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Notes -
A short post about Metrolinx, Ontario's incompetent transit authority
I enjoy talking about public transit. Not just because I advocate for it to be better, but also because I think it sits at the nexus of a number of problems in the Anglosphere: crushing regulatory barriers, unwieldy bureaucracy, land use and housing, GHG emissions, and the declining state capacity to envision and build projects that better the lives of its citizens. As has been discussed much before, the Anglosphere has a problem separate from other western countries with respect to its construction costs, and this is particularly egregious for transit. Similar projects to those accomplished in Spain or Norway or Italy are - when attempted in Canada, the UK, or the US - considerably more expensive (often 10x more, per km), take longer to build, and when finished have inferior performance. If you live in the Anglosphere and are barely aware of local issues you can probably think of a few local examples off the top of your head.
The Eglinton Crosstown is a classic example. Originally intended to open in time for Toronto's hosting of the 2015 Pan Am games, this light rail line was subsequently cancelled, revived, and redesigned before construction eventually began, with a greatly inflated budget. The project's completion date had previously been announced as 2020, then '21, then '22... in September 2023 a news conference was called by Metrolinx to announce they had no update for when it might be operational. Ostensibly it will be this year, but no one would bet on it. There is presumably some fault with the construction (informed speculation points to leakage and erosion in some of the stations near the intersection with the Yonge-University subway line) that is not being publicly announced due to legal wranglings with the P3 contractor. All in all it's a gross failure, and a pathetic one.
Which made it all the more unbelievable that Metrolinx decided to launch a PR campaign mocking those who complained about delays. Sometimes you get a glimpse of someone's personality by some action they take that seems to reveal in a moment all you need to know about them, and I get the feeling based on the public reaction this substantially hardened people's opinions. Now I know some people who have worked in or with Metrolinx, and I was aware of their general incompetence, their paralyzing bureaucratic approach, their malaise of indecision. I was not aware they were so contemptuous of the public. This 30 second advertisement and its accompanying campaign cost $2.25 million and was immediately pulled due to the response (all told, one of their more on-target projects).
But the real reason I wrote this is so I can share the amazing parody of the Metrolinx ad campaign that perfectly captures the passive-aggressive sanctimony.
Seems like part of a broader trend of contempt for the public from public officials. Maybe that's not so unusual in history throughout the ages, but I don't think it was this way 50 years ago. I know some people who work in Congressional offices, and they are full of contempt for the average American -- most of their day is spent dealing with constituents, and the constituents who write to Congress are crazier than average. Likewise, I think a lot of the growing push to censor "misinformation" on the internet is rooted in contempt for what regular people are sharing and thinking.
Yes, it seems unlikely that politicians are actually much worse than the average person. Most I’ve met are personally pretty nice people who genuinely wanted to improve their community in some way. But to be a politician is - as much as being a cop or a nurse is - to deal with the most annoying people that society has to offer, repeatedly. Sure, unlike cops it’s less commonly the actual violent criminal underclass (although it sometimes is). Instead, it’s every imaginable special interest group, especially the most annoying kind of old people, constantly complaining about everything. Even if they’re correct, they have no understanding of the institutional hurdles that prevent what they want from happening, so you have to say no constantly, and that is going to build resentment on both sides, even if the politician agrees that there’s too much bureaucracy.
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