Big Interview. Michael Schabas / Toronto
Next stop, the world
Tomos Lewis reporting from Toronto: Having worked on high-profile projects around the globe, leading railway developer Michael Schabas is applying his expertise to improving the transport needs of his hometown.
“You have to be an optimist in this business,” says Michael Schabas over lunch at Miku in downtown Toronto. “If you’re not, you fail.” He picks at the sushi in front of him as he recalls riding the subway alone as a 10-year-old in 1966. “I got up and went down with a friend at 5am. I was fascinated by how it made the city work.” For Schabas, a leading global railway developer and consultant, that fascination is still strong after 30 or so years of working on rail projects, from Vancouver’s driverless Skytrain railway line to Nigeria’s first mass…
