Toronto will host the 2015 Pan-Am Games thanks to an overwhelming vote in favour of Toronto’s bid on November 6. No sooner was the announcement out, but we started to hear what a boon this would be for transit pending in Toronto.
Let’s take a serious look at what will actually happen.
Don Lands
The Athletes’ Village will be built in the West Don Lands with the intention that it be converted to assisted housing after the games. This will no doubt spur construction of the Cherry Street branch off of the King route so that residents will have transit once the games complete.
However, there are no competition venues in this part of Toronto, and no reason to build new infrastructure to serve them. We will get the Waterfront East leg, but like the Cheery Street branch, this project was already on the books and, I believe, funded by Waterfront Toronto.
The missing piece is the connection under the rail corridor where the existing Cherry Street underpass must be twinned to provide enough room for the LRT, the road lanes, cycling and pedestrians. This underpass is shown as a “secure” area in the Bid Book, and there is no sign of the second span on the map.
Also missing from the Bid Book is any description of the as-yet unfunded reconfiguration of the mouth of the Don River and associated street changes in the neighbourhood. These are vital to knitting together various parts of the new community, but they are nowhere to be found in the Bid Book, nor is there any need to build them as part of the games infrastructure.
Scarborough-Malvern LRT
The Scarborough Campus of UofT will gain a new aquatics centre to host some events, but attendees will likely arrive from many parts of the GTA of which only some would be served by the LRT line. One might even argue for service via the north end of this route (south from the Sheppard LRT).
George Smitherman, Minister of Infrastructure and possible mayoral candidate for Toronto, has already said that Toronto shouldn’t be too hasty to look for spending on this type of improvement.
The Airport
The Air-Rail link will be in place by 2015. The Bid Book says it will. What the Bid Book does not say is that this will be a premium fare service that is not integrated with the local transit system, nor that its capacity will be limited by the size and frequency of trains for which the route is designed.
Meanwhile, the TTC should be pushing to get the western part of the Eglinton LRT completed for 2015, at least from the Airport to Eglinton West Station. Is this asking too much, or will the TTC bumble along and stay with the current plan for the Eglinton line and a 2016 “phase one” opening?
Everything Else
The games generally take place well outside of Toronto. The logistics of placing the Athletes’ Village so far away from the venues only makes sense because it is right beside the Gardiner and DVP, and these can be closed or restricted to provide bus shuttles as needed for participants, press and poo-bahs from the games organization. New public transit infrastructure, beyond what is already in the pipeline, will have little to do with it.
Steve Munro 
I would not be so negative! While this might not result in anything new, it does mean that our current plans have more of a chance of actually getting done. If we can get things done (Transit City, the DRL) on our current plan list, we will be in a much stronger position in 2016 when it comes time to take a look at Transit “normally” again.
Steve: The DRL has nothing to do with the games. I am not being negative, just realistic. There’s only so much money to go around, and a real challenge for games organizers will be to fight off all the proposals for special consideration.
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I think the main benefit for transit from the games will be the 2015 deadline for some projects that may otherwise drag on a few additional years. In this group, I include the Pearson-Union rail line and hopefully the Scarborough-Malvern LRT. I also like your suggestion that the TTC should prioritize the western half of the Eglinton LRT.
As for Cherry Street, funding for the Cherry Street rail underpass would allow a useful streetcar line that could run from Broadview station past the Athlete’s Village on Cherry Street through to Queen’s Quay and on to Union Station. The athletes will require a good connection to Union Station, particularly to reach the venues outside the city and they will also need to get to the Bloor line to travel to Scarborough so hopefully the government funders will see the necessity of building this route.
Steve: The Athletes will move around in buses, and the village itself will be a closed security area. Transit is not part of the plan. Yes, a Broadview to Union line will be useful, but it won’t be the games that triggers its construction.
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Bad transit planning — i.e. pie-in-the-sky dreams — is precisely why Toronto shouldn’t get any games. Period. Although I’m not a total “bread not circuses” type of person, I can see how costs for infrastructure will spiral out of control, especially for transit.
Steve: Given that the games are spread all over southern Ontario, the money that will come from various governments has to keep a lot of municipalities happy.
The letter from Stephen Harper on page 4 of the PDF states clearly that the Feds are giving $500-million to the games. The total budget for the games is $1.4-billion (page 194 of the PDF, 183 of the Bid Book itself). By my count, various comments in this thread have spent all of that money on transit a few times over.
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As Stuart says, I suspect the major transit advantage of the Games will be to ensure that deadlines for existing projects are met and I would assume that Union Station will definitely get its new platform and larger streetcar loop by then too. The Bid Book says: “Union Station is the highest-capacity transportation station in Canada, easily handling 250,000 passengers each day with expansions planned in advance of 2015.”
The Village will actually also be built south of the rail tracks at Cherry Street, if the Bid Book is to be believed. [Warning: 41mb download] As there will be construction in that area this could MAYBE push the Cherry Street / Queen’s Quay streetcar link ahead a bit.
Steve: The area south of the rail corridor is part of the security zone for the village, and contains practice areas only, not event venues. (For readers, the map is on page 60 of the PDF.) Note the two “secure underpasses” of the rail corridor, one at Cherry, one just west of the Don River. Even if the Cherry street tracks exist by 2015, I doubt there would be service over them through the secure perimeter.
There is also a possibility of Swan Boats, the Bid Book says
“Water Transportation. Given that Toronto is ideally located on the shore of Lake Ontario, if desired, water transportation can be used to augment the overall transportation plan.”
Steve: Something I have seen consistently in various games proposals over the years is a half-baked approach to transportation issues. Proponents figure out where they want to put the games, and then sketch in the transportation. Remember the scheme to have an underwater streetcar connection between two parts of a world’s fair site?
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Hopefully GO service will get at least a temporary boost during the Games to shuttle passengers between distant venues in St. Catharines, Hamilton, Toronto, Scarborough, Oshawa etc. If I were really optimistic I would predict a fast-tracking of the Lakeshore GO electrification study and building a GO station at Cherry Street, but that’s probably too much to hope for.
Steve: The electrification study will do well do get through its work in a year if it does the job properly. The real issue will be funding as Queen’s Park is leery of yet more debt on top of the stimulus spending and the effects of the recession. I very much doubt that anyone would try to justify the cost of electrification for a short period of the games. If it can be done in time, fine, but the games should not depend on it.
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Unless it is a typo, the Scarborough-Malvern LRT EA had the following schedule:
“Commencement of Design 2022
Commencement of Construction 2023
Project Completion 2027
Scheduled Revenue Service 2028”
Unless the typo put it off by 10 years, and it should be 2012, 2013, 2017, and 2018, then to have completion by 2015 for the games could be a big effort to complete. Do you have the right years for Scarborough-Malvern?
Steve: Metrolinx has pushed the unfunded Transit City routes off into the 2020s. Waterfront West has a similar schedule. What is very annoying about this sort of timetable is that we conduct an “EA” decades before a line starts construction, and there is no “sunset” provision requiring that there be at least a review of conditions to ensure that the original approval makes sense. Meanwhile, the EA can ba amended beyond recognition as we saw on the Waterfront.
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Although I agree that the DRL won’t play a role in the games, it would certainly be wise if certain construction management provisions are made as the West Don Lands are built. I would suspect radii requirements would make it hard for the DRL to avoid the West Don Lands regardless of what alignment is chosen. That’s why its EA needs to proceed immediately, and should be funded as part of the games (the EA, not the line), so that the appropriate provisions for sustainability of the city’s infrastructure after the games is maximized, and save a lot of money in this area when the line is built.
Steve: No, the EA should be funded it its own right because it needs to be done, but it also needs to look at many options beyond those that would affect the design of games facilities. Maybe we should have the games pay for the GO electrification study while we’re at it.
This is a transit expense, not a games expense.
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If the line is to run through a Games site, that part of the line can partially become a Games expense. Why should we build something without provision when doing so would essentially lead to either shoehorning or, worse, tearing down part or all of a relatively new building just because the Games were short-sighted in their infrastructure planning and construction? The point is that there is land currently the city’s largest tract of mud that has a high likelihood for seeing the DRL pass through it. The infrastructure for the Games is going ahead. The DRL shouldn’t be left behind only to cause further headaches later when it doesn’t have to. Yes it should be funded now regardless of the Games, but you know as well as I do that the study was just deferred at the last TTC meeting. Since the Games is now a high priority, as should be the DRL, the two might as well be paired where they are expected to occupy the same lands. The EA, however, is needed to confirm they will occupy the same lands, so that EA should be considered a Games expense given that sustainability has been touted as a key element of the bid.
Steve: Sorry, but that sophistry could be used to justify all sorts of things including upgrades to the expressway network (move people around faster) or demolition of the Gardiner (make the area even more beautiful for the Games). The DRL EA deserves to be done, but not because it might, someday, run through what will be, pro-tem, the Games Village. Also, Waterfront Toronto has developed plans for the Don Lands over the past several years, and they’re not about to tear them apart for the DRL.
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Plans don’t have to be torn up since the changes would be in underground foundation work. It’s akin to how the ACC protected for the Bremner to Union LRT tunnel.
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Excellent article! Some of the comments elsewhere talking about how this will get us DRL are just stunning.
What this does get us pressure to get various projects already planned for completion in 2015, or perhaps 2016, pressure to get completed on time … or at least partially completed (am I the only one who suspects that that the Spadina subway might only open to York or Steeles in 2015?).
Another project may also have some pressure is the Mississauga BRT, although it should be completed by 2012 … hopefully a 2015 games would be long after it opens … but the way this project seems to slide …
Some temporary transit may possible. Running some of the Mississauga BRT into Centennial Park for events, or perhaps even at temporary GO station at Cherry?
The best gain however are the athletic facilities themselves, and the $1-billion investment in West Donlands … which of course advances all the Waterfront Toronto transit schemes.
Even Scarborough-Malvern seems a stretch … surely spending $1-billion to get spectators to the pool for a 2-week period during a low-traffic time of year is a bit of a stretch. Perhaps a non-stop express bus from Kennedy would be more appropriate.
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you mean the 116E? We’ve already got one.
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The last I heard, the athlete village will be turned into housing once the Games are over. Unless the village is to be torn down after the Games, the village will create a long term demand for a loop near them.
Part of the transit problem in Toronto is we have the philospohy of “develop first, transit last.” It’s great that all these facilities will be built for the Games, but we need the transit routes in place before the facilities are completed. To borrow from Europe, we need to implement Transit lines prior to development of any location – whatever the development is to be used for. Unfortunately, North American society doesn’t work that way.
Steve: Yes, as I wrote, the village will ensure the construction of the Cherry Street spur, but the real change in waterfront access won’t come without the link under the rail corridor to Queen’s Quay. That’s not part of the Games plan, and Waterfront Toronto does not have any funding for the larger project needed to restructure the intersection of Cherry, Queen’s Quay and Lake Shore. That would make the whole area a real showcase with a new waterfront park and set the stage for development of the port lands south of Lake Shore.
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“What?”
“He says they’ve already got one!”
“Are you sure he’s got one?”
“Oh, yes. It’s very nice-a.”
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The Pan Am Games may help get an LRT lune built, the King LRT in Hamilton that is. At their spring public meeting they said that they needed this line to be in place for the PAN Am Games if they came to the GTHA. The only problem now is that Metrolinx is sticking their nose in and delaying things with a BRT study. See the Hamilton Light Rail Association web page.
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The venues are not just restricted to Toronto … in fact, the bid should have been described as ‘Golden Horseshoe 2015’ rather than ‘Toronto 2015’, as events will he held from Oshawa to Hamilton and St Catharines.
As you point out, the venues within Toronto do not seem to lead to any additional development, but hopefully the rest of venues might inspire something. For example, I know Hamilton has advanced plans for LRT, and the main athletics stadium and the velodrome will be there – perhaps that might spur on LRT?
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Two thumbs up to the City of Toronto to host the 2015 Pan Am Games.
With talk and nothing but talk about our transit system in the big city and with all the new LRT Lines, none of which will be ready before these games and that’s when the fun begins. Traffic, people, parking and all kinds of other issues.
Steve: You’re out of whack on that. Sheppard East will be done, and Finch West could be. The west end of Eglinton to the airport from the Spadina Subway could be done if the project were appropriately scheduled. The SRT rebuild as LRT could be finished. The Spadina subway extension will be finished. Waterfront East and the Cherry Street line should be done. Funding for almost all of this is already in place. All that is needed is the politicial will to get some decent project management that doesn’t cock up every project at every possible opportunity, and red hot pokers for the backsides of any agencies, like Hydro, who arbitrarily change their schedules.
But here’s something — one other city challenged itself on a major global event. The Olympics in 1984 held in the second largest city in the U.S.. This metropolis has a population of 12 plus million in the county and its first subway system didn’t get into operation until 1990 (6 years later).
It was the only metropolis of the modern times that shuttled people around to major venues on busses and kept the complaints down to a minimum. Now this system’s subways and RT Lines reach out and away from the downtown core it still faces all kinds of political issues like Toronto.
Here is a link of Los Angeles system to get an idea what it looks like now.
Steve: As I have already written, much of the Pan Am Games will not take place in Toronto, and it won’t be Toronto’s transit system that gets people to many of the venues. Having things spread all over the GTA is attractive politically, but it will require a large amount of ad-hoc bus service over considerable distances for people to reach the event. Moreover, the times shown in the Bid Book for shuttle services from the Athletes Village to the venues appear to presume that highways are partly shut down to allow a parade of buses and limos to make their way swiftly from place to place. Those same highways will be needed for all the buses shuttling attendees to events.
I have never seen a proposal for a major event like this in Toronto that has really considered the requirements of transportation as an important part of the planning. This likely reflects the way that transit is taken for granted in everything else we do here.
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Nothing stopping TTC laying track on Cherry during the construction phase, right? Surely they could piggyback on any utility location/relocation so that as soon as the Games are done and the athletes village is becoming high priced condos (once the “affordable” scheme goes bang as it did in Vancouver) so that service could begin quickly thereafter.
Steve: Yes, this should happen as part of the overall construction project for streets in the area. Cherry will be reconfigured from its present layout anyhow, and putting in the tracks “now” is far more sensible than waiting until “later”. My real worry is for the underpass at the railway which is part of an as-yet unfunded project at the mouth of the Don.
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NF asks “am I the only one who suspects that that the Spadina subway might only open to York or Steeles in 2015?”
The project construction schedule is such that there will be no partially built sections ready for commissioning in advance – all track work and testing will occur at the end of the project. I notice that aside from tennis there are no venues being contemplated along the Spadina Subway Extension anyway.
On the subject of venues, when did Richmond Hill get a 10,000 seat baseball stadium? The bid book says it’s existing… I was at Richmond Green on Saturday and I don’t recall seeing it. 😮
Steve: I am as mystified as you are. For readers, the reference is on page 141 of the Bid Book, page 153 in the 40-meg pdf. The Bid Book also says it’s only 28 minutes from the Village. They obviously plan to drive up the DVP at about 3 am.
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“The Bid Book also says it’s only 28 minutes from the Village. They obviously plan to drive up the DVP at about 3 am.”
If the govt is smart (and that’s one hell of a big if) they will use this an excuse to build HOV lanes on the DVP (and Gardiner).
Steve: There is no room to “build” anything on the Gardiner or on many parts of the DVP. The last thing we need is a road widening in the name of an athletic event.
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Steve said: “There is no room to “build” anything on the Gardiner or on many parts of the DVP. The last thing we need is a road widening in the name of an athletic event.”
Which brings us to my big hope for the games; this seems like it might be exactly the push we need to get HOV lanes on the DVP and 401 by taking away existing lanes. Neither of them are in the existing plans, largely because the ministry has declared that all HOV lanes are to be new build (ok, the DVP isn’t ministry, but it’s in the same boat as far as practicality).
I rather strongly suspect that a 401 BRT service (essentially the existing Oshawa expresses with a PROW and extended to the airport) would end up like the 407 GO service – far more successful than predicted and immediately expanded.
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Might it not be useful to keep some perspective here? These are the Pan-American games and not the Olympics.
A lot of the locals realize this and will likely take advantage of two weeks in July to bail out of town. I can’t see throngs of people swarming to watch archery, shooting, softball, badminton, equestrian or several other of the events.
My sense is that this is being hyped way beyond what it’s going to actually be. Perhaps it’s really just an audition to try and win the real Olympics a few years down the road. For a city in the financial shape Toronto is in that would be the last thing we need.
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PSC said, “On the subject of venues, when did Richmond Hill get a 10,000 seat baseball stadium? The bid book says it’s existing… I was at Richmond Green on Saturday and I don’t recall seeing it.”
The diamond exists, the 10,000 seats must be added. The plan is to add the seating (temporarily) to diamond #4 at Richmond Green. According to this article, this diamond is built to “the exact dimensions of the Rogers Centre and the surrounding available land allows for the installment of temporary bleachers that can accommodate up to 10,000 spectators and ample parking around the diamonds and the surrounding recreation area.”
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All of this activity is in jeopardy as we all know the unions will do their utmost to extort and destroy any chance of the projects being completed on time. I am sure the city did not take this into account prior to their erstwhile attempt to bring this insignificant function to Toronto.
Let’s watch as the costs will double and triple over time. The city councilors however will probably benefit by being able to buy the so called affordable housing units and then flip them for a profit.
Steve: That sort of thing was a hallmark of the old Lastman North York. Mind you, by the time the games actually occur, we may have a new crowd of ne’er-do-wells.
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