I’m sorry, but I won’t be. I do not know who will be operating those storage systems, who has access to it and if these people are trustworthy. They don’t trust me, otherwise there wouldn’t be any cameras in the trains, so why should I trust them? Trust is always mutual. There have been countless incidents where people who were charged with operating surveillance systems were found to exploit it to their own benefit, e.g. by spying on other people.

In fact, you did not provide a single reason why the footage would have to be recorded around the clock in the first place. If no one blocks a door, pulls the emergency brake, triggers the intercom, or manually opens a door, there is simply no reason to record the passengers. I take the metro twice daily and have not seen such an event happen even once in an entire year. There is no justification for non-stop surveillance.

I am of course not saying that if one of these events occurs, that video may not be recorded, or if the train operator needs to see something _live_, I don’t have such a big issue with that either.

But what is really never backed up with hard facts these days is why outright non-stop surveillance is needed. If there really is an issue big enough to justify such an amount of surveillance, then just taping something on video clearly is the least efficient way of dealing with it.

Thank you for your comments and I understand why you are reluctant about it. There certainly is a ‘big brother’ aspect to the security cameras. Rest assured that the images are erased after a few days.
The STM’s specification calls for four interior cameras per car and one per cab watching the track ahead.
The STM’s specification requires that video of the best-positioned camera be displayed on a screen in the driver’s cab automatically if one of the following events occur:

If a door doesn’t close after being recycled (blocked by passengers).
If there is an emergency brake handle activation
If there is an intercom activation,
If a door is manually opened by passengers

Currently the driver needs to exit the cab and walk towards the affected car to resolve the situation. This new mechanism will allow quicker resolution of problems.

Also when the metro arrives at the terminus, the STM’s specification requires that the video system automatically detect if the cars are empty. Often people fall asleep and don’t get off the metro at their station or even at the terminus. If the metro is then going out of service to storage tracks or the maintenance shops, people can get trapped on the train. Sometimes they pull the emergency brakes or the intercom. These types of events cause delay in turning the train around.

The frontal camera will essentially be used in the maintenance shops when reversing the train to make sure that nobody is standing in the way.

Don’t forget that security is a lot more than just recording the images.

I’d like you to back up your arguments a bit more about this particular gimmick.

“This is a standard feature on metros today.”
Since when is something worth buying just because others have it, too? There needs to be a clear and tangible benefit for Montreal’s metro users in order to justify spending the extra money for hundreds of cameras per train + storage equipment + continuous system maintenance.

And no, “It should increase the sense of security of the passengers” doesn’t count as an argument. You could just as well mount $5 dummy cameras instead and you would have the same effect. Just search for “security theater” on the net. Those cameras will just cost large amounts of money over time while not adding an ounce of real security.

Personally, as long as this gimmick is included in the purchase, I hope the new trains will never materialize.

The top story of the year is that global crude oil production peaked in 2008.

The media, governments, world leaders, and public should focus on this issue.

Global crude oil production had been rising briskly until 2004, then plateaued for four years. Because oil producers were extracting at maximum effort to profit from high oil prices, this plateau is a clear indication of Peak Oil.

Then in August and September of 2008 while oil prices were still very high, global crude oil production fell nearly one million barrels per day, clear evidence of Peak Oil (See Rembrandt Koppelaar, Editor of “Oil Watch Monthly,” December 2008, page 1) http://www.peakoil.nl/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/2008_december_oilwatch_monthly.pdf.

Peak Oil is now.

Credit for accurate Peak Oil predictions (within a few years) goes to the following (projected year for peak given in parentheses):

* Association for the Study of Peak Oil (2007)

* Rembrandt Koppelaar, Editor of “Oil Watch Monthly” (2008)

* Tony Eriksen, Oil stock analyst; Samuel Foucher, oil analyst; and Stuart Staniford, Physicist [Wikipedia Oil Megaprojects] (2008)

* Matthew Simmons, Energy investment banker, (2007)

* T. Boone Pickens, Oil and gas investor (2007)

* U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (2005)

* Kenneth S. Deffeyes, Princeton professor and retired shell geologist (2005)

* Sam Sam Bakhtiari, Retired Iranian National Oil Company geologist (2005)

* Chris Skrebowski, Editor of “Petroleum Review” (2010)

* Sadad Al Husseini, former head of production and exploration, Saudi Aramco (2008)

* Energy Watch Group in Germany (2006)

* Fredrik Robelius, Oil analyst and author of “Giant Oil Fields” (2008 to 2018)

Oil production will now begin to decline terminally.

Within a year or two, it is likely that oil prices will skyrocket as supply falls below demand. OPEC cuts could exacerbate the gap between supply and demand and drive prices even higher.

Independent studies indicate that global crude oil production will now decline from 74 million barrels per day to 60 million barrels per day by 2015. During the same time, demand will increase. Oil supplies will be even tighter for the U.S. As oil producing nations consume more and more oil domestically they will export less and less. Because demand is high in China, India, the Middle East, and other oil producing nations, once global oil production begins to decline, demand will always be higher than supply. And since the U.S. represents one fourth of global oil demand, whatever oil we conserve will be consumed elsewhere. Thus, conservation in the U.S. will not slow oil depletion rates significantly.

Alternatives will not even begin to fill the gap. There is no plan nor capital for a so-called electric economy. And most alternatives yield electric power, but we need liquid fuels for tractors/combines, 18 wheel trucks, trains, ships, and mining equipment. The independent scientists of the Energy Watch Group conclude in a 2007 report titled: “Peak Oil Could Trigger Meltdown of Society:”

“By 2020, and even more by 2030, global oil supply will be dramatically lower. This will create a supply gap which can hardly be closed by growing contributions from other fossil, nuclear or alternative energy sources in this time frame.”

With increasing costs for gasoline and diesel, along with declining taxes and declining gasoline tax revenues, states and local governments will eventually have to cut staff and curtail highway maintenance. Eventually, gasoline stations will close, and state and local highway workers won’t be able to get to work. We are facing the collapse of the highways that depend on diesel and gasoline powered trucks for bridge maintenance, culvert cleaning to avoid road washouts, snow plowing, and roadbed and surface repair. When the highways fail, so will the power grid, as highways carry the parts, large transformers, steel for pylons, and high tension cables from great distances. With the highways out, there will be no food coming from far away, and without the power grid virtually nothing modern works, including home heating, pumping of gasoline and diesel, airports, communications, and automated building systems.

It is time to focus on Peak Oil preparation and surviving Peak Oil.
http://survivingpeakoil.blogspot.com/
http://www.peakoilassociates.com/POAnalysis.html

I am trying to kick off an effort to organize a barcamp/un-conference type event where the focus will be on giving Montreal a transit system 2020 that get’s us to work in 20 min. !

http://groups.google.ca/group/mobilisation-turcot-montreal/sub?s=xQkUmAgAAADAsQx3xmTOtYXeJ4_ty9Rg&hl=en

We have several University Urban Planning departments working with us. Give me a call or write to see how we might get companies such as yours to take an interest.

Jody
514-934-4540

Regards from rVa.

The orange line extension will also be primarily for on-island residents in the northern St. Laurent and Cartierville areas (especially those along the always-packed 64 route), with some added convenience for those taking the train.

The point is still valid: politically, the suburbs get more attention because their votes are more interesting to politicians. That may be one of the major reasons the Laval metro extension was favoured over an extension of the blue line east.

But that doesn’t make these projects any less necessary. You can’t expand inward, after all.

Besides, people don’t move to the suburbs because of the commute. They do it because it’s cheaper and think the commute isn’t important. The transit service is for those who finally realize how stupid it is to drive for two hours a day to get to and from work.