Updated June 27 at 5:20pm: I have written a political analysis of today’s announcement for the Torontoist website that will probably go live tomorrow morning. A line-by-line review of the plan will go up here later the same day.
TTC Chair Karen Stintz and Vice-Chair Glen De Baeremaeker will formally announce a new plan called “One City” on June 27 at 10:30.
The plan already has coverage on the Star and Globe websites. Maps: Globe Star
I will comment in more detail after their press conference, but two points leap off the page at me:
- The proposed funding scheme for the $30-billion plan presumes 1/3 shares from each of the Provincial and Federal governments. This money is extremely unlikely to show up, especially Ottawa’s share. From Queen’s Park, some of the funding is from presumed “commitments” to current projects such as the Scarborough RT/LRT conversion which would be replaced by a subway extension. The rest is uncertain.
- The “plan” is little more than a compendium of every scheme for transit within the 416 that has been floated recently in various quarters (including this blog). What is notable is the fact that glitches in some of the existing ideas (notably the fact that the Waterfront East line ends at Parliament) are not addressed. The whole package definitely needs some fine tuning lest it fall victim to the dreaded problem of all maps — once you draw them, it’s almost impossible to change them.
For those who keep an eye on political evolution, the brand “One City” surfaced in April 2012 in a speech made by Karen Stintz at the Economic Club of Canada. This idea of a new, unifying transit brand appears to have been cooking for some time.
Steve Munro 