Updated September 9, 2010 at 10:15pm: The Toronto Sun cites Rob Ford’s “transit policy guru” Mark Towhey in a followup article to the Ford transit platform. Oddly enough, Towhey’s own blog post, an inaccurate rant about the TTC from February 2010, is still online even though Ford’s people disowned the article.
Toronto deserves an explanation of just what Rob Ford’s real agenda is, and to what extent it is driven by someone who has an even more radical view of what would happen to transit in this city than candidate Ford’s own official position.
The original post from September 8 at 4:00 pm follows here.
The Rob Ford mayoral campaign has released a transportation plan, and it’s a rather threadbare effort.
Ford’s subway plan involves redirecting Transit City funding to completion of the original Sheppard Subway plan from Downsview to Scarborough Town Centre, and extension of the Danforth subway to STC via the SRT alignment. The Eglinton line has completely disappeared even though the money scooped to build Sheppard would have paid for the first stages of Eglinton’s construction.
As the Smitherman campaign has already pointed out, $790-million of the provincial $3.7-billion Ford counts on is earmarked for the Viva system in York Region. (See page 25 of the Metrolinx funding summary.) It is unclear why Queen’s Park would agree to such a massive shift in transit priorities, effectively turning the clock back to the 1990 transit network announcement rather than building the more extensive network already agreed to. [Note: As of 2 pm on September 9, Metrolinx has fouled up their website and the funding summary is not available. The link above is to the relevant pages copied to my own site.]
Notable by its absence from the Ford plan is any rapid transit service to northeastern Scarborough, the UTSC Campus or anywhere in Etobicoke, Ford’s home turf. Presumably everyone west of the Humber river won’t need transit. Nothing about downtown or the waterfront. Nothing about addressing priority neighbourhoods. Nothing about regional integration.
That SRT conversion has appeared in other candidates’ platforms, and it suffers from problems with assumptions about recycling the existing infrastructure and route. Kennedy Station faces east, and an alignment up the SRT corridor would require a new subway station. Although the Transit City LRT lines will result in construction at Kennedy, they wrap new LRT platforms around the existing structure while leaving the subway itself intact. Further north on the SRT there are narrow sections, a tight curve at Ellesmere, and stations that were not designed for full subway service.
Yes, this could all be rebuilt, but the line would never go further because the cost versus demand numbers simply wouldn’t work out. That’s the whole reason for using LRT, but Ford’s folks don’t seem to understand this.
Ford really doesn’t like streetcars in any form, and trots out the expected complaints about how construction fouls up businesses, how streetcars delay traffic and thereby create more pollution. Indeed, he would shut down our streetcar network and sell our new cars elsewhere to recoup whatever money could be had. The platform material says Ford would remove “some streetcars”, but according to a media source, Ford wants to get rid of all streetcars in 10 years.
Oddly enough, they would be replaced by even more buses that would sit in the same traffic jams behind delivery trucks, illegally parked cars, taxis, J-walking pedestrians, and a whole range of problems common to congested 4-lane roads that cannot simultaneously be speedy arterials and local streets. Buses pulling into stops on narrow streets with parking regularly block through traffic because they can’t properly reach the curb. Bus bays are not an option because there are usually buildings right at the sidewalk.
The larger omission from Ford’s plan is any discussion of fares, service quality or what transit should be as part of the city’s fabric. He condemns much of the city to buses running in mixed traffic, and says nothing about how he would address the $70-million in additional funding just needed to operate the TTC in 2011. Will he raise fares? Will he cut service? How much filthier will stations and vehicles get? Will escalators and elevators stop, never to run again? Will he simply starve the TTC and place the blame for whatever happens on their inability to make hard choices?
Ford’s financing plans simply don’t add up, nor do his construction schedules. He claims that the Sheppard and BD extensions could be completed by 2015. That’s a real stretch considering that we have not even been through a project assessment and approval, detailed design and tendering. The SRT is 6.4km long, the Sheppard West connection is about 4km, and the Sheppard East extension would be about 7.5km from Don Mills to McCowan. The total is 17.9km.
The Spadina extension to Vaughan is only 8.6km, has fewer stations, and will cost $2.6-billion including inflation. This brings the pricetag of Ford’s subways to somewhere over $5-billion, not the $4-billion he claims, and assumes we could build them in the same timeframe, with the same inflation factors, as Spadina. That’s simply not realistic.
Ford also hopes for $1-billion in private sector contributions through development fees. As we have seen in many locations — the Bloor-Danforth subway, the Spadina line — development does not follow immediately after subway construction and may be decades, if ever, in the future. Indeed, some neighbourhoods won’t take kindly to someone drawing subway lines through them if the tradeoff is the destruction of what’s there today. There are ways to earmark lands for future higher taxes once a rapid transit line is built, but no guarantee that we will see the money in the short term.
Seeing a platform like this, not to mention similar proposals from other candidates, makes me wonder if anyone has been paying attention to transit history in Toronto and other cities. We seemed doomed to turn the clock back 25 years, at least, to an era when making life better for cars trumped all other concerns, when a few subway proposals were a substitute for real transit planning.
Steve Munro 
BIG mistake! The people who actually use transit prefer subways first, streetcars second and buses last. Therefore, removing existing streetcar lines is a big mistake. I agree more subways are better and I think some/much of the proposed Transit City LRT lines are not viable especially south end Jane Street unless underground. I even agree with cancelling Eglinton LRT as I seriously doubt there is the necessary volume plus, farther distance between stops will not provide the same convenience as the present bus. Express buses are needed on Eglinton and many other routes. They _might_ even make sense to compliment existing streetcars which would continue to provide local service. Better rethink this one Rob.
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Rebuilding Kennedy (or a new line routing from Warden to run under the existing station), a new yard in Agincourt somewhere, 6 car station extensions, Humber River crossing, enough 6 car sets to run a through service on the extensions… pricey stuff! And nothing for NW Toronto – ballsy. And more TTC drivers to run the extra buses needed – very unlike RF to advocate for a higher TTC headcount.
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But look on the bright side. He’s actually going to build not one, but two bridges to the Toronto Islands, as part of his pathways plan! I guess that’s so he can get rid of the ferries as well. And he’ll build another 100 km of paved pathways … all for only $50 million.
That man is a miracle worker!
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Does anyone have their streetcars for Toronto stuff handy anymore?
Steve: I have archives, but some serious updating is needed.
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I am baffled by Ford’s transit plan. I recall when the Sheppard Subway opened one media outlet called it a subway connecting two malls. Ford wants to expand it to connect it to two more malls. I believe the day will come when we need to leverage the infrastucture investment already made under Sheppard. That day simply isn’t in sight yet given other priorities.
The thing that excited me the most about Transit City and Transit City Bus is the simple complexity: Attracting transit users, (theoretically) reducing congestion, and addressing transit shortfalls in priority neighbourhoods. All in a relatively inexpensive solution.
The business case to build a subway under (insert major street here) resides in the ridership that an LRT delivers.
In Ford’s Toronto we will have one subway line that is underutilised (and likely won’t be built as he proposes), a Yonge line at capacity and no net new transit service anywhere else.
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Yes.
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While I too do find holes in his plans for public transit at the service level, it is not these issues which attract me as a Ford supporter. No, it is rather his desire to rein in a ballooning budget that has seen costs go out of control and taxes and fees go up. From my present perch here in Woodbridge, I say this: if Ford makes good on his promise to curb spending, especially regarding union contracts, he can reverse the hated land transfer tax and Vehicle Registration tax. Those two taxes are the reason why my wife and I opted to live in Woodbridge rather than live in Toronto. At present, we would have had to pay at least $350 more annually in taxes had we lived in Toronto. A small amount in some quarters, but to us, it adds up. Us 905ers are not as rich as the 416 would make us to believe. If he were to make good on his promise to freeze taxes and perhaps get rid of the Land Transfer and Vehicle Registration tax, then perhaps we would consider moving back to Toronto. An attractive incentive, for sure.
Steve: The LTT and VRT are paying for the share of the TTC deficit that Queen’s Park walked away from. Rather than give Toronto the funding, they enabled the collection of new taxes, and the City took them up on it. Look forward to more transit taxes and fees in the future once the provincial “investment strategy” kicks in, likely after the next election.
As for his transit plan, well, I’m in agreement that he has things seriously mixed up. His comments about Transit City being all about streetcars has me thinking of one of two possibilities:
1) Transit City is about running Streetcars in mixed traffic. A bit preposterous, but possible, given his comments about car traffic being choked behind streetcars.
2) Transit City is about taking lanes for Car Traffic and giving it to Transit. Quite more likely considering his Subway comments. His transit philosophy is similar to mine, build more and do not take away from what is already there. What Ford should take from this is that there are corridors where taking away traffic lanes and giving them to a dedicated transit corridor makes sense. Don Mills and Eglinton East come to mind.
There is time for Ford to modify his opinion, and I find him to be more open minded and friendly than most people would cast him to be, given that I met him during the last municipal elections in his ward. Have you discussed Transit with him, Steve? I’m sure he would listen to you.
But in any case, I would still vote for him (but cannot since I’m not a Torontonian…. :P).
Steve: I will talk to anybody, but Rob Ford regularly ignores me whenever our paths cross at City Hall. I probably have too much of a Miller air about me.
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One of these days, someone is going to have to explain to me why the idea of two subway lines to Scarborough Town Centre will not go away. I mean, ignoring the lack of riders to make justifying one line debatable, it’s quite probable that the Sheppard line would draw away enough riders from the RT that you might be able to make a reasonable case for the RT’s abandonment rather than replacement. Of course, I’m assuming that the majority of those who take the RT between Kennedy and STC continue on to the Bloor line and do not start/end their trip east of Yonge when I say that.
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“Will he simply starve the TTC”
“Yes.”
I don’t think so.
At best he will cut underperforming routes. Needed considering that these buses are best used to assist in overcrowded routes. Why do we have buses plying unused streets with less than 1 person when they can be used to transport 40 people on a busy street?
As for his idea to replace ALL streetcars with buses, that will likely generate a political hot potato. The Streetcars themselves provide a character to a street that a bus simply cannot deliver. If he follows through with this idea, he is basically committing political suicide. I only think he is referring to the Transit City plan and would likely opt for the status quo on present streetcars. It isn’t going to happen.
As for the Sheppard Line, it needs to be built. We started it, so we need to finish it. The longer a line gets, the more useful it becomes. But I still insist that the Sheppard Line should be extended west and then to York University, superseding the proposed Spadina extension.
Rob Ford is not the transit boogeyman that everyone makes him out to be. Far from it. I’ve seen him involved in transit affairs that affect his ward. He wants better service, that’s for sure, but everyone has a different way of going about it.
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“Steve: The LTT and VRT are paying for the share of the TTC deficit that Queen’s Park walked away from. Rather than give Toronto the funding, they enabled the collection of new taxes, and the City took them up on it. Look forward to more transit taxes and fees in the future once the provincial “investment strategy” kicks in, likely after the next election.”
Not if Rob Ford has anything to say about that. If he is elected. (I hope.)
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Maybe we have misunderstood him. Maybe the $3b he is referring to is really JUST to build 10 stations. Now that sounds about right! Then the developers will line up to pay for digging the tunnel.
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Regarding Eglinton – I don’t know either if the volume numbers are there to support a subway versus an LRT underground, but the amount of buses that get clogged up in traffic on that street, thus adding to the clog, make burying transit underneath Eglinton a no-brainer (Rob Ford adjective unintended). If someone wanted to bury a bus right of way – although short of Ford, I can’t imagine who would – I might even accept that rather than throwing more of his beloved buses on the street. But unless someone makes the case that the subway volume is there, or will grow to be there, I think we’re better off with the Transit City plan to put affordable, efficient transit underground on Eglinton. As Sarah Thompson noted in her response to Ford’s “plan”, building more subways to increase congestion on the at-capacity Yonge line to funnel downtown is foolish without creating sensible ways to alleviate the congestion downtown, such as a DRL.
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As I said on my LRT Blog, he has taken his one-note song of fiscal restraint (which I don’t have a problem with on its own) and attempted to add other notes, but actually becomes duplicitous. Nothing like going with something that carries “ten times the people” as streetcars when only two or three times the capacity is needed.
In his attempt to rid city hall of “the gravy train”, Ford wants to add two new gravy trains – did I say ‘gravy’? I meant ‘subway’!
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I love how he (and Rossi and Thompson for that matter) think they can just dictate terms to the province about what the money earmarked for Transit City can be spent on. Have none of them heard of Metrolinx? Again, it seems like it is the “drawing pretty lines on a map” approach to transit. And for what? To dump more people on an overextended Yonge line, which will have cars at full capacity by the time they hit Lawrence.
As for replacing the streetcars, sure. Tear up the streetcar contract, or sell them for fractions on the dollar, that won’t be considered waste by his supporters if he does it. He does realize the number of buses that would have to run on King, Queen, Dundas and College to replace them would exceed the number of streetcars, right? Meaning more drivers and more labour costs? Didn’t the province just end a support program for municipalities to update their bus fleet? Where is all the funding for this supposed to come from? I weep that this guy might be mayor.
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“Rob Ford is not the transit boogeyman that everyone makes him out to be. Far from it. I’ve seen him involved in transit affairs that affect his ward. He wants better service, that’s for sure, but everyone has a different way of going about it.”
You’re right. His plan that will cut streetcars, promotes an unrealistic subway plan, and gives 70% of proposed subway development to roads is a sign Ford is a transit saviour. Thanks for enlightening me!
Rob Ford is not a transit bogeyman. He is a the transit anti-Christ. He is not fooling anyone with this plan.
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No, it is rather his desire to rein in a ballooning budget
His desire is one thing. What his plans will actually do is something totally different.
There are lots of politicians who claim to want one thing, but have plans and policies which have the opposite effect. Those who claim to want to reduce the number of drug addicts but also oppose drug treatment programs for example.
If I read Ford’s plan, I find many instances where his costings are optimistic, or just plain wrong. I don’t think you could build 12km of new track and 10 new stations for $3b. It will not cost $0 to replace streetcars with buses. Even if Ford’s capital costs are correct, he’s not thought about the operational costs. Running 10 new stations is expensive. 12 km of new track will require more trainsets.
Therefore Ford’s actual result will be to increase the budget, regardless of what he may desire.
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Stephen,
As you support Rob Ford because of his fiscal policy (reign in costs and decrease taxes), how would you explain his many errors when it comes to financial planning? As Steve mentioned, it would take more money than stated to build all his subways. In addition, his over emphasis on the private sector is suspect. Given that this is not the first time he has skewed his numbers, I’m not sure we can put faith in any other financial plans that he may provide.
As for the LTT and the Vehicle Registration Tax, these make up for a bit of the fact that the City of Toronto charges less property tax than, a 905 municipality, such as the City of Vaughan.
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I live south of Eglinton, at St. Clair. The demand for higher-order service on (and due to physical space constraints, this becomes underneath) Eglinton is absolutely there.
Almost every major NS bus route feeds into it. The vast majority of these routes are over-crowded from loading at the Bloor-Danforth subway, or building up to a drop-off coming down from Steeles (and sometimes farther afield).
We have “two” North-South subways in the University/Spadina and Yonge portions of the line.
Bloor and Danforth are not adequate in terms of length and location to effectively provided rapid, city-wide rapid transit, that is desperately needed.
I can easily see someone living in Thorncliffe Park, taking a bus up to Eglinton and Zooming into Yonge, or farther … to Jane, and up to … wherever.
That’s network-planning. I dare-say you can’t cut the “Chester bus” (which I know doesn’t exist) without causing damage to “the network” … having those little extras to take you the rest of your trip (like the Eglinton branches that end on Lawrence.)
It’s a shame the vast majority of Miller’s funded-Transit City lines are good to go, Rob won’t have any chance of cancelling/redirecting them.
Were he successful though, it could be called the Supercentre line? (Mall to Mall via Mall?)
Steve: I think that would-be Mayor Ford is counting on would-be Premier Hudak to perform the slashing and burning on Transit City at the provincial level.
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Note that, in the YouTube version of his subway map, there’s no Coxwell station on Bloor-Danforth, and part of the extension of the line includes Main Street to Kennedy.
The addition on the Sheppard line of a station east of Bayview at Willowdale Avenue is an interesting touch, seeing as how Willowdale Ave is west of Bayview.
Steve: He is from Etobicoke after all. The Willowdale and Coxwell errors are in the map in the announcement linked from this post. The error of showing part of the existing subway as an extension is on an earlier version of his announcement.
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At the risk of being viewed as an ignoramus on the workings of city government how much say is Ford going to have in eliminating streetcars? Surely city council will have plenty to say on this issue and I can already see and hear all the controversy brewing now. All this sounds like a trip back to yesteryear in cities all across North America when small minds refused to see any disadvantages to buses or advantages to streetcars.
Steve: Where the problem lies is that the Mayor controls a good chunk of City business via the Executive Committee, and it requires a 2/3 vote at Council to override on many things. All Ford needs to do is cut all the funding for streetcar-related projects out of the budget, and Council has to work extra hard to put it back.
Of course when David Miller used the power of the Executive Committee, he was attacked by the right as being undemocratic and other unsavoury terms. The right is very good at using the machinery of government to advance their own agenda when it suits them. Just look at Ottawa.
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And just when I thought Ford was going to put streetcars back on Harbord St., he goes and does this.
Hey Ford, if you’re going to “close the loop” at STC, then the BD subway becomes the Bloor-Danforth-Sheppard subway with the following routing possibilities …
– VCC to Kipling (and reverse) via Spadina, Sheppard, and BD trackage
– Finch to VCC (via Bay Lower, Danforth, Sheppard, and Spadina trackage) — try tracing that on a map.
Steve: I think you will have to send the operators out with a map, a survival kit, and a portable potty to make trips that long and complex sans break, and then find their way back home.
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Justin Bernard said: “He is not fooling anyone with this plan.”
I certainly agree with that sentiment once I noticed that many of the bike trails he wants to build will cut through the golf courses in the river valleys.
Steve: And there’s the small problem of building bike trails along rail corridors where there’s no room, hydro corridors where new road crossings will be needed, through valleys that might be a challenge to get in and out of. Between this, using Metrolinx’ money from the Viva project, and selling air rights over land the TTC does not own, he’s getting rather good at scoffing other people’s property. A flaming lefty, our Rob!
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This guy is an buffoon. And part of his plan involves simplifying the parking rules by painting the curbs different colours. Which will be completely invisible for half the year under the snow banks that line our fair streets. How’s that for respect for taxpayers’ money?
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If you take Queen St. as an example, the would need to be 3 buses on the road for each ALRV that they replace. A bus holds roughly 60 people, an ALRV about 200 crush load. Therefore, 3 buses, 3 more operators. The costs would be huge.
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Imagine what Harper would do as Mayor? At least Ford wants to build something, rather than not build a thing at all, which was in vogue between 1980 and 2010 with the exception of the stubway, SRT, and extension to Downsview.
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Also, I just checked his official platform, one of the maps is the exact same map the Toronto Party uses. That is the party I quit because they wanted to cut all city funding to Transit.
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“Notable by its absence from the Ford plan is any rapid transit service to […] anywhere in Etobicoke, Ford’s home turf.”
This particularly sticks out, and the cynic in me believes it’s a strategic vote-getting measure. Ford likely figures he has good support in Etobicoke and isn’t likely to get as much from the central city (so there is less need to lavish new subway lines on those parts of the city) and that his best chance to make up ground is in Scarborough and North York. When you only have a limited amount of subway kilometres to work with, you have to allocate it strategically.
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I could have come up with a better transit plan while sitting on a toilet. If Ford was smart, he’d have said “we will cancel TC and reallocate that funding to build the downtown relief subway line”. Then you’d see him pick up a lot of downtown votes, which is exactly what he needs.
But, TC is too far along to cancel now. Didn’t Metrolinx intentionally place the order for TC’s light rail cars early when the mayoral candidates all started talking about subway expansion earlier this year? That was no coincidence.
And, we’ve already invested so much money in rebuilding the tracks downtown it would make no sense to abandon the streetcars now, even though I agree with him that they impede traffic flow downtown in the worst possible way. But the streetcars aren’t solely to blame for that — as a motorist I find that streetcars are quite easy to pass on the right in the middle of a block if on street parking is sparse. Get rid of the parking and the streetcars only remain a nuisance at intersections where they block both lanes while loading and unloading. If islands were installed at all intersections, that problem would also disappear.
For his clean bus plan, I’d like to see the TTC reintroduce electric trolley coaches.
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Stop the “war on streetcars”!
I live downtown. I don’t have a car. I take the streetcar every day. I do not want to travel on a small, diesel bus that lurches around potholes and swerves in traffic. I prefer to travel on my larger and more pleasant streetcar. Yes, I’d rather have a new downtown subway if it was being offered, but since we don’t have the billions, a streetcar is the next best thing.
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Anyway, there is no plan to build a subway to the airport – we are a sad, second rate town until we have an airport link.
It’s a lame plan, sorry but it is. It’s full of hyperbole written by PR people. If Rob Ford can build that much subway in 4 years when a little more than a half a dozen stops have been added to the system in the last thirty years then he is more than just a would be mayor, he is the messiah.
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Replacing the downtown streetcars with buses will just turn them into something like the 32 Eglinton West bus (east of Keele) which is just as slow if not slower than the Queen streetcar and which is always overcrowded. By the way, this is the candidate who wants to kill the streetcar SUBWAY down Eglinton which is badly needed because Eglinton has horrible traffic congestion, being the only major east-west road going all the way across the Don Valley between Bloor/Danforth and York Mills.
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Hi Steve.
In reading over Ford’s plan, and some of the comments that his supporters have made in “The Star” in the past I am left with the impression that public transit is an add on to Ford’s platform. The whole concept that he has put forward seems to be half baked at best. It does not draw on any of the assumptions that lead to Transit City.
The fact that the bus routes that were chosen to be upgraded are, or will be, operating beyond economic capacity seems to have escaped him. Any bus or BRT costs in his plan have been either ignored or glossed over. The plan to scrap downtown streetcar lines speaks more of vindictiveness than sound planning. It completely ignores the fact that streetcars are cheaper to operate than buses and that streetcars carry more people. It is also ironic for a guy who claims that he is on the side of the taxpayer to implement a replacement that costs more and will require the city to walk away from the considerable investment that it has made in streetcars over the past few years.
Ford’s supporter have trotted out the old arguments about LRT not working in winter, that it creates pollution, and that it causes traffic accidents due to priority signals. I am surprised that they missed the “it won’t climb hills” story.
Ford’s plan will have one effect. The cost overruns, underestimations, and nonexistent development fees will make Smitherman’s $1 billion eHealth saga look like chump change. Anyone who is looking to Ford to reign in city hall’s excesses is leaving the city open to a far bigger financial mess.
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Stephen Cheung wrote:
“I only think he is referring to the Transit City plan and would likely opt for the status quo on present streetcars. ”
His promise was “We will improve traffic flow downtown by removing some streetcars. Streetcars on downtown arterial streets will be replaced”. I’m not sure why you are interpreting this to only apply to Transit City, which is 100% not downtown.
I really don’t see the need to come in here and muddy the waters by spreading misinformation.
Stephen then writes “Rob Ford is not the transit boogeyman that everyone makes him out to be. Far from it. I’ve seen him involved in transit affairs that affect his ward. He wants better service, that’s for sure, but everyone has a different way of going about it.” The man just proposed cancelling the Eglinton LRT, eliminating express buses, and removing streetcars, without any new subway capacity downtown. It’s quite clear that the last thing he wants is better transit service. To suggest otherwise is mind-boggling.
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Hi Steve:-
Thought I’d copy you on an e-mail that I have just posted to Rob Ford.
Dennis Rankin
“Hi Rob:-
I started reading your transportation plan package this morning and I must take issue with the very first page’s inaccuracy and downright poorly informed assumptions that
“Toronto has instead decided to build streetcar lines down the middle of major arterial roads. This will do nothing to reduce gridlock or provide faster, better public transit options for Torontonians who need better connections to good paying jobs across the city.”
Since as you are already aware that there is only so much money to go around, then spending that finite amount on two subway extensions, will spoil the ability for this City to modernize its transit in more than just Scarborough and the short bit you propose in N. York. With the same amount of capital investment residents can be served quite handily with many Light Rail Lines (LRT), therefore “better connections to good paying jobs across the city” as Transit City’s plan shows by covering the City.
These extensions, on the Bloor Danforth particularly, will not address what optional route choices Transit City would offer. Forcing those suburbanites wanting to come downtown onto the BD, instead of giving them the added choices of Eglinton or Finch, will further exacerbate an already busy core part of the inner city route. Without the capital spending on a downtown relief line (not in your plan) or of building express tracks (which would be extremely costly if not downright destructive to the neighbourhoods through which it presently passes) by encouraging that amount of extra use would create the gridlock underground which you so wisely want to eliminate on the surface.
Now your statement that new “streetcar lines” would do “nothing to reduce gridlock or provide faster, better public transit” has two grievous errors in those remarks. First, they are not intended to be streetcar lines in the traditional Toronto sense, (as the quote intends the uninitiated reader to buy into) but are intended to be the intermediate capacity rapid transit that many modern, world class cities, and those aspiring to be, are adopting. Most have agreed that only so much heavy rail can be built with existing dwindling resources and are therefore making progress in their cities with LRT. Read any issue of Mass Transit magazine and see the investment that is being made in the US in that vein. The International Railway Journal and the Tramways and Urban Transit magazines that focus on Europe and the rest of the world, well respected publications all for their balanced and unbiased approach to the realities of the transportation issues facing modern, progressive cities, monthly have articles which point out the benefits and improvements the adoption of this modern form of transit technology has had on the neighbourhoods where they’ve been built. They do and have increased capacity and speed of service to those served by them.
Benefits and improvements, one of which is the minimizing and or elimination of gridlock, that are beyond just the obvious transit needs of the residents and workers using the lines (Note I said lines, not just a single extension) are highlighted in these articles as the presence of these LRT routes improve the overall quality of life too. Since these magazines serve the industry they cannot forget that heavy rail (ie, subways) need to be a part of the mix too, but not to the exclusion of better service and benefits realized in other areas of the cities involved.
To this point I have not addressed your bus ideas, but buses, although an essential part of the City’s transit needs as feeder routes to the subways and future LRT lines should never be considered a substitute for the superior ride that a trunk route LRT can provide. Again it’s one of those quality of life things that will impact on the neighbourhood served. Assuredly, LRT would provide major improvements in mobility and neighbourhood life. The betterment of bus services might marginally advance those qualities I’ve alluded to but more than likely buses will merely retain the undesirable status quo.
The Transit City plan is not perfect, but it is one that has so many merits that your plan not only ignores, but thumbs its nose at and for reasons that are unfounded and absolutely wrong.
I was one of those who was 80% decided that I would vote for you since I like the fact that you have been a man determined to control the City’s wasteful spending. Your transit plan puts a lie to that belief that I’d had. By your proposal of investing in two subway routes instead of the broader brush that building many LRT lines for the same dollar would accomplish, you’ve shown me that my vote must go elsewhere. I am not horribly knowledgeable about many urban issues but I do know transit and understand what can improve a city and what will leave it in the dust of other major centres. Your ideas are the dust gatherers.
Sorry Rob but you have blown it big time in my view.
Yours Sincerely
Dennis Rankin”
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The depressing part is that of the leading five candidates only one wants to build the DRL, and the odds on that candidate winning are very long.
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The current transit activity is essentially a balloon supported by political will. Parts of the TC plans survived (just barely) the recent massive cuts. The political will is still there although the economic issues are looming big. Another major shock could easily result in cancelation of the current contracts and complete termination of all support by either the current or next Ontario government. There is a very real danger that the mayor of Toronto could provide such a shock.
There is a bit of light on the horizon for short term, but long term could be in trouble. Specific projects are now far enough along that it would be difficult and expensive to terminate them. The TC projects have received approvals and funding, and significant contracts have been signed. They are to be built, paid for, and owned by Metrolinx. Although this is mostly to balance the provincial capital budget, there may have been some thought to isolate the projects from changes in the Toronto political scene.
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This is exactly what it is. A reaction to the LRT-fits-all mentality of Transit City. If there was a BD extension to STC in the beginning, this would have been a tough sell. Now? Not so much. Rob Ford just won Scarborough and all of the northern North York.
I’m no fan of RF or his plan. But sadly, maybe this is what it’ll take to finally do Scarborough justice and bring the Bloor-Danforth line to the place it should terminate at: Scarborough Town Centre.
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17.9 km of subway construction, starting from the design stage, ready by 2015?
What is he smoking, and why won’t he share?
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I understand that Environmental Assessments had to be done for each of the current Transit City projects, as well as the Queens Quay project east of Bay Street, which includes the streetcar right-of-way.
Wouldn’t an Environmental Assessment have to be done to remove streetcars from the streets of Toronto? For each route or road?
Wouldn’t Rob Ford have to prove that removing streetcars and replacing them with buses are good for the environment? And which version of EA would have to be done?
Steve: The real challenge is the death by a thousand cuts, more or less the way we lost the trolley buses, simply from lack of investment. Just at the point we are about to completely reinvent the streetcar system, stopping new investment would be a severe blow. No EA is required to simply let something fall apart.
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“As you support Rob Ford because of his fiscal policy (reign in costs and decrease taxes), how would you explain his many errors when it comes to financial planning? As Steve mentioned, it would take more money than stated to build all his subways. In addition, his over emphasis on the private sector is suspect. Given that this is not the first time he has skewed his numbers, I’m not sure we can put faith in any other financial plans that he may provide.”
While I believe there are flaws in his transit plan, there is time to flesh them out. Rob Ford is indeed a relative rookie in the transit portfolio, and I do not expect him to get it right the first time around. Out of all the candidates that are running for mayor, only Rob Ford has plans which address my concerns on how the city is being run. I don’t want to say this kind of stuff in a transit forum, but I, like most Torontonians who are putting their hats behind Ford are sick of the abundance of spending and cronyism at the municipal level, including of all things, bloated union sector contracts (read: OVERPAID GARBAGEMEN) Ford is a strong believer of fiscal responsibility given his track record and that is the one thing that matters to me. Yes his transit plan is a bit suspect but again, does he always have to stick to his opinion? I’ve met him, and believe it or not, he is a very honourable politician with a very open mind. And that tempers my concerns about his transit plans a fair bit.
“As for the LTT and the Vehicle Registration Tax, these make up for a bit of the fact that the City of Toronto charges less property tax than, a 905 municipality, such as the City of Vaughan.”
I don’t know where you get your numbers from but I certainly do not pay more for property tax than most Torontonians. Compare my place of residence to a similarly priced home in Toronto owned by a friend of mine and I pay less.
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