by

Waterfront Revitalization Five and Ten Year Plans

A report on the Policy and Finance agenda for July 18 sets out the business plan for various waterfront projects.  Like the Spadina Subway (discussed elsewhere) this work will be funded through a trust to which various governments will contribute.  Much of this report is dry financial stuff where we take money out of one pot, put it in another, shuffle the cards around, and hope it all comes out in the end.

The interesting stuff is in Appendix A which describes the various projects.  Here we learn the current plans for construction of LRT lines to the eastern waterfront.

  • EA studies to complete by the end of 2008.
  • Construction start in the West Donlands in 2008 and the East Bayfront in 2009.
  • West Donlands LRT (the Cherry Street Car) to be completed by 2008/09 or 2010/11 depending on which page of the report you believe. 
  • East Bayfront LRT (the Queen’s Quay Car) to be completed by 2010/11 or 2014/15 depending etc.

Development of the Port Lands (east of the Don River) is not mentioned probably because it lies beyond the 10-year horizon of this plan.

I mention these schemes in the context of the TTC’s fleet planning.  We are developing a huge new part of the city, and it will need transit service.  Decisions about new streetcars cannot be delayed indefinitely if we are serious in the “transit first” commitment to new neighbourhoods.

by

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 →

by

St. Clair Update

Construction is finally underway west from Avenue Road and St. Clair to Tweedsmuir.  At this point, the work is on sidewalks and utilities, but you can see the extent of the road widening from the cuts into lawns between Avenue Road and Russell Hill.  Traffic in the construction area is now confined, more or less, to the streetcar lanes in the middle of the road. Continue reading →

by

Flights to Nowhere Revisited (Updated)

A staff response to the Commission’s queries about escalator reliability appears as item 35b in the agenda for the July 19th meeting.  You can read the report here.

The report proposes a system that will alert Collectors and the central escalator maintenance office at Ossington Station when a problem occurs.  The basic problem is that most units are not wired back to the Collector’s booth and the way station staff find out about stoppages is that someone complains.

I might be understanding about this situation at, say, King Station where the Melinda escalator, often stopped, is old and miles from the booth.  However, the guinea-pig station for this project is Bayview on the Sheppard line.  It’s so nice to learn that our $1-billion bought us some tolerably interesting architecture, but no system to alert staff when an escalator is stopped.

Assuming the trial at Bayview is successful, all escalators and elevators on the Sheppard line will be hooked up by the end of 2010, and the rest of the network will follow by 2012.  Then, finally, mechanics can be dispatched to the scene.

Maybe while they’re putting in all of the new communications gear for this project and station security upgrades, they can snap a photo of all those teenagers who are alleged to be stopping the escalators.  Run mug shots on the platform video screens.  Catch those villains!

Meanwhile, the report is silent on the simple question of why route supervisors at major stations like Kennedy or Finch don’t report escalator problems and, where possible, deal with them as a basic part of their job.

My original post on this subject follows below. Continue reading →

by

Earth Matters

My good friend and fellow activist, Gord Perks, premiered his new hour-long show on CP24 tonight called Earth Matters.  The format is a familiar one for CP24 — talk about an issue with guests suitable for the topic, take calls from interested viewers, and add some comments by the host.

Gord’s first show was all about smog, and I was fascinated by the number of callers from the 905 and beyond asking about smog issues.  Callers from Toronto, especially downtown, were a minority.

This was Gord’s maiden outing on the host side of television, and I tip my hat to him.  An hour of TV, even with commercials, is a lot to fill.  I’ve done a few long interviews on live radio and TV, and there’s no luxury to pause and ponder — the microphone and camera are right there, waiting.

Who knows, we may see Gord prowling the corridors of City Hall, pursuing activists like me for sound bites one day.  Maybe he’ll even interview himself!

Earth Matters airs on CP24 at 9:00 pm every Thursday.  It’s not on the online program grid yet, and so I don’t know if there will be a repeat broadcast at some other time in the cycle.

by

Waterfront West and the Front Street Extension

The Environmental Assessment for the western extension of the waterfront line will get underway soon with the usual preparatory phase of creating the Terms of Reference.  This brings to mind a note I received a while ago from Hamish Wilson, long time opponent of the Front Street Extension, and begs the question of whether the transit EA can be used to revisit options for the corridor as a whole much as the EA now in progress for the Airport Link has widened out to a general review of the northwest corridor.  Continue reading →

by

Reader Comments: Transit Service Quality

This post is in the best journalistic tradition.  On those slow days and holiday weekends, all the material you’ve been saving up for months finally sees the light of day.  To readers who submitted comments and wondered where they went, take heart.  Today is for you!  This post collects comments loosely related to service quality and operations.

Back in March, I was writing about how transit services are analyzed.  We’re still waiting for the 2007 Service Plan to give us updated stats, but it’s time to rekindle the discussion here. Continue reading →