CPR to lengthen freight trains, says Harrison

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The musings of Hunter Harrison, the new president of Canadian Pacific Railway may be of more than passing interest to residents of Rosedale and Moore Park. They own the homes that sit on either side of the busy CP thoroughfare in central Toronto.  Mr. Harrison was showing off his decisive command today in New York as the company announced it will cut  4,500 jobs by 2016.  In a remark which may be of interest to South Bayviewites, Mr. Harrison also said CP will seek  more efficient use of its trains. CP will be increasing its train length and efficiency, in order to haul more with fewer trains. It’s hard to imagine that trains could get much longer. Globe and Mail. 

Undercover cops don’t have to warn teens

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Macleans magazine has a fascinating postscript to the story of the so-called Toroto 18. These were the dangerous Islamists — hometown boys — who were planning terrifying acts, among them, cutting off the head of the prime minister of the day. Out of the successful prosecutions came a challenge to police practice that the authorities should be required to somehow warn any teenagers who were part of the criminal activity, even on the fringes, that they were doing the wrong thing. The Macleans story linked here reports that the courts found this burden placed on undercover cops trying to stop terrorism would be ridiculous.  Macleans

Holdup at Midtown Digital, 1391 Yonge St.

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The Midtown Digital computer store at 1391 Yonge Street south of Pleasant Blvd. was robbed Monday by four men at least one of whom was armed with a handgun. The 56 year old owner  says the men entered about 3.30 p.m., showed a weapon and demanded to know where the computers were kept.  The victim complied. The suspects removed a quantity of computers and fled the scene towards Pleasant Blvd.  No injuries were sustained by the victim. Midtown Digital specializes in Apple products and is an authorized service store and Apple re-seller.  

Yonge subway “Rockets” looking like Lemons

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Things are so bad — and so embarrassing — at the TTC that CEO Andy Byford (right) has called a top-level meeting here in Toronto with the boss of Bombardier, the company that manufactured the new so-called rocket trains. Turns out they are far from rockets and the evidence has been building for quite a while. Primarily, they suffer from what appears to be GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) programming in the software operating the doors. Quite frequently, the doors have trouble closing. News reports last summer lovingly heralded the new trains as state-of-the-art machines that would deliver a much-needed upgrade to Toronto’s 60-year-old Yonge line.  Byford has described the vehicles’ performance as “unacceptable”  and effectively summoned the CEO of the subways’ manufacturer, Bombardier, to impress upon the company “the need for substantial improvement in the performance” of the trains. A delegation from the Montreal-based company, including CEO Pierre Beaudoin (left) is expected in Toronto on Friday. The TTC’s latest monthly scorecard shows that trains on the Yonge-University-Spadina line where the Rockets are deployed are on schedule only 92.7 per cent of the time, well below the commission’s reliability target of 96 per cent.

Flaherty says housing market is under control

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Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says we’ve got the housing market under control and he’s not worried about a  collapse. The reason, he says, is that he has helped cool the market with a round of stricter mortgage rules. The finance minister says he is also encouraged that taxpayers are paying down their mortgages and credit cards, and taking on less debt. A soft landing in housing is better than a boom followed by a bust. Overall, the country’s economy advanced slightly by 0.6 per cent, about half the expected growth predicted by the Bank of Canada.

$450,000 still needed to complete arena funding

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Brooke Biscoe, Chair of the Arena Board has written to say  that, as of December 1, generous donors have raised $3.05 million and so have only about $450,000 left to raise to meet the community fundraising goal of $3.5 million to complete the arena expansion.. Contributions of any amount will be gratefully received and can be made through the East York Foundation or by contacting the arena. If you made your donation in the 2011 tax year, Mr Biscoe asks if you would consider making an additional contribution before the end of 2012. Some naming opportunities are also still available for larger gifts. Inset is a picture of work as seen from the tracks

Buckingham Palace confirms Kate is pregnant

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Kate Middleton is pregnant, Buckingham Palace has confirmed! The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting a baby, according to an official statement just released by palace officials, who confirm that Kate Middleton and Prince William, both 30, are adding a royal boy or girl to their mix. The official statement of Kate Middleton’s pregnancy comes after an exhaustive set of baby rumors that have dogged the couple ever since their royal wedding in April 2011:  National Post   Rare morning sickness illness

Bicycle traffic lights appearing across the U.S.

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Bicycle signals which assist both motorists and cyclists to get around more safely are appearing in many U.S. cities. Places like Austin, Denver, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington are among 126 manicipalities that have installed the lights. It appears the earliest detected advantages of such lights are two. The first is to allow more time for a  bicycle rider to pass through an intersection before the light turns  red. The finer points of this process are not entirely clear from the written material available but the basic purpose seems clear. The second function appears to be to give cyclists a bit of a head start at a light to help them get out ahead of drivers who are turning right.  Again, you would like to see it in operation before trying it. Traffic specialists in jurisdictions using the signals say they are in a research period and expect that over time, the function of the bicycle lights will be written more fully into traffic codes.