Show Notes
Advocacy matters and it can lead to wins even with losses elsewhere.
We discuss the expansion of the R4 RapidBus in Metro Vancouver, the return of late-night bus service in Waterloo, Ontario, and a survey performed by Abacus around support for ALTO's high speed rail service between Toronto and Quebec City.
Damian Mikhail is a Waterloo community organizer, deeply focused on activating young people in politics. Getting his start in municipal politics as founder and president of the University of Waterloo NDP Club, he spearheaded two student transit coalitions that protected Waterloo from cuts to off-peak Ion service and brought Night Transit to the city. At time of recording, he is at the tail end of his term as President of the Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association.
---
Student advocacy saves evening ION LRT service https://uwaterloo.ca/news/environment/student-advocacy-saves-evening-transit-service
GRT bringing back late night bus in Waterloo after advocacy https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/late-night-loop-route-91-grand-river-transit-university-district-1.7184466
R4 expansion in Metro Vancouver, linking North Vancouver and Burnaby https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/north-shore-metrotown-expanded-rapidbus-9.7157034
TriTAG Website: https://www.tritag.ca/ Instagram & Bluesky: @tritag.ca
Damien: @MikhailDamian for Twitter @damian7m for Instagram
Abacus Data Survey on ALTO HSR Support https://www.altno.ca/_files/ugd/f1a60d_f91a3f0ada144cb981f03a0da603e347.pdf
More from Dwell Time, a transit podcast
Sorry for the lateness of this episode. We decided to push this one out a few weeks extra since Denis is going to be busy with two elections a week apart in British Columbia taking up a majority of his time.
We're joined by Arden English, who is an undergraduate student studying planning at Simon Fraser University. He also produces educational videos on his YouTube channel "The Greater Discussions" covering topics around city planning and transportation within the context of British Columbia and has also been collaborating with the CBC Creator Network, bringing his YouTube style to a national audience.
Emily Stremel of Edmonton Transit Riders (ETR) joins us in how transit advocacy came to be in Alberta's capital city and the challenges and strengths the region has in making transit great for everyone. We also learn about her insights into the music scene in Toronto and Montréal.
In 2025, both Metro Vancouver and Philadelphia faced tremendous budget cuts only to have them cancelled at the last minute through the age-old method of kicking the can down the road.