Results tagged “viva”

Public transit across the GTA got a big boost today from the provincial government, with Premier Dalton McGuinty giving the go-ahead to four major projects worth a combined $9 billion. Included is the $4.6 billion Eglinton LRT line, a key part of the TTC's Transit City plan. The thirty-kilometre line could be up and running by 2016, assuming construction begins as planned next year. Also receiving funding is the $1.2 billion Finch LRT line, running from Humber College on Highway 427 to Don Mills subway station. Rounding out the pack are $1.6 billion for improving and extending the Scarborough rapid-transit line and $1.4 billion for York Region's Viva bus system. All of the projects must still go through the environmental assessment process.

So Bob Kinnear successfully negotiates a contract for Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113. The transit-using public breathes a sigh of relief, believing the threat of a transit strike to be past. A few days later, the union membership rejects the contract and surprises everyone by striking later that night. Sound familiar? Sure it does, but this time it's York Region's Viva instead of the TTC. Kinnear seems to be making a career of negotiating contracts that his members don't like. He did learn one thing from this spring's TTC strike debacle: Viva operators will be walking off the job at 4 a.m. instead of at the stroke of midnight. Get home while you can, kids.

The streetcar, subway, or bus is never a fun place to be during rush hour, and it’s even worse during those slow, wet, and frustrating during- and post-snow storm trips, where the Better Way can turn into hell on wheels/rails. Between angry drivers, puffy coats, and that strange gentleman who mutters to himself about Polish androids eating his muffins, you’ve got to wonder just how the taking transit could ever seem like a nice ride, even if it did save you from digging the car out of that snow bank that formed on your driveway.