Spadina Subway

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TTC Meeting Wrapup: December 13, 2006

The first full meeting of the new Moscoe-less TTC took place on Wednesday.  Nothing was particularly astonishing.  Like all first meetings, we watched as the newcomers found their way around the agenda and the complexity of what’s going on.  One can only hope that new Commissioners will learn to address issues rather than making speeches.

To his credit, the new Chair Adam Giambrone stayed on top of the agenda and moved business along as briskly as possible without visibly throttling debate.  A few delicate interventions framing the sense of the meeting in a motion rescued us all from interminable rambling.

Meanwhile on the agenda: Continue reading →

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TTC Capital Budget: Where Will The Money Come From?

In between many screenings at the Film Festival, I took the opportunity to write up the TTC’s Capital Budget presentation from August 30.  The information here is a combination of the TTC staff presentation, remarks by Ted Tyndorf, Chief Planner for Toronto, and my own opinions.  This is intended mainly as a view of the most recent TTC thoughts on the subject. 

Here are the high points:

  • Expenditures on transit have been deferred over and over again, with most big-ticket attention going to a handful of subway lines.  This is not sustainable.
  • Population and ridership growth is happening faster than predicted, and significant investment in new and improved service is essential.
  • The goals of the Official Plan and Building a Transit City are not worth a penny if we are not going to invest in transit.
  • The TTC budget projections push some projects further into the future than is reasonable if we are going to lead population growth with transit, for example, the Transit First policy for the eastern waterfront. 
  • There is no provision for many new lines including the proposed LRT/BRT network in Scarborough or anything in the Don Mills corridor.

I will take up the issue of where we should go next with transit planning in a future post, likely over the weekend.  Meanwhile, the gory details. Continue reading →

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Spadina Subway Financing

A report on the Policy and Finance Committee’s agenda for Tuesday, July 18 goes into the rather dry business of setting up a trustee for the Move Ontario Trust.  This creature will be used to hold the moneys contributed by various governments to the Spadina Subway project.

The current project cost estimate, all the way to Vaughan Corporate Centre Station, is $2.1-billion (2006).  To date, the Province has contributed $670-million, slightly less than one-third and with no provision for inflation, in the fund.  York Region’s share is yet to be determined, and everyone looks with hope on Ottawa for a matching contribution.  We shall see. Continue reading →

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Christoper Hume and Jeff Gray Write About Transit

The Sunday Star had an article by Christopher Hume called The Error of Our Subways.

While the rest of the world embraced the importance of transit, Toronto wasted time and money on momuments to egotistical politicians and technology boondoggles.

There are a few glitches in Hume’s article, but it’s good to see this whole debate getting an airing.  If we are going to spend money on transit, let’s spend it in the right place.

Meanwhile, Jeff Gray writing in today’s Globe reports that the number crunchers at Queen’s Park have combed through recent Federal Budget papers, and have found not one penny to pay for the Spadina subway extension to York University. 

How long will it take for someone at Queen’s Park to wake up to the fact that they could build a really great LRT network focussed on York U with the $1.3-billion represented by the provincial and municipal shares of the Spadina subway proposal? 

The fact that York U and their supporters have wasted so much time and effort on a subway proposal shows how badly understood the real alternatives are.  That’s the legacy of those wasted decades and the thinking that brought us the Sheppard subway.

I remember former mega-mayor Mel Lastman saying that “real cities don’t use streetcars”.  Sorry Mel, but real cities built transit systems while Toronto argued where to put a few miles of track.

Can Dalton McGuinty and David Miller save us from this folly?  Do we have to wait until both are safely re-elected before we start considering alternatives?

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A Question of Density, Indeed

My thanks to Greg Mckhool for reminding me that I needed to write something about this:

There is a misleading comment in the Dr. Gridlock column of today’s (Apr. 3) Globe and Mail by the TTC’s Tom Middlebrook that needs to be highlighted.

He tries to justify extending the subway to Vaughan’s “field of dreams” by saying that Toronto’s downtown didn’t look like it does today when the Yonge subway was built.  Technically that’s true, but there certainly was a downtown there, and transit ridership along Yonge was substantial. He should know better…

You can find Jeff Gray’s column (Dr. Gridlock) here. Continue reading →

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Density and Subway Construction

Two recent press items caught my eye:

  • In today’s Globe & Mail, we have an article about residents of Sheppard Avenue who are astounded to find that high density, high rise development is coming to their neighbourhoods.  This development is a direct consequence of the Sheppard Subway line and, indeed, that line’s existence was cited by the Ontario Municipal Board as a reason that the developments should be approved.  Click here.
  • In Thursday’s Metro, Ed Drass reports rather astounding, if sensible, statements attributed to Rick Ducharme, Chief General Manager of the TTC.  Ducharme feels that if the Spadina extension is going to be like Sheppard, without significant, high density development, then it should not be built.  Click here.

Continue reading →