My favorite reverse example of this is Vienna, which doesn't have anything new or shiny or even that huge a network but just runs what it does have so well it has almost as much ridership as Berlin (a city with twice the population and four times the number of stations on its network).
Yep. Politicians like cutting ribbons on shiny new things, be they trains or lines. Improving service just doesn’t have the same cachet for them. And some transit advocates do tend to resort to policy prescriptions that are logical and great, but simply politically unfeasible. Thanks for avoiding that trap in your own writing.
Rude. How dare you call me out like that in your very first sentence. I’ll have you know I did use my exercise bike, but I don’t anymore because it was flood damaged.
YES ! Managers, politicians and funders all like to be identified with that shiny object. Try to raise money for cleaning and maintenance, whether it is a transit station or community center. That's much harder. No shiny object.
I think a key aspect that you did not discuss enough is maintenance. NYC, Boston, and SEPTA seem to have huge deferred maintenance. Despite the (seemingly perpetual) shade on Chicago, the CTA and Metra have kept up on maintenance and focused on un-shiny projects to improve reliability -- from the CTA rebuilding most of their lines in the last 20 years and adding infill stations to Metra pursuing Union Station changes (through-routing, platform consolidation), reconfiguring the St. Charles Air Line, and helping push the gargantuan CREATE projects.
I have complaints about the CTA and Metra, but deferred maintenance is not one of them. If you want to reduce the fixation on shiny things, you should call out the places which have done better at upkeep.
Thank you for your thoughts and analysis on the litteral bells and whistles that make up the better part of transit budgets, certainly capital budgets.
I can't speak to other locations, but here's my thoughts about Toronto.
You talk about the additional signaling and newer train sets on the Yonge line almost as if they are a waste of money.
I was under the impression that both the new train sets and the automated signaling upgrades were necessary prerequisites for this line getting the automated protective platform doors installed. I for one, can't wait until these protective sliding doors arrive - when I was taking radiation treatment and using a cane to walk and not that steady on my feet, I sure would have felt more secure knowing there was something between me and that fast moving train coming into the station, especially when it was rush hour coming home.
Sadly, it appears that the new train sets and the improved signaling have done nothing to advance the start of installing barrier doors. Moe stranded capital ... sigh ... But, if these two upgrades will get automated protective doors installed on the off- chance before I die ( this Is Toronto, after all), then I do not feel the money was a waste.
We had a "mayor of London" who was determinedly stuck on "Shiny!"
He cancelled his predecessors' valuable tram schemes, ordered a sub-par hybrid bus with practical difficulties for the passengers & pushed ahead with an utterly useless cable-car that went from nowhere to nowhere, over the Thames.
Publicty! Ra-Ra!
His name?
Boris Johnson - yes the now disgraced ex-Prime Minister of the UK.
On one hand, sure, we could vastly improve Toronto's streetcar system by replacing single-point switches with double-point switches, replacing manual switches with automated switches, and removing every slow order
On the other, it is also good to not assume that we will simply stop our pattern of failure through sheer willpower. Sometimes capital expense is the one option that can actually be done. TTC will never hire active managers that will intelligently manage vehicle spacing on the surface system, because headcount/budget/institutional culture/not invented here
My favorite reverse example of this is Vienna, which doesn't have anything new or shiny or even that huge a network but just runs what it does have so well it has almost as much ridership as Berlin (a city with twice the population and four times the number of stations on its network).
Yep. Politicians like cutting ribbons on shiny new things, be they trains or lines. Improving service just doesn’t have the same cachet for them. And some transit advocates do tend to resort to policy prescriptions that are logical and great, but simply politically unfeasible. Thanks for avoiding that trap in your own writing.
Rude. How dare you call me out like that in your very first sentence. I’ll have you know I did use my exercise bike, but I don’t anymore because it was flood damaged.
YES ! Managers, politicians and funders all like to be identified with that shiny object. Try to raise money for cleaning and maintenance, whether it is a transit station or community center. That's much harder. No shiny object.
I would love an analysis of what Berlin is doing to speed up trams without removing cars that Toronto could be doing!
I think a key aspect that you did not discuss enough is maintenance. NYC, Boston, and SEPTA seem to have huge deferred maintenance. Despite the (seemingly perpetual) shade on Chicago, the CTA and Metra have kept up on maintenance and focused on un-shiny projects to improve reliability -- from the CTA rebuilding most of their lines in the last 20 years and adding infill stations to Metra pursuing Union Station changes (through-routing, platform consolidation), reconfiguring the St. Charles Air Line, and helping push the gargantuan CREATE projects.
I have complaints about the CTA and Metra, but deferred maintenance is not one of them. If you want to reduce the fixation on shiny things, you should call out the places which have done better at upkeep.
Hi Reece,
Thank you for your thoughts and analysis on the litteral bells and whistles that make up the better part of transit budgets, certainly capital budgets.
I can't speak to other locations, but here's my thoughts about Toronto.
You talk about the additional signaling and newer train sets on the Yonge line almost as if they are a waste of money.
I was under the impression that both the new train sets and the automated signaling upgrades were necessary prerequisites for this line getting the automated protective platform doors installed. I for one, can't wait until these protective sliding doors arrive - when I was taking radiation treatment and using a cane to walk and not that steady on my feet, I sure would have felt more secure knowing there was something between me and that fast moving train coming into the station, especially when it was rush hour coming home.
Sadly, it appears that the new train sets and the improved signaling have done nothing to advance the start of installing barrier doors. Moe stranded capital ... sigh ... But, if these two upgrades will get automated protective doors installed on the off- chance before I die ( this Is Toronto, after all), then I do not feel the money was a waste.
I wonder if CBTC was really that necessary to have on line 1 in Toronto. After all, the services didn't really increase all that much.
We had a "mayor of London" who was determinedly stuck on "Shiny!"
He cancelled his predecessors' valuable tram schemes, ordered a sub-par hybrid bus with practical difficulties for the passengers & pushed ahead with an utterly useless cable-car that went from nowhere to nowhere, over the Thames.
Publicty! Ra-Ra!
His name?
Boris Johnson - yes the now disgraced ex-Prime Minister of the UK.
On one hand, sure, we could vastly improve Toronto's streetcar system by replacing single-point switches with double-point switches, replacing manual switches with automated switches, and removing every slow order
On the other, it is also good to not assume that we will simply stop our pattern of failure through sheer willpower. Sometimes capital expense is the one option that can actually be done. TTC will never hire active managers that will intelligently manage vehicle spacing on the surface system, because headcount/budget/institutional culture/not invented here