Reece Martin
Canadian transit commentator; creator of the RMTransit YouTube channel and founder and principal writer of The Transit Brief, a newsletter on public transit and infrastructure policy. Has written for The Globe and Mail, Maclean's and the Toronto Star.
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What they believe
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Waymo and driverless vehicles will have significant long-term implications for the transportation system, especially in North America.
Waymo and driverless vehicles have enormous long-term implications for the transportation system, particularly in North America where road capacity is very high.
thetransitbrief.netSaid 16 Oct 2026This on korrents
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The streetcars in Toronto are likely among the slowest in the world.
The streetcars in Toronto are likely to be the slowest trams anywhere in the world by a fair margin
thetransitbrief.netSaid 14 Oct 2026This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These 2: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 20 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
Waymo and driverless vehicles will have significant long-term implications for the transportation system, especially in North America.
Waymo and driverless vehicles have enormous long-term implications for the transportation system, particularly in North America where road capacity is very high.
Waymo is coming, and we must act. Said 16 Oct 2026
Poor policy regarding driverless vehicles could lead to short-term traffic congestion and chaos.
Poor policy will lead to a mess in the short term, with vehicles blocking traffic, driving congestion, and creating chaos.
Waymo is coming, and we must act. Said 16 Oct 2026
The cost of driverless vehicle services is likely to eventually become lower than the cost of Uber services.
Of course, over time, this price difference is likely to flip.
Waymo is coming, and we must act. Said 16 Oct 2026
Show 17 more
The streetcars in Toronto are likely among the slowest in the world.
The streetcars in Toronto are likely to be the slowest trams anywhere in the world by a fair margin
GTA transit is a mess, and we have only ourselves to blame. Said 14 Oct 2026
The current state of the transportation system in Toronto reduces productivity.
the shambolic state of the transportation system, which wastes hundreds of hours of citizens' lives each year, reduces our productivity, and has all kinds of collateral damage is one of, if not the biggest problem staring us down.
GTA transit is a mess, and we have only ourselves to blame. Said 14 Oct 2026
The Quebec City-Windsor corridor must be better connected for Canada to thrive.
The Quebec City-Windsor corridor indisputably must be better connected if Canada is to thrive.
If not high-speed rail, then what? Said 9 Oct 2026
Airports should be well-connected to regional and intercity trains due to their complementary nature.
Airports ought to be well-connected to regional and intercity trains because of how complementary the services can be.
If not high-speed rail, then what? Said 9 Oct 2026
The lack of a single body responsible for connecting interconnected regions is a problem.
Right now, there isn't a single body responsible for connecting all of these naturally interconnected regions, and that's probably a problem.
If not high-speed rail, then what? Said 9 Oct 2026
Transit projects in Canada and the English-speaking world cost significantly more than projects in many other developed and developing countries, even when adjusting for inflation and currency values.
Transit projects - from subways to bus rapid transit - in Canada, and in the English-speaking world writ large, cost far more than projects in many other developed and developing countries, even when adjusting for inflation and differences in the relative value of currencies and inputs.
Why transit suddenly costs so much. Said 31 Aug 2026
The high cost of infrastructure in cities like Toronto or New York is driven by multiplicative factors that compound rather than a single primary cause.
the problem leading to 5 or 10 times more expensive infrastructure in Toronto or New York is not generally that any one thing is being done ten times worse, but that factors are multiplicative - they compound.
Why transit suddenly costs so much. Said 31 Aug 2026
The high cost of transit projects is often exacerbated by the fact that soft costs, such as planning and engineering, can equal the entire project cost in some locations.
This is reflected by the fact that soft costs - that is, not heavy construction, but planning and engineering - now sometimes cost as much as the entire project might in a place like Italy or Chile.
Why transit suddenly costs so much. Said 31 Aug 2026
Transit-oriented development has become widespread across Canada.
Transit-oriented development has taken over Canada. What used to be largely limited to Vancouver and Toronto has gone nationwide, while in Toronto and Vancouver it has become ubiquitous.
Transit-Oriented Nation. Said 18 Aug 2026
People living in apartments emit significantly fewer greenhouse gases than those in single-family homes.
While critics sometimes highlight the embodied carbon of concrete, the reality is that people living in apartments emit dramatically fewer greenhouse gases than those dwelling in single-family homes - thanks to dramatically smaller transport emissions and smaller living spaces.
Transit-Oriented Nation. Said 18 Aug 2026
Many Canadian cities will have significantly more electric rail in a decade.
Many Canadian cities will have 10% to 30% more electric rail a decade from now, unlocking far more land for potential TOD.
Transit-Oriented Nation. Said 18 Aug 2026
Rail automation in Canada could unlock massive transit service expansion and improved speed.
Rail automation should be much more widespread in Canada, and would unlock a massive expansion in transit service as well as improvements in speed, but this doesn't look how you imagine.
Automate the trains! Said 15 Jul 2026
The current staffing model for GO trains is highly inefficient.
The old way that GO ran trains, with a crew taking a train from the suburbs to the city, hanging out for a few hours and parking the train on the most expensive real estate in the country, then driving it back at night, is horrifically inefficient
Automate the trains! Said 15 Jul 2026
The lack of modern signalling systems on Canadian mainline railways creates significant safety risks.
The biggest problem is honestly the lack of any modern signalling system on GO, or for that matter any mainline railway in Canada, which means we have a shocking number of train derailments, constant near misses that could easily become mass casualty events, and a rail system which most developed countries would find unacceptably unsafe.
Automate the trains! Said 15 Jul 2026
Redundancy is an underrated component of great transit networks.
I've talked about this before, but I think redundancy is a really underrated part of great transit networks. Giving you multiple ways to get from one place to another is important because when you need to shut down for inevitable maintenance, when there are inevitable problems, or when you want to reroute people because of an event or something, having redundancy is what allows you to do that.
Quality Still Matters in Transit. Said 25 Jun 2026
The quality of a transit system is determined more by its ability to connect to important places than by its scale.
And that's because ultimately what makes it transportation system good is less at scale, but it's ability to connect to important places and cities only have so many important places.
Quality Still Matters in Transit. Said 25 Jun 2026
A model of transit building that adds a new line every couple of years is healthier than one that adds them every couple of decades.
I've argued in the past that a model of transit building where you add a new line every couple of years is probably a healthier place than one where you do it every couple of decades because it keeps the institutional capacity to build new infrastructure alive and well.
Quality Still Matters in Transit. Said 25 Jun 2026
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Where they publish
Newsletter The Transit Brief Long analyses of transit costs, high-speed rail, Toronto and Vancouver transit and driverless vehicles
Link verified 24 Oct 2026.
Bluesky @rmtransit.bsky.social Posts on transit, infrastructure and Canadian politics
Link verified 24 Oct 2026.
YouTube RMTransit Videos on metro systems, transit design and planning around the world
Link verified 24 Oct 2026.
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