LindbergMTL

Le métro, les trains, aéroports... Ces infrastructures sont nécessaires, et seront grandement utilisées jusqu'au jour ou' on aura inventé la téléportation.

Janet Whitman, Financial Post · Saturday, Jul. 17, 2010 John Parisella, Quebec's highest-ranking representative in the United States, caught the 8:15 a.m. train yesterday from New York City's Penn Station bound for Montreal. At 11-plus hours, including as much as a two-hour logjam at the border, the journey is hardly a practical one for the business traveller. But for Mr. Parisella, the trip was field research. He's made pushing for a high-speed rail link between the Big Apple and Montreal one of his top priorities since assuming the post of Quebec's Delegate General in New York in November. The bullet train idea has been around since the early 1970s, when then Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau proposed a line modelled on France's high-speed TGV (Train a Grande Vitesse) to replace the sluggish and unreliable Adirondack service operated by Amtrak that still connects the two cities nearly four decades later. Now, however, for the first time, a high-speed service stands a real chance of happening. The game changer was U.S. President Barack Obama's pledge in January of US$8-billion in federal stimulus money to kickstart a build-out of speedy passenger rail lines in at least 10 regions around the United States, including US$485-million for the Northeast in a plan that could eventually connect to Montreal. Billions more in funding is expected. "This is the first time that an American administration has decided that this is the agenda," Mr. Parisella said Mr. Parisella was talking to the Financial Post on his mobile phone as the train snaked northward. "This is an important development because the two other times that kind of thing occurred were the building of its interstate highway and travelling to space, both incredible achievements. The United States doesn't do anything half measure." Linking major Canadian cities into that high-speed system would have a huge impact on both countries by fueling tourism and creating a more mobile workforce, as well as offering new opportunities for manufacturing and the movement of goods and services, advocates say. It also would help air quality by providing a competitive alternative to planes and automobiles. "Where things move is where prosperity occurs," said Garry Douglas, president of the Plattsburgh-North Country Chamber of Congress, which has been working closely with Quebec for more than a decade to enhance all modes of transportation along the Quebec-New York corridor. "In the 21st century, North America is quickly evolving into a series of north-south corridors.... That's the big picture of why higher speed rail is important. It furthers human movement in a faster world, and will define and spur new corridors of economic prosperity, moving not only passengers, but integrating business, intellectual capital, culture and so much more." The Quebec-New York corridor is particularly exciting because of the two great cities at its end -- Montreal and New York-- Mr. Douglas said. Plattsburg lies en route near the Canada-U. S. border. While Mr. Obama is fully onboard, Canada's commitment to high-speed rail is less clear. The country -- which like the United States, has been a caboose in the world of train travel compared with countries such as France, Japan and China--is still in the research phase. The governments of Canada, Ontario and Quebec have made the Quebec City-Windsor corridor a priority by dusting off and updating feasibility studies from the early 1990s. "The consultants are still working on critical components of the report such as technology, routing, passenger and revenue forecasts, costs, financial analyses and environmental impacts," said Melanie Quesnel, a spokeswoman for Transport Canada in Ottawa. The final report will be completed later this year, she said. When asked about the prospect of a high-speed train between Montreal and New York City, Ms. Quesnel said that the Canadian government is "closely monitoring" proposals for faster passenger rail services in the United States. With momentum building south of the border, enthusiasm is likely to grow in Canada, pushing the federal government to make a commitment of its own, industry observers said. High-speed rail is considered all but inevitable now in parts of the United States. But the big question is how fast is fast? Japan, which has had high-speed service for about 45 years, has 288-kilometrean-hour bullet trains, while France's TGVs go 208 km/h and China's modern locomotives can hit 344 km/h. The only "high-speed" rail line in the United States is Amtrak's Acela Express service, which runs from Boston through New York City to Washington, D.C. While the trains can hit speeds of 240 km/h along some parts of the route, they mainly dawdle along at an average of less than 112 km/h. Even a revamped line between Montreal and New York City might not achieve speeds like 190 km/h over the entire run, especially as the route snakes through the Adirondack Mountains north of Albany, N.Y. "But it doesn't need to," said Mr. Douglas of the Plattsburg-North Country Chamber of Commerce. "If we can continue working towards high-speed rail from New York City north to the Adirondacks, enhance service from the Plattsburgh area to Montreal and make enhancements through the Adirondack Park for greater reliability, we can achieve a service that will be very attractive for business as an alternative to driving. That's the essential aim." Simply pressing the Canadian and U.S. governments to implement a commonsense approach to clearing Amtrak passengers at the border without current long stoppages could easily shave an hour or more off the Montreal-New York trip, he said. Some high-speed rail advocates, however, envision train travel in North America getting on a much speedier track. Instead of merely making the Montreal-New York route competitive with an eight-hour car ride, Andy Kunz, president of the U.S. High-Speed Rail Association in Washington, D.C., said there's no reason the trip can't be modelled on the Paris-London run, which clocks in at 2 hours and 15 minutes. "It gets you right smack downtown and you don't have to get a taxi from the airport," said Mr. Kunz. "There are people who now work in one city and live in the other. You could see the exact same thing happening with Montreal and New York." Tunnelling and blasting through parts of the Adirondacks -- at a likely cost of tens of billions of dollars -- shouldn't be an obstacle, added Mr. Kunz, whose advocacy group formed about a year ago. "Spain is tunnelling through all of its mountains. Japan is doing it and they're dealing with earthquakes too. We don't need studies. The whole rest of the world has already been doing it and has it all figured out and perfected. It's not rocket science." Although the vast majority of the Montreal-New York route is on the U.S. side of the border, Mr. Kunz estimated that Canada might have to foot about one-third of the bill to modernize the track through the Adirondacks to the border because the country would stand to gain so much. Florida and California, two states miles ahead of the rest of North America with viable plans for building bullet train lines, were awarded the biggest grants from President Obama's original US$8-billion pledge. The build out in other parts of the country, including the northeast, isn't nearly as ambitious yet. That means a high-speed connection between Vancouver and Seattle could end up a faster reality than a Montreal-New York train. To help get things moving, Quebec named former Canadian diplomat Raymond Chretien to co-head a New York-Quebec taskforce to hype high-speed rail. At the same time, engineering, transport and other firms from the United States and around the globe are lining up and bulking up to get a piece of the action, with the expectation that the US$8-billion is only a small fraction of what the country will end up spending on its rail systems as they're updated over the next two or three decades. Lobbying by those companies and the likelihood another surge in oil and gas prices will likely push U.S. lawmakers and citizens to get behind a true high-speed rail system, where speeds average 240 km/h, Mr. Kunz said. His group, which will tout its goals at its high-speed rail conference in New York City this fall, has come up with a massive overhaul proposal that would cost around US$600-billion to complete. "This is probably the last great transportation system we're going to build in America," he said. "With the coming oil crisis, we're going to be energy constrained. This is the one last big chance to get a rail system to carry us into the 21st century. An Acela project is not good enough and we should not settle for that." Mr. Parisella, who's blogging about his train trip, said it's impossible to predict at this stage how fast a route the Montreal-New York line might end up getting or when. Even a train trip rivaling a car ride would be welcome given that the hour-long flight to Montreal from New York often ends up taking seven hours when travel time to and from the airports, getting through security and delays are added, he said. Mr. Parisella and his girlfriend, Quebecois journalist Esther Begin, who made the trip with him, plan to return to New York via plane to save time. But he's optimistic that sometime over the next several years taking the train will be a viable option. "When President Kennedy said, 'We're going to put a man on the moon in 10 years,' people laughed and said, 'We'll see,' " said Mr. Parisella, a former chief of staff to late Quebec premier Robert Bourassa. "The bottom line is he wasn't around to see it, but they were on the moon in 1969." Read more: http://www.financialpost.com/Montreal+nothing+flat/3289049/story.html#ixzz0tzL9KbCe'>http://www.financialpost.com/Montreal+nothing+flat/3289049/story.html#ixzz0tzL9KbCe http://www.financialpost.com/Montreal+nothing+flat/3289049/story.html

De toute évidence, Montréal suscite beaucoup d'intérêt chez les Torontois. Beaucoup regardent ce qui se passe à Montréal. Et il y a toujours du bon dans chaque critique. Mais si ces critiques vous rendent malheureux ou inconfortables, regardez ailleurs. Montréal suscite l'intérêt d'admirateurs, investisseurs et de futurs immigrants de partout dans le monde et à Toronto aussi. Le monde est grand.

Ça prend un grand complexe récréo-tourisique avec une plage intérieure pour l'hiver, genre Tropique Nord, avec toit amovible, pour l'été, à deux pas du centre-ville. Une baignade le 1ier janvier? "Perhaps the best designed beach on the planet sits inside a massive dome measuring 300 by 100 meters, about 1,500 kilometers south of Tokyo in Miyazaki, on Japan’s southernmost Kyushu Island. A heated ocean with a width of 140 meters sends 13,500 tons of salt-free water sweeping across 600 tons of polished marble chips that constitute a 85-metre long shoreline, ringed by a three-story promenade of shops." http://www.gluckman.com/IndoorBeach.html

Video Attack VS Alberta <object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmd5dtZd4lc&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmd5dtZd4lc&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

^^^ Merci pour les photos Brubru, très positif pour le quartier que cette restauration. L'Éts est un pôle majeur de changement et de renouvellement urbain pour un coin qui en avait grandement besoin. J'ai bien hâte de voir ce qui va advenir du vieux planétarium.

Fil qui fait des comparaisons sur plusieurs villes et pour vous donner une petite idée de la densité de NY: New York's Five Boroughs at a Glance Borough of County of estimate for 1 July 2008 Jurisdiction Population Land Area squaremiles square km Manhattan New York 1,634,795 23 59 the Bronx Bronx 1,391,903 42 109 Brooklyn Kings 2,556,598 71 183 Queens Queens 2,293,007 109 283 Staten Island Richmond 487,407 58 151 City of New York 8,363,710 303 786 State of New York 19,490,297 47,214 122,284

July 13, 2010, 10:56 am By JIM MOTAVALLI Just a few months after Toyota and Tesla Motors announced a collaboration on an electric car, a Tesla spokeswoman says a prototype has already been built and is undergoing testing. Toyota and Tesla made a big splash in May, announcing Toyota’s planned $50 million investment in the electric car maker and a Tesla takeover of the Nummi plant in Fremont, Calif. On Monday, Bloomberg Businessweek reported that the next steps — to build Toyota electric vehicle prototypes with Tesla powertrains — are being undertaken very quickly and quietly. When reached for details on the Bloomberg report, Khobi Brooklyn, a Tesla spokeswoman, said in an e-mail message that the prototype “is undergoing testing. It will be unveiled to the public later this year.” She declined to comment on specifics, but wrote that the companies had signed a development agreement to put together “a high-volume Toyota vehicle with a Tesla electric powertrain.” Ms. Brooklyn also passed along a comment from JB Straubel, Tesla’s chief technology officer. “Since our announcement in May, Toyota and Tesla engineering teams have made a lot of progress in a short amount of time and it is exciting to start seeing some initial results,” he said. Mira Sleilati, a spokeswoman for Toyota Motor North America, also said the company couldn’t confirm the details of the Bloomberg report. “The two companies have teams studying where we might be working together,” she said. “We have not confirmed any particular model. But as we said at the announcement, we have a wide-open view of our possible collaboration in E.V. development and production engineering. ” According to Bloomberg, Tesla is building electric test versions of the RAV4 and Lexus RX S.U.V.’s, and that Toyota will receive them this month. It also said that the goal of the joint development project was an E.V. with a 150-mile range that could be sold for $40,000. Toyota and Tesla said last spring that they would cooperate on E.V.’s, parts, production systems and engineering support. Tesla will produce its Model S sedan at Nummi, but the large plant could also accommodate a jointly developed Toyota-Tesla vehicle. * Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company * Privacy Policy * NYTimes.com 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018 http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/tesla-says-it-is-testing-an-electric-car-prototype-for-toyota/?nl=automobiles&emc=wheelsema2

Effectivement, mais je pense à de filtres beaucoup plus grands pour un réel impact sur l'environnement.

Plus de détails ici... Philippe Mercure La Presse (Montréal) Le «phosphate de fer lithié» ne vous dit rien? Il faudra vous mettre à la page. Parce que la plus grosse usine du monde capable d'en fabriquer débarquera bientôt à Candiac, sur la Rive-Sud. L'entreprise allemande Süd-Chemie investira en effet 60 millions d'euros (environ 78 millions CAN) dans une nouvelle usine capable de produire 2500 tonnes de phosphate de fer lithié par année dès 2012. Selon la direction, le projet créera plus de 50 emplois. Süd-Chemie exploite déjà une usine similaire mais beaucoup plus petite à Saint-Bruno par l'entremise de sa filière québécoise, Phostech Lithium. «Cet investissement est d'une importance stratégique centrale pour Süd-Chemie», a expliqué hier Günter von Au, président du conseil de l'entreprise. Le phosphate de fer lithié est l'un des principaux ingrédients actifs des batteries au lithium des voitures électriques, un marché que Süd-Chemie juge en pleine expansion. À elle seule, la production annuelle de la future usine de Candiac permettra de fabriquer 50 000 batteries de voitures électriques ou 50 0000 batteries de voitures hybrides. Pourquoi Candiac? Selon la direction de Süd-Chemie, cela n'a rien à voir avec les futures mines de lithium qui pourraient voir le jour au Québec d'ici quelques années, ni avec la proximité du marché américain. «Nous avons déjà une usine de production et une expertise au Québec. Pour nous, la façon la plus logique et la plus rapide d'entrer en exploitation était donc de miser sur cet emplacement», a expliqué à La Presse Affaires le porte-parole de Süd-Chemie en Allemagne, Jochen Orlowski. La présence de Süd-Chemie au Québec est l'aboutissement d'une longue histoire qui a commencé dans un labo universitaire du Texas, où a été découvert le principe de la cathode à base de phosphate de métal lithié. Le brevet a ensuite été acquis par Hydro-Québec, puis les travaux se sont poursuivis à l'Université de Montréal. C'est de là qu'est née Phostech Lithium en 2001. L'allemande Süd-Chemie a collaboré avec Phostech Lithium dès 2003, avant d'y investir directement en 2005 et d'acquérir l'entreprise en 2008. La nouvelle usine pourrait représenter un débouché pour les quelques minières québécoises qui travaillent à chercher du lithium dans le sous-sol québécois. Le projet le plus avancé, celui de Québec Lithium de l'entreprise Canada Lithium, devrait entrer en production en 2012, donc au même moment que l'ouverture de l'usine de Candiac. Süd-Chemie refuse de dévoiler où elle s'approvisionne en lithium pour des raisons concurrentielles, mais il est probable qu'une bonne partie de sa matière première provienne de l'Amérique du Sud. «C'est certain qu'on va travailler le plus possible avec de potentiels fournisseurs locaux. On a des objectifs de qualité à respecter. Après, c'est le prix. C'est certain que si on achète des matières premières localement, on va économiser sur le transport, mais il est trop tôt pour commenter davantage à ce point-ci», dit Denis Geoffroy, directeur technique et chef de la direction par intérim de Phostech Lithium. Selon des observateurs, plusieurs défis attendent toutefois les éventuels producteurs de lithium québécois. Le lithium sud-américain provient de saumures et se récolte à faible prix. Les minières québécoises devraient aussi se doter d'une usine capable de transformer leur minerai en carbonate de lithium, qui serait ensuite revendu à Phostech Lithium. Phostech Lithium emploie actuellement une quarantaine personnes dans son centre de recherche et développement (R&D et son usine, qui a une capacité de 400 tonnes par année. Süd-Chemie, quant à elle, est une multinationale établie à Munich qui emploie 6500 personnes dans le domaine des produits chimiques spécialisés et qui a généré des ventes de 1,1 milliard d'euros l'an dernier (environ 1,43 milliard CAN). http://lapresseaffaires.cyberpresse.ca/economie/energie-et-ressources/201007/12/01-4297476-fer-lithie-candiac-aura-la-plus-grosse-usine-au-monde.php?utm_categorieinterne=trafficdrivers&utm_contenuinterne=lapresseaffaires_LA5_nouvelles_98718_accueil_POS18

Intéressant. Ça ma rappelle une idée: pourquoi pas munir les voitures de filtres à air, qui captureraient toutes sortes de particules en suspension sur les routes?

By Robert Gibbens, The Gazette July 12, 2010 Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Candiac+energy+plant/3267380/story.html#ixzz0tX3SIOOU MONTREAL-The South Shore's Candiac will host a $78 million plant to make lithium iron phosphate, a high-tech energy storage material used in batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles and other applications. The investor is Phostech Lithium Inc., a Canadian unit of Germany's Sud-Chemie AG,, an international group best known in the minerals industry as a producer of specialty chemicals and bentonite, a clay used in papermaking. The new plant will use a new patented production process. Lithium phosphate is used in the new-generation lightweight lithium ion batteries that will give electric and hybrid vehicles greater range. The material is already produced in Germany by Sud-Chemie in a smaller plant for use in batteries for power tools, vehicle starters and electric scooters sold in Europe, Asia and North America. "The Candiac project will significantly expand our production capacity in this market of the future," said Sud-Chemie. "We expect rising demand from our strategic customers in the auto and battery industries." © Copyright © The Montreal Gazette Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Candiac+energy+plant/3267380/story.html#ixzz0tX2tVz1x

Rice Daubney are ringing the changes in Australia with fully integrated BIM building on site of old Telephone Exchange Ark is the first high rise commercial building in Australia to be delivered as a fully integrated Building Information Model (BIM). With its dark grey glazing, window framing and sunshades, it cuts a striking picture in North Sydney’s CBD – an area so affluent with commercial, residential and heritage buildings. From the design stage of the Ark project, Rice Daubney’s main focus was to ensure that the new structure blended in to its context, responding to the specific conditions of the site whilst retaining a sense of individuality. In an effort to meet these high standards, Ark's podium uses sculpture, art, landscaping and heritage interpretation to engage public interest, which is further fuelled by a public forecourt at the eastern end of the site. This interactive space has been included to allow overlapping activities to occur throughout the day, providing a vibrant pocket of public space to the precinct. Rice Daubney suggest that the other buildings in the street ‘step in and out from their boundary with a series of bays that range in height as they move up Mount Street’. Ark responds to this with ‘a series of vertical zinc framed boxes against an angled wall of glass, building a relationship with the heritage buildings both in form and reflection'. Towering above the podium is a delicate glass wing, which makes Ark instantly recognisable within its heritage-rich location. Cranked in the middle, the design provides more area on the upper and the major building expression – an imaginative response to a council control for a 5m weighted average setback. The design has been awarded a 6 Star Green Star Office V2 Design rating from the GBCA and is the first completed high rise commercial building to achieve such a rating in New South Wales. Green elements of the design include tri-generation power supply, grey and storm-weather recycling systems and a fleet of electric cars for use by the buildings tenants. The artistic license infused in this building is not confined to its architectural design. Constructed on the site of an old Telephone Exchange, sculpture, art and landscaping with a nod to the location’s own heritage have been incorporated into the design. These include ‘1936’ – an artwork by Rice Daubney model maker and artist Simon Grimes which uses original letters for the Telephone Exchange to act as a shadow play on the concrete blade wall in the lobby. Such works are a subtle indication that whilst the structure itself may be brand new, its site has just as much historical value as its more neighbours. Sian Disson News Editor http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=14374

Je ne vois pas de cheminée sur les photos.

Pour la Smart, regardez bien la photo de droite... http://www.youtube.com/smart Maintenant, ce ne serait pas la statue de Nelson si vous pannez vers la droite, pas sûr mais... http://www.thesmart.ca/index.cfm?ID=4720 Et vu dans le dernier Wallpaper, une pub de Miele avec le centre-ville de MTL vu du Vieux-Montréal.

Quel bonheur cette séquence! <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0uyIWOU024&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0uyIWOU024&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

Pendant ce temps, à 35 000 pieds au-dessus... <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKqQgNZylLw&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKqQgNZylLw&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

Vaudreuil, sauf erreur, je crois avoir lu que c'est la banlieue qui a connu le plus de croissance de poplulation dans la région de MTL ces dernières années.

Situé à 30 minutes du centre-ville? À 3 heures du matin, peut-être.

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIXEKFU4JYI&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIXEKFU4JYI&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object> C'est l'été, le temps de sortir les vieux films d'Elvis!

Ah, the thrill of having a salmon poutine on top of a bagel in small town Montreal!

Merci pour les photos ! Y doit faire chaud!

Si vous aimez ce genre de lecture, je vous suggère la dernière parution de Wallpaper, sur le Brésil, c'est spectaculaire et un bon point de comparaison pour nous.

Money, after all, may grow on trees! :-)

C'est bien, mais ça prendrait aussi un tapis roulant entre la voiture et le condo.