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Seasons Greetings For 2024

We’re almost at the end of another year, and I thank all of my readers for visiting and leaving comments that extend the discussions (usually) in a helpful direction.

Here is ex-Kansas City PCC 4759 on a fan trip in February 1976. For much of the trip, the car operated with a Philadelphia roll sign, hence the odd destinations in some shots.

  • At Moore Park Loop in the last winter when what we now call “512 St. Clair” operated east of Yonge Street. This site is now a parkette.
  • At the old and far more attractive Exhibition Loop before it was buried under what is now called the Direct Energy Centre.
  • At McCaul Loop before The Village by the Grange.

11 thoughts on “Seasons Greetings For 2024”

  1. Wonderful shots Steve, and wanted to wish you Happy Holidays and New Year!

    Thank you for your dedication to this blog, along with transit as a whole in this city!

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  4. The old and far more attractive Exhibition Loop that was buried under the Direct Energy Centre also has an underground 1,300-space underground parking garage. The city keeps catering and giving priority to the automobile, replacing the Exhibition Loop with a l-o-n-g-e-r walk for pedestrians and transit users.

    Will the future users to the “new and improved” Ontario Place and Ontario Science Centre face a hot safari across an asphalt desert and garage? Or will putting in a tree lined promenade with vendor and food carts, benches, fountains (visual and drinking) to reach the “new and improved” Exhibition GO, Ontario Line, and streetcar station be not approved because it is “not in the budget”.

    Steve: There was a proposal to include an underground loop in the Direct Energy Centre, but no money was forthcoming from anywhere to pay for it.

    I suspect that the boffins at Metrolinx will come up with a scheme for some sort of link from Exhibition Station south to the former Ontario Place, and it will probably involve a cozy deal with their consultants and/or a “friend of the family”. It will not open on time, and will probably manage to cock up the streetcar loop while they’re at it.

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  5. A PTC rollsign? Did someone provide that for the occasion or was it just left in? I mean, the TTC installed the proper bullseye and painted it so it’d be a bit of a stretch to think they’d left the fabric in there.

    Steve: Supplied for the occasion. There have also been trips with Kansas City and Pittsburgh rollsigns. These cars never ran in Philly.

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  7. Steve, a Merry Christmas to you and big thanks for the rolling piece of nostalgia. Have missed seeing you about.

    Gene Simpson and partner Barb.

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  9. In the Sat. Globe, there was a price estimate/figure for the Ontario Line of $27.2 billion. Wasn’t the first estimate c. 10B? And since it’s hardly begun, what might the final cost be, or do we have to spin a wheel, though no real repercussions for anyone but the taxpayers, right? And speaking of boon-doggles, when is the Eglinton opening, and the Finch? And will they be squeezed together to overload the TTC’s coping in re-routings to ensure the TTC looks bad? The near-record rain is also going to be hard with freeze-thaw cycles too, but we can’t regard maintenance as an investment, right? And blah humbug, but thanks Steve/commenters.

    Steve: When the Doug Ford transit plan, including the Ontario Line, was announced, there was a lot of hot air from Metrolinx about how they knew better than the TTC how to build rapid transit lines. This is the arrogance that comes from being an unaccountable agency that can plan things without having to come up with an actual cost or dependable timeline. Provincial projects are always quoted in current dollars, possibly current minus a year or two depending on when the estimate was done, and they do not have to include a projection of cost to completion. By contrast, municipal projects that depend on getting full commitments for subsidies from other governments, plus the capital planning in the City’s own budget for borrowing, must project actual cost to completion. The situation is further complicated by the P3 arrangements that include 30 years of operating costs in the total, and don’t break this out from the capital cost. I am sure that the original estimates were only for capital, although even these would be low when inflation and delays are taken into account.

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  10. Because of you when a bus is late or subway is delayed I don’t think “argh this is time of out my life” but instead consider the larger causes of the system, what does and doesn’t work and why, and generally calm down.

    You are a treasure, Mr Munro. Congrats on another year of bringing us the real statistics.

    Steve: Many thanks!

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  11. Thanks for clarity, again, Steve. So it’s confusing – and does it help the governments to keep it that way? So the ‘actual’ cost of the OL is only at maybe $10B? – and thus ‘reasonable’? And what might the cost of Eglinton be at the moment, or is it too mired in obfuscation and denial, and not for mere mortals and chitizens to know? (I do want large sums spent on transit, but let’s make it investment-grade please, and this includes maintenance, like finally sealing the seam of the surface gutter on the Viaduct some year).

    Steve: The basic problem is that provincial project numbers are (a) designed to make things look cheap by ignoring inflation during construction and (b) to obfuscate costs by bundling capital and long-term operating costs in a single number. All of this is done in the name of “commercial confidentiality” long after the need for secrecy to ensure bids are conducted without information leaks. There is no public tracking of cost changes due to scope creep or unexpected conditions. By contrast all (or most) of this info is part of the public record at the municipal level unless they have been hamstrung by a cross-agreement with provincial conditions as in the case of Toronto and SmartTrack Stations, for example.

    I suspect that the province is exposed to higher future costs than they are willing to admit, and that will in turn crowd funding headroom for future projects. We know this is the situation at the City, although there is yet to be a full, open, honest debate about how we will deal with the problem. At least at the City level we know it exists.

    I would love to see a new government turn the Provincial Auditor loose to restate the books based on fully revealed liabilities and funding needs, and not just for transit.

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