A wind turbine Metrolinx paid a consulting company $138,000 to study and position, has failed to produce the electricity that was projected at Lisgar GO Station. It's only producing 9% power! It cost $620,000 to buy it and install it. Yay, Metrolinx! All that money for something that can charge an iPhone. Hysterically, the brass blame new development in the area for low wind speeds. It's a GO Transit Station! Public transit moves people. Of course developers will want to build housing near it. OH MY GOD. The whole article reads like an Onion news piece.
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After months of an international search, again by a consultant, Metrolinx appointed a GO Transit employee as President to replace Gary McNeil. Lord knows how much money was spent to only end in this result. Greg Percy is 57. Why would a transit agency, one that aspires to be forward thinking and one in the middle of so much growth, choose someone so close to retirement? What benefits can be brought to the agency in a post that will run less than 10 years? How serious was this search? The TTC went all the way to England to fetch Andy Byford. No one in Europe wanted the job!? Japan? Percy brings a whole lot of project management and rail operations experience to the table. That's awesome. How much experience in ground level customer service support does he bring? Oh well. Congratulations, Greg!
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TTC Commission Chair, Karen Stintz, is suggesting that Metrolinx and the TTC strike a deal to allow Toronto folks inexpensive passage on GO trains. God forbid Ford's taxpayers pay $4.85 from Exhibition Station to Union Station. Oh lawdy! How does that makes us 905'ers feel? We're going to subsidize this whole scheme should it go through. Where's my < $3.00 GO train ride from Oshawa to Whitby?! Go home, Karen. You're drunk.
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8 comments:
So, us 905ers get to not only pay for the subway expansion that most of us will never us, but we also get to subsidize the Toronto people who can't be bothered to take the subway/streetcar/bus etc.?
Hells no.
As for the first two: par for the course. Any way the Liberal government (and Metrolinx is a subsidiary) can piss away money, they will.
Why should Toronto folks get cheap passage on GO Trains. More importantly, why should inexpensive travel on GO transit be provided to people who live in Toronto and take the TTC, when the TTC is (to my knowledge) the only transit system in the GTA that does not offer a co-fare discount?
April - it wasn't always this way. Back in the "good ole days", TTC and GO had a twin pass system. It was great for those who used both systems as you got a pretty good discount on TTC fares.
Those went away a long time ago. *sigh* I think I've been commuting too long.
As for this new idea to offer inexpensive GO fares for Toronto peeps when the TTC is also available... heck no, not on my dime!
It is insane that TTC wants GO to give a discount to their riders. I pay $8.39 each way on the GO, and if I had to take TTC it would be another $2.60 for a whopping total of $21.98 PER DAY, but people who live in Toronto should get to take the GO for $2.60 because it is more convenient for them.
WTF?
Why should 905 folks get cheap passage and parking in the TTC? We have spent years subsidizing your travel, it's time you subsidize mine.
We pay full fare if/when we travel on the TTC. No extra discounts.
Yet, why should you get a cheaper fare to ride the same distance as someone on the GO?
Besides, keep in mind that all these "revenue tools" to expand YOUR transit system will be paid by people who NEVER use the system, or even live in the area.
Interesting that the wind turbine expert no longer works for the company. Some expert!
I live near Lisgar, and that turbine hardly ever moves. I couldn't imagine that adding four small buildings (a Tim Horton's, Marshall's, Dollarama and three small shops in a single-storey building) across the street from the turbine could knock out it's ability to catch the wind. All other buildings were around prior to the construction of the turbine.
There are no highrise buildings anywhere near the station!
Perhaps the expert did his study on a windy day while visiting from Montreal.
@Squiggles:
The Government of Canada has committed up to $697 million to the project
The Province of Ontario has provided $870 million
contributing $526 million to the project and The Regional Municipality of York is contributing $352 million
So ... KMA. I believe that 905'ers should have to do what they do on TTC buses - when you go north, you pay a York fare to get off the bus. Going south, you pay a TTC fare as you pass Steeles.
So ... Anyone who travels past Steeles, should have to go out and pay another fare. It's only fair, after all.
The 905 city has only paid $352 million of the fees, while Torontonians have paid $592.
Why the hell should we CONTINUE to subsidize 905'ers?
ON THE FLIP SIDE - I think the MGTA should just have one "distance based" schema ... I get on at Steeles & Warden, and I pay x amount per kilometre I travel ... if I only go down the road 1km, than I only pay $0.35 ... if I go downtown to Union (a 25km trip) I pay ... I don't know, maybe $3.50 or something.
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