Categories
About me Canada Intercity Rail Maps Transit

Mapping Canada’s intercity links

NOTE: Previous versions of the Ontario and Canada maps are retired; please see the new Canada Intercity Transport Map, launched March 30, 2025. This will now be the only interactive map that I will update. In 2022, I was approached by staff at Infrastructure Canada who were interested in compiling information on intercity bus services […]

Categories
Maps Ontario Transit

Taking stock of Ontario’s transport links in 2023

There were some big intercity transport improvements in 2023, though a few communities lost service. I updated my Ontario map to show these changes.

Categories
History Roads Toronto

The continuing history of Dundas Street

Nearly three years ago, I wrote about the complicated history of Toronto’s Dundas Street. Calls to rename the street, which honours Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, came during a time of reckoning in Canada and the United States with racism, colonialism, and our ongoing relationships with First Nations. Ryerson University (my alma mater) changed its […]

Categories
Roads Toronto Transit Urban Toronto

Bussing the gap: Scarborough transit after the SRT

On July 24, 2023, 38 years of Line 3, the Scarborough RT, came to an ignoble end when a car came off the tracks just south of Ellesmere Station, four months ahead of the scheduled closure of the deteriorating line. Though the City of Toronto and the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) were hesitant to say […]

Categories
Roads Toronto Transit Walking

Make streetcars king once more

On Tuesday, November 28, the University of Toronto’s School of Cities released their report that looked at vehicle movement and traffic violations on the King Street Transit Priority Corridor. They found that there are, on average, 6,800 illegal turns and through movements at intersections on the corridor, and less than 0.3% of offenders are stopped by […]

Categories
Infrastructure Transit Travels

How to run a street railway: riding trams in Central Europe

Back in October, my spouse and I had the opportunity to visit several countries in Central Europe: Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, though we spent the majority of our time in and around Vienna, as that is where my spouse attended business meetings for several days; we also took time to explore the […]

Categories
Infrastructure Ontario Transit Walking

A visit to GO Transit’s New Old Elm Station

GO Transit’s new Stouffville Line terminal overlooked one important detail.

Categories
Ontario Travels Urban Planning

The decline of Downtown Chatham Centre

Anchored by Sears, Chatham’s downtown mall declined later than other failed urban shopping centres in Ontario, but is now a dead mall. What will be its future?

Categories
Design Transit

The case against transit advertisement wraps

Transit wraps that cover passenger windows are unpopular with customers, they diminish the transit agency’s brand, and bring in a very small amount of revenue. Why do transit agencies do this?

Categories
Brampton Transit

An innovation in station naming rights?

The Brampton Innovation District, in the city’s downtown core, is one of the great things going in my hometown. Yet, I still feel uneasy about renaming the station there.