TRULY UNDERGROUND
A few weeks ago I was riding around in the Toronto subway system. I must say, subways are just about the greatest thing ever. Noisy, smelly, dusty... They are amazing!
The whole display starts with silence.
Then, a groan in the distance. A few seconds later a scream. A light bursts down the tunnel, and is quickly accompanied by a rumbling steel tube. As the train flies past, a musty wind blows through your coat. The train stops for an instant. A packed platform is picked up and swept away in a matter of seconds. The doors close with a hiss and a digital sounding chime. In a few seconds, the platform is empty and silent.
I watched this ritual countless times when I was in Toronto. Perhaps I should go work for the Toronto transit commission. There is something very special about the feeling you get when you are alone on a subway platform waiting for the next train.
The TTC is a great mass transit system. After experiencing it, I now understand why we can't have anything like it in Winnipeg. We don't have enough people, our city isn't big enough, we don't have enough of a tax base to fund the trains.
Mass transit requires a MASS of people who don't want to use cars. Right now Winnipeg is full of people who think the coolest thing in the world is driving up and down the road on a Sunday night. Until commuters, down town parking prices, and population reaches a certain lvl, Orange busses are the best Winnipegers can hope for.
posted by Inspired Reality @ 3:07 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Agreed also.
Your entry reminded me of the exact feelings I had about the Sky-Train in Vancouver, right down to the feelings of waiting for the train on the platform, with all the people milling about only to be gone in a matter of seconds.
V and I had the same discussion about Winnipeg's system as well. It worked well because of Vancouver's large population of commuters between suburbs and such.
I still don't like driving and miss the Sky-Train.
There's a really catch-22 with Winnipeg's transit system, one that I've been bitching about for years now. You see, because of our absurd weather, Winnipeg is a real car city. I've had people call me insane for not considering buying a car after my last one died because of the shitty connections I have to make to use the bus.
And that's just it. More people might use the transit, if only it didn't suck so much. And the transit might get improved if more people started using it. There are no solutions there, right?
I should hope that in our world of less gas and higher prices that somone could be forward thinking about this: There's just too much urban sprawl to work with easily, but it's a task that has to be done.
I guess I'm just going to have to move to London. Seriously, the London underground is THE subway. It's too damn easy that after a week of using it you wonder why people bother with anything else.
I agree although my time in ottawa has given me another view. It is possible to have a decent transit system based on busses. The system here is full of bus only highways, more diamond lanes and bus only streets, wayyyy more poeple use the bus here to the point that rush hour does nto seem too bad at all and the busses are way more frequent it seems.
Just saw the blog post and comments. I see the blog post was written in May of 2005, just a couple of months before the launch of TRUWinnipeg.org (Transit Riders Union of Winnipeg)...
We support building an underground subway for metropolitan Winnipeg, focusing on serving the city proper (pre-Unicity).
http://truwinnipeg.org/
We have had our best month yet on the website, with 1500 "unique" visitors to the website.
Winnipeg's climate is ideal for a mostly underground rapid transit system. The Feds have the $, Winnipeggers just have to scream *louder* to the politicians in order for it to happen.
And to the blog author who claims that Winnipeg needs a higher population before this can happen. You have it a bit backwards.
Once Winnipeg gets a decent rapid transit system, then some former Winnipeggers will return to the city, and we will also have more immigrants who want to come here because of our great city. I believe we cant get to 1.5 million (metro area) in the next 25 years if we try harder.
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