 2015. Bike share costs the city $8k/day. 6x as cost efficient. Smart cities invest in cycling.

[JR Urbane Network @JRUrbaneNetwork]

A great review on Toronto's ambitious historical plans for burying mainline railway corridors in the city center. Written with perspective of the broader context of other similar N American schemes characterizing the era that no longer seem viable today. I can't help but contrast with China where ambitious city center underground mainline railway corridors are being built in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chongqing etc. All this was mixed with the recent news of further delays on the Stuttgart 21 project swimming in the back of my head.

[TTC Platform Doors @ttcdoors]

The future (from 30 years ago)

[Infrastory @Infrastory_]

Since the Big Dig, North American cities have abandoned the idea of grand infrastructure endeavours. In today's blog, we talk about one such endeavour that was once considered for Toronto — burying the Union Station rail corridor.

[Reece Martin @RM_Transit]

Nano Banana is pretty great for this stuff.

[Reece Martin @RM_Transit]

Sunnybrook Park Eglinton Crosstown stop should be rebuilt into a proper station, allowing frequent subway service on the Crosstown to extend to Don Mills Road and the Aga Khan.

[Reece Martin @RM_Transit]

@euro_projects @LukaYaskiw Ah yes, continents free of delay.

[Reece Martin @RM_Transit]

@messputt Yeah no duh. The point is that those things can be profitable with new forms.

[Reece Martin @RM_Transit]

Its crazy that we didn't make building new infill and intensification possible at the rates we restricted outward growth in Canadian cities - while keeping very high immigration.

It would have required environmental interests to reconcile instead of crushing young people.

[Reece Martin @RM_Transit]

@tony_tweets1 Councillors want various things from the TTC, many of which the TTC clearly does not deliver!

[Reece Martin @RM_Transit]

The city and TTC insisted on operating the Eglinton Crosstown and are doing a bad job of it. Its a bit sad because its going to kill the chance of the TTC operating any more new lines, which while they are poor at today, could be a really valuable thing.

[Reece Martin @RM_Transit]

@tony_tweets1 This is silly. There isn't some special local need when it comes to subway operations, its cut and dry and TTC isn't delivering.

[Reece Martin @RM_Transit]

@messputt Thats not true. This assumes you can't profitably build housing, which you can as we open up more forms.

[Reece Martin @RM_Transit]

And stations . . .

[Reece Martin @RM_Transit]

Future Crosstown trains should look like this

[Reece Martin @RM_Transit]

@tony_tweets1 That doesn't address my point, which is that the TTC is doing a bad job of something organizations the world over manage to do, and the alternative isn't Metrolinx!