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The Day The Big Move Died (Update 2)

Updated December 2, 2010 at 11:55 pm:

The Globe and Mail has a story by John Lorinc echoing the sentiments here with quotes from sundry people weightier than I am.

The Star reports on provincial reaction to Mayor Ford’s move.

Updated December 2, 2010 at 1:50 am: The Globe and Mail reports on a poll of Councillors regarding support for Transit City or subways.

  • Pro Transit City:  14
  • Transit City + Tweaks:  4
  • Subways:  11
  • Unknown:  15

Original article from December 1, 2010:

Toronto’s new Mayor Ford, acting with a haste uncharacteristic in Toronto affairs, and without even bothering to consult his new Council, has directed the TTC to stop work on Transit City.  The “war on the car” is over, and all new rapid transit will be underground.

The deafening silence from Queen’s Park shows us how much Metrolinx and its regional plan, The Big Move, depend on political agreement among GTA municipalities.  Removing the pols from the Metrolinx Board may have centralized important announcements at Queen’s Park, but it did nothing to blunt the effect any local Mayor or Council can have if they don’t play ball.

The Big Move has both a 15-year and a 25-year component, although the likelihood either of these would see substantial construction was compromised the moment Queen’s Park’s budget priorities trumped a scheme to build major transit improvements first as a prelude to new revenue tools.  Nobody wants to talk about taxes or tolls, but money for transit, whatever the technology, won’t come from the tooth fairy.  It won’t come from the private sector either, at least not without a guaranteed return on their investment.

Ford, whose aggressive tactics on Council are well known but whose character was carefully controlled during the election, has shown that he has a plan, and feels that his mandate gives him carte blanche to implement whatever he wants.  The voters have spoken.  Those who voted for 44 Councillors might beg to disagree, but that’s for Council to decide in weeks and months ahead.

The real problem is the lack of leadership on the transit file from Queen’s Park.  The Big Move was cobbled together from many local plans, including Transit City, and flawed though it might have been, there was general agreement about the shape of the plan.  Changing Toronto’s focus to subways unbalances the plan’s scale and benefits, not to mention the huge change in net cost.  Mayor Ford’s concern for taxpayers’ dollars appears to end when someone else is expected to pay the bill, and this could deprive Toronto of transit improvements while growth proceeds on smaller-scale projects in the 905.

If we can rip Transit City out of The Big Move with only the barest of response from Queen’s Park, how safe is the rest of the plan?  Will expansions in Mississauga, Hamilton, York Region and Durham be subject to the whims of whoever is in power, or will a semblance of regional planning remain?  Will provincial efforts dwindle to supporting GO Transit, an organization whose forced marriage with Metrolinx is still quite shaky.  The bride and groom are still arguing over decorations, and they almost certainly have separate bedrooms.

Readers who know me well will appreciate that today is not the brightest day in my history of transit advocacy.  It would be easy just to write a bitter rant against the incoming regime.  That would be a waste of time — they won’t read it anyhow, any more than they will listen to editorial boards at the Globe and Star.

That regime is not stupid, although many would paint Ford and his crew as a bunch of bumbling hicks.  They know what they want to achieve and they appear ready to push as hard as possible until, no, even if someone pushes back.  That’s the role of Council and of Queen’s Park if they really believe in Transit City.

There is a place for LRT and for subways in Toronto, and if we are to remake the transit plans, this process deserves more than the midnight YouTube announcement of Ford’s election campaign.  It also deserves a concerted effort by transit supporters everywhere to fight against slurs of downtown elitism, and to argue strongly for better, cost-effective transit.  We need to ensure that the “war on the car” is not replaced, stealthily, by a war on transit.

As for Metrolinx, I can’t help wondering what, exactly, its purpose is.  The Board rarely meets in public, and doesn’t discuss much of substance when it does.  Major announcements come from the Premier or the Minister, and many of these deal with GO plans that were in the pipeline before the Metrolinx amalgamation.  Now we see a Mayor can just tear up part of the plan, an ironic situation considering the grief David Miller endured for trying to get Toronto’s interests recognized at Queen’s Park.  If the Tories win the fall 2011 provincial election, Metrolinx and its hoard of consultants may find themselves out of work, and transit may be relegated to a desk at the back of the Ministry of Transportation offices in Downsview.

Meanwhile, my box of “Big Move” documents can join the many other plans in my archives.

136 thoughts on “The Day The Big Move Died (Update 2)”

  1. Wow…that was fast…I think someone needs to open a museum to celebrate all of the planning that Toronto has accomplished and not built over the years…(my guess is that someone has planned to do that, but it was cancelled as well…)

    In 6 weeks they will have a plan? I love the idea, but honestly it’s going to be a plan to create a plan to create a plan right?

    I read there is going to be some door-to-door discussions happening on Eglinton on Saturday, any more information about protests or creating a traffic jam on Ford’s street so he can’t get to the first council meeting?

    Steve: Please see the Save Transit City Canvass on Facebook.

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  2. There’s an awful lot of work done and money spent on Transit City. I wonder if it will approach the money spent on the Eglinton subway line that was dug and reburied under another Conservative leader.

    And I wonder if the province will stop building subways to pasture land in Vaughan, if Ford asks them to, in order to ensure that the money is spent on Sheppard instead.

    All transit decisions of the past 30-40 years have been political rather than practical. Scarboro LRT vehicles, Scarboro subway, killing Eglinton Subway, building subway to pasture land in Vaughan, building a diesel train to ferry a handful of business folks to the airport – all motivated by politics, not practical transit realities. Sigh.

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  4. I am all but perplexed for only one reason: for a guy who wants to do something like this, he hasn’t campaigned on this heavily during the election. We see one youtube video of this and that’s about it. We have heard all about the problems with regards to high taxes and lack of accountability and customer service. If anything, I was expecting an announcement on plans to end the Vehicle Registration tax, of which everyone has heard about constantly from Ford throughout this campaign.

    Even better are the debates where no one had stopped to ask the serious question on this issue in terms of LRT and not in terms of streetcars. I agree that Ford has distorted the issue so badly but blame is not his alone. In my view, transit advocates were conspicuously absent during the entire election campaign. Where were the rebuttals? There is a lot of literature on the net, but who reads this stuff anyway? Where were the TV ads? The Posters on transit vehicles? There were some subway announcements about this, but for suburban voters who only take buses, did they get the message? These questions and clarifications should have been made during the election campaign but weren’t. Coulda, shoulda, woulda, etc.

    Is Transit City truly dead? Honestly, no. Ford still has to get approval of this plan from Council and I’m hoping that Council would put up a fight. What I am more concerned about is how Gary Webster folded like a deck of cards on this. I expected resistance and perhaps a schooling to Ford about LRT and not streetcars. If anything, I would think that some of the LRT plan would still survive (and not be called Transit City) and still be built (I’m thinking Eglinton here). On the other hand, maybe we may finally see some more of the Sheppard STUBway built, after all, a short line containing 5 stations does a subway line not make.

    Steve: During the campaign, the left was too busy being principled and supporting a candidate who couldn’t win, moreover a candidate who mused that his support for LRT might not be as strong as we thought it was. Meanwhile, Smitherman looked like he had a fighting chance and was still supportive of LRT and streetcars, and so was not seen as a threat.

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  6. The only brake, or block, that Toronto citizens have in this landslide of haste & waste that is Rob Ford is the 44 city councillors that actually vote on the motions. Secondarily Queen’s Park may have some indirect influence, as Steve’s outlined above. So what can we do? We can individually email, call, mail our city councillor, and MPP, and state our opposition to cutting the albeit imperfect Transit City plan. This will do much more than ranting on this or other blogs, and make our voices heard.

    Some local environment group or groups, such as the Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA), may spearhead such a campaign. One or more of us individuals may re-ignite the FaceBook Save Transit City group (as I believe it’s called). Blogging & commenting about how bad things will soon be under the present Mayorial regime will accomplish nothing.

    In effect, we need another Streetcars for Toronto movement, perhaps entitled LRT for Toronto, to make our voices heard, and around which the saner & more reasonable members of the public can contribute. This will require us to get up from our computers & PDAs & actually go out and contact people who make the decisions, the news media etc.

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  7. Once again Toronto is going backwards on Transit. We finally have some real transit building happening and now a red light. Stop and regroup, replan and waste loads of money in the process.

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  8. Welcome to the Age of Idiocy, where prejudice against intelligent decisions, rather than facts, will out. Cost saving? No, cronyism, and downtown Toronto will pay with more cars downtown, exurban expansion and pollution.

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  9. Whether Mr. Ford is an idiot or not, we should leave it to history to judge. Sometimes I wonder whether this is just policics to extract more money from the senior levels of government. Mr. Bush campaigned on “no nation building”, yet he is building Iraq and Afghanistan.

    With the by election win of Mr. Fantino, there is an incentive for Mr. Harper to fund something in Toronto ahead of the next election. Will it be enough to cover the $3 billion needed for a metro construction ? No one knows yet, but if it can secure Mr. Harper a majority then the calculation changes.

    Perhaps Mr. McGuinty is just biding for some time with his inaction. If council can overturn Mr. Ford’s decision, then all the better. Keep in mind that he has an election coming very soon. Ramming something through is not particular advantageous.

    On the bright side, Bombardier’s stock did not move at all today. One would expect the Airbus A320 announcement along with Mr. Ford’s announcement would put selling pressure on the stock. Perhaps, investors see the Bombardier contract as being safe for now.

    It must also be pointed out that if Mr. Ford cancels the order on the Flexity and order the T35A08 instead, the penalties can be waived. Northwest Airline did the same when they cancelled the CRJ-700 orders to purchase more CRJ-900 Next Gen .

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  11. With all the money Metrolinx was planning on spending through 2014 that will be too early to spend on new subways, it could be a bonanza for other Metrolinx projects that can be accelerated or funded. Such as VIVA and various GO Transit projects.

    And perhaps with Transit City dead, Metrolinx can also accelerate the new downtown subway that the City formally asked them to prioritize.

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  12. Can’t the province just force LRT on us they way they forced SRT on us (only this time it would be a good thing)?

    Steve: The difference is that the City and TTC went willingly for the SRT, even though the revisionist TTC historians like to claim they had nothing to do with it. They cleared the way for an el through STC by claiming it was needed to avoid isolating properties south of the right-of-way. Once the streetcar/LRT had borne the brunt of an el that Scarborough really didn’t want, it was no longer a big jump to the ICTS guideway.

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  13. The provincial government needs to help Ford back down on this promise once he realises what it will cost him so it will be more likely that he will. Otherwise all his energy will go into protecting his ego.

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  14. Steve…I share your disappointment and extreme concern about Transit City, The Big Move and the future of Metrolinx. However, I am trying to salvage something from the wreckage. As I understand it, Gary Webster and Metrolinx have 6 weeks to come up with a revised plan. I believe that Ford’s main beef with TC was the impact that LRT’s have on auto traffic. Here are some thoughts that might satisfy his agenda:

    -Much of Transit City was basically dead anyways (Jane, Don Mills, Waterfront, Malvern)

    -Some of the benefits of Transit City to those areas could be achieved by frequent all-day electrified GO service on all lines and improved/more connections to TTC. I recognize this is not by any means perfect, esp due to capacity issues at Union Station. But electrified GO is basically a “surface subway” with no interference to automobiles, and can be installed cheaper and quicker than underground subway. I think this warrants study.

    -Eglinton is basically a subway-by-another name in the central section. Build it to subway specs and terminate at Eglinton West station for now and extend to Kennedy Station. Perhaps some of the eastern extension could be at grade on a fully separated ROW. (not sure what the net cost implication is)

    -Scarboro LRT is on it own ROW anyways, with no auto interference. Leave as is.

    -Which leaves Sheppard East LRT! It makes no sense to convert this to a subway, due to low demand, the availability of a wide street, and the fact that construction contracts have been signed. Leave as LRT using Conlins Yard.

    This is by no means perfect, but at least the concept of frequent GO service to provide quality rapid transit to the suburbs, in lieu of Transit City, should be studied.

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  15. With the exception of Sheppard, I agree with Transit City. Sheppard, started as a subway, should be finished as a subway. And while we are at it, I would like to see a wide U-shaped Downtown Relief Line built. So, I have mixed feelings about Ford – although I would not assume that Transit City is dead as my understanding is that Queen’s Park would have to agree to its termination, and work has already begun. Just because “the boss” says something does not mean it will be.

    If people really want Transit City saved though, start sending in letters to Ford and McGuinty telling them that they want Transit City.

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  16. I wonder if all the talk of Ford saying “it must be underground” might allow the Eglinton LRT to continue, given that a good portion of it was already slated to be underground.

    Can we just put transit city underground (using LRT) and call it a subway?

    Are the substantial savings of LRT still present if we did underground LRT vs. full-fledged subway, or is it all that digging that costs so much?

    Clearly subway capacity is not needed on most of these routes, so LRT would be the perfect solution – above or below ground. Would underground add prohibitive costs?

    One other thought… I seem to recall that transit city lines were to be on standard gauge track? If we built underground LRT with TTC gauge (and planned for wide enough clearances) could we not ‘future-proof’ the tunnels so they could be converted to subway a few decades down the line if capacity needs are ever reached/exceeded?

    Or pehaps I am just in denial and finding any sort of silver lining on an announcement like this is a fruitless effort.

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  17. This so-called “mandate” keeps coming up. What mandate are people referring to? Ford got 47.114% of the votes, his main opponents split the vote, but got 47.337% together. More people wanted not-Ford than wanted Ford.

    Now it’s certainly fine that he is trying to what he said he’d do, but can we please be clear that there is/was not a clear direction as to what Toronto –as a whole–actually wants. I guess we’ll see that Council and the Commission actually do (notwithstanding that a mayor is simply one individual with a soap box in Toronto’s system).

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  18. Does the mayor have the power to direct the TTC to do anything? I would have expected that cancelling or radically altering such a huge project would require the approval of council.

    Steve: In law, no. In practice, yes. Ford will engineer a TTC stacked with enough votes to direct the staff to change course, and it would be a foolhardy Chief General Manager who would demand to wait for that formal direction. Council can only turn things around by voting down Ford’s picks for the TTC, and by ensuring that other critical committees are not controlled by the Mayor. That’s a tall order. Ford still controls the Executive Committee through which he can block a lot of things unless Council overrides with a super-majority.

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  19. I really don’t see Queen’s Park even sitting down to negotiate any changes unless Toronto City Council votes to scrap Transit City. Ford can say whatever he wants, but he still needs council approval. Frankly, I’m not convinced that Ford will be able to get enough support to win such a vote, especially if Toronto will be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties for cancelled contracts and work already completed. I guess we will soon find out though…

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  20. Hi Steve,

    Thanks for the constructive post. In your opinion, what do you think the other municipalities should do now that Ford has decided to go in another direction regarding transit in Toronto? I know in my backyard in Hamilton, LRT is still debated, even with the full understanding that no system could be in place for the Pan Am games. Does this spell the end or is this an opportunity for other municipalities to focus their efforts and build around Toronto’s infrastructure? Is this Metrolinx’s problem to solve?

    Steve: Metrolinx needs to get out there as a strong LRT advocate. The problem is that all of the funding decisions, and by implication timing and staging, are managed through the Premier’s Office, and McGuinty is not exactly coming out with trumpets blaring. He talks about respect for the democratic process in Toronto even though (a) Ford did not get 50% of the vote, (b) many Councillors support at least some aspects of Transit City, and (c) Ford’s campaign had more to do with “gravy” than with transit.

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  21. Couldn’t Toronto City Council vote against the mayor so as to let Transit City continue, or at least the part in progress contractually? Cancelling Transit City means that people along Eglinton would sacrifice a major transit improvement without any foreseeable replacement. (But then why did so many in the former City of York vote for Ford?) I read that the right-wing, Ford-endorsing councillor John Parker seems to recognize this and does not like to continue with just buses. I read that Karen Stintz had voted for Transit City. New Councillor Matlow (I think he is a political centrist) seems upset about Ford not consulting City Council. The centre and left of City Council still have a majority.

    Steve: Yes, but will they use it to (a) ensure that a pro-Transit City majority is appointed to the TTC board, and (b) pass a motion reaffirming Council’s support for Transit City? There will be ferocious lobbying to prevent such an action, and those who don’t support Ford will be cast into the outer darkness for all future favours.

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  22. ” Meanwhile, my box of “Big Move” documents can join the many other plans in my archives.”

    That’s kind of where my head is at today too. Another set of plans and meetings and presentations and hopes and involvement all brushed aside AGAIN. As a life-long resident it’s something witnessed far too often, to the point where I’m beginning to give up on all of it. Based on today, and the declared “end to the war on cars” and “everything new is underground”, I predict that Waterfront Toronto is in for a surprise when they start to try to close the eastbound lanes of Queen’s Quay for their long-awaited, long-approved, and world-wide competed design plan from West 8. Removing lanes is an attack on cars, and I sense it hasn’t come up for cancellation already simply because Mr. Ford’s team hasn’t clued in to it yet. I also predict that Eglinton will be waiting many more years before work begins for anything other than buses to run along it even though the proposed underground central portion would appear to fit the Ford administration’s sensibilities — the money just won’t be there for it after the boom in pricey tunnelling across Scarborough.

    I wonder whether it’s even worthwhile to look at plans anymore, or to listen to launch announcements, or even conjure-up lines of our own on maps. It’s all wasted effort, and worse, plays into conspiracy notions that have been around since the 1980s that planning work like EAs and Engineering design studies are all just a ‘cover’ to allow various governments to appear to be doing work while never having to commit or pay the really big capital bucks. And in doing those planning and design studies they both appease blinded voters and feed a ridiculously bloated and over-priced consultancy industry — consultants who rarely see their work translated into reality, I might add. To me, Metrolinx all along has sounded like another form of ‘cover’ and one that was never going to actually have the fortitude to actually implement something BIG.

    Fair dues to Mr. Ford on one thing… by pushing for Sheppard to be a subway to STC, he’s implementing a strategy from “Network 2011” regardless of whether that 25-year-old strategy is the best action to re-start in this particular century. Perhaps from that we can hope that DRL and something on Eglinton will come to be someday as Mr. Ford continues to complete that long-ago plan? Fat chance.

    Please continue to keep up the advocacy fight, Mr. Munro. Somebody will have to… because as a regular interested citizen, I’m just about throwing in the towel.

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  23. As one who actually lived through the birth of the Yonge Street subway, I can promise that citizens and businesses on a new subway line will have a minimum of at least three years of total disruption . The Bloor Street renovation blues and the inconvenience of city road repairs with detours will seem as nothing compared to subway construction suffering.

    Rapid transit makes sense. China is making great strides. Perhaps someone should take photos there and help Ford to understand that it is more practical than subway. Also get more streetcars, not fewer. They move more people more efficiently than adding buses.

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  24. It amazes me that there are not rules and regulations around what a mayor can do independent of the city council, and for what the city can do independent of the provincial or federal governments, or of organizations such as Metrolinx. Or perhaps such rules do exist, and Rob Ford is unaware or just not interested in following them.

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  25. As was said recently by multiple people in the Forged in Steel series… “it’s all about relationships.”

    To what extent “all” refers to in that sentence is likely to be underestimated at first. The relationships are myriad, intertwined, and complex, an intricate web of supporting elements, far too dependent on no abrupt changes for over a decade for the plan to succeed and the vision to be achieved. While warnings were raised about that, none were heeded.

    The overlooked relationships include the relationships various entities have with the public. This includes the municipal politicians’ relationship with the public, the provincial politicians’ relationship with the public, the Metrolinx relationship with the public, the TTC’s relationship with the public, and certain City of Toronto departments’ relationship with the public. These relationships are generally rocky at the moment, and some would be quite lacking in trust. There is enough evidence in some of the documents assembled during the EAs to draw a conclusion that the public wasn’t listened to on too many occasions, even when they were being reasonable, so why should they trust any of the parties involved?

    The goodwill towards the public, and meaningful engagement of the public, has been lacking on various fronts, and the public’s reaction through the election’s results should not be surprising. The power of the public has been underestimated by most of the power brokers, and only in hindsight do they realize that they themselves set the stage for this outcome over the course of a few years.

    The power brokers themselves didn’t have enough understanding of their own plans, which made selling it to the public all the more mishandled. How there could have been such a lack of understanding in the first place is hard to wrap one’s mind around, as some of the missteps seem obvious to those of us that have been at this for some time and actually are familiar with local areas. In the end, not surprisingly, the result is a lack of acceptance, as nobody knows what people are talking about (possibly including those doing the talking in some cases).

    The public isn’t sure what’s going on, and so they want out.

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  26. The Big Move didn’t die. Transit City did.

    Steve: Transit City was wounded the moment McGuinty stretched out the funding and reduced the scope. The Big Move is in mortal danger is it can be changed on a whim by any politician regardless of regional implications or overall planning strategies. Kicking the pols off of the Metrolinx Board eliminated the need for them to get along with each other.

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  27. I’m wondering if you will become a big Metrolinx fan if that unelected organization blocks the elected mayor’s preferred direction?

    Steve: The elected Mayor is one vote on a council of 45. His arrogance in moving without Council support shows exactly how much use he has for democratic process.

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  28. While facts and plans may not really matter to Mayor Ford, his campaign promises and edicts are not yet policy – it is the Council that must decide at some point whether to incur a lot of cancellation charges and delays from moving away from the beginnings of Transit City, and to embrace subways in job and residential sprawl vs. compact urban form where density supports massive investment in big infrastructure.

    Of course, some parts of Transit City are not ideal – but for my part I’ve been fairly mute on the more suburban routes now being worked on – because it seems sensible, in contrast to the Sorbara subway and the link to the brown elephant of Pearson.

    Our tasks as transitphiles and enviros is likely to work on Councillors, and to play a divide and conquer game to stress the narrowness of benefits of a stubway or two to all of us in Caronto, and to also tally up the many costs of shifting and cancelling, and ask how fair that is to taxpayers to $quander umpteen millions already? We also need to stress that since subways are so expensive to build and operate, gee, won’t we need all the money we can get – like the c. $60M from the car registration tax that is another of Mr. Ford’s pet peeves from being dragged into the greenhouse century.

    So while it’s a bleaker day in Caronto the Carrupt, working on Councillors to deflect this effort, with its potential to beggar our system and its expansion while still putting fordth a greener veneer, that pressure for reasoned (in)action on Councillors is what is now necessary.

    And writing letters to newspapers etc. will also be part of the solution, not necessarily the blah-blahging that some of us do here, as well-informed and thoughtful as most of it is.

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  30. I think it is a great time to move out of this city for good. If politics keep interfering with Toronto transit expansion like this, time and time again, it is guaranteed that the city will continue to be a transit-deprived and car-congested swamp in which it is very hard to live.

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  31. It is true that today could be a dark day if it is in fact the day that another transit plan for the city of Toronto hits the shelves. However, how much of the announcement made today is just smoke and mirrors? Its just politics – Rob Ford still needs the majority of council to vote on these changes. Do you think he can get 23 votes to scrap TC?

    Steve: He will try very hard. As I mentioned earlier in this comment thread, many swing votes on Council will be pressured to support Ford’s position and threatened with dire consequences for going over to the opposition. Council is being forced to choose sides very, very early in the mandate.

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  32. Perhaps Metrolinx figures this is all political theatre anyway, and is taking a pass. Why should the province risk taking the blame for Rob Ford’s impossible transit promises?

    I mean, isn’t redirecting blame the purpose of Ford’s provocative declaration that Transit City is over? I guess Ford figures lefty councillors will now start shrieking and pass a council motion that overrules him, and he can blame council for thwarting the people’s will yet again.

    Instead of taking the bait, Toronto Council should respond to Ford’s delusions by saying, “Subways? Fine. Where’s the money?” and repeat as necessary.

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  33. And I have a feeling that in six weeks, Ford is going to “discover” how much his vision costs, promptly declare that the city cannot afford new subways and tell the TTC that it will have to continue “living within its means” since he can’t suddenly turn around and say that Transit City is alive again.

    Someone needs to explain to me when fiscal conservatism became synonymous with “Don’t worry, daddy (province/federal government/china) can pay for it if you can’t afford it.” After all, part of the idea behind Transit City was to improve transit without having funding dependent on higher levels of government; unlike Ford’s plan.

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  34. Ford wants to develop a “transportation” plan and not a “transit” plan. With his remarks on “the war on the car is over”, I see it as a war on bicycles and transit. I hope the other councilors will be aware of that.

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  35. There should be a special circle of Hell for people like Ford. This could be the worst thing that has ever happened to Toronto. Might as well start building expressways…

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  38. Hi Steve

    The only that comes to mind right now is something that Groucho Marks said – “time wounds all heels”. It is going to be a long four years.

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  39. What a sad sad state of affairs. Transit in Toronto is already over 20 years behind from what it should be. Canceling TC will further push us back another 20 years. If Hudak gets elected next year we can add another 20 for a grand total of 60 years. This might be the point where Historians will look back and state that the terminal decline of Toronto happened December 1st, 2010.

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  40. I am getting cynical now. How many times has Toronto been presented with “The Plan”, only to have it shredded before it becomes a reality ? Shades of Mike Harris ! Last time, we filled a hole on Eglinton, this time we’re paving over work on Sheppard.

    Makes it hard to get excited in the future about the next “Big Thing”.

    Why do politicians insist on hauling out these grandiose plans just as they are about to go to the polls ? I wonder if Miller had presented LRTs in his first term (un-burdened with the new taxes, garbage strike, etc.), would we now be ridding the Sheppard LRT today or next year ? Would it be harder for Ford to kill something that was already being demonstrated as a solution (I hope) ?

    If (and probably when) McGuinty gets defeated in the next election, Hudak and the Conservatives can kill/maim Metrolinx and then transit in the GTA can then disappear for another four years.

    Sad day, today. The “War on the Car” is over and Ford’s mythical subway will probably die a quiet death. Four years from now, we can expect the same service and transit experience today, but encumbered with more traffic.

    If by some chance, he does get the subway (and I really doubt it), perhaps we could call it the Ford subway.

    To paraphrase a slogan goes … “Have you ridden a Ford today ?” Sigh.

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