photo by redroom studios
We have busses. We have the metro. And now it looks like we might have street cars in store! But the question that keeps picking at my brain is, why?
Why would a city invest in an entirely new infrastructure when they could just expand the service of its existing system? A bus can go anywhere a street car could go, and Montreal’s streets aren’t wide like Toronto’s. Besides we’ve already had street cars…and we got rid of them!
I don’t want to see my downtown sky obscured by a net of wires. This whole scheme seems like yet another money hole for Mayor Tremblay to sink the city’s money into.
April 10, 2008 at 10:59 am
Because buses don’t attract users who otherwise have the option of driving, and they don’t have enough advantages relative to the car (it gets stuck in traffic, for example).
“Subways are too expensive” is the meme perpetuated these days (I am quoting a Globe and Mail editorial) for municipalities. So in order to get people out of cars they need an attractive and cheap mode of transportation. So tramways seem to be a decent compromise.
I don’t necessarily agree with this logic; i don’t think the benefits of subways have been properly evaluated — When there is 2m of snow in Montreal, people can still use the metro to get to work and school. That has got to be a significant productivity savings.
June 4, 2008 at 7:20 pm
It is an especially dumb as the idea is to link Griffintown, the old port and downtown. If trams cannot be successfully installed on a straightforward strip like Parc Avenue, then I suggest we just run away from anything with such a relatively complicated route. M