New streetcars get a thumbs-up as Toronto favours relief line, poll finds
Sixty per cent want priority given to DRL as Scarborough maintains support for subway
Torontonians love to hate their transit. They appear, however, to be making an exception when it comes to the TTC’s new streetcars.
Only 36 per cent of respondents to a Forum Research poll had seen or ex- perienced the new streetcars since they launched Aug. 31 on Spadina. However, among those who had seen or been aboard the low-floor Bombardier vehicles, 79 per cent approved of the ride.
The highest approval scores (92 per cent) came from respondents with incomes under $20,000 a year and those in the $60,000 to $80,000 range.
When it came to subways, Forum found that the downtown relief line rated as a higher priority than the Scarborough subway everywhere in the city except Scarborough. Sixty per cent of respondents said the DRL should be the first project to break ground. In Scarborough, however, 70 per cent put the Scarborough subway first. The result comes as mayoral candidate Olivia Chow’s approval is falling significantly in Scarborough, where she is championing an LRT to replace the SRT. Among Chow supporters, 66 per cent prefer the DRL, compared with 71 per cent of John Tory’s backers.
It’s an indication that transit platforms are no longer determining how people vote, said Forum Research president Lorne Bozinoff. Tory’s SmartTrack platform, a transit plan based largely on the provincial GO electrification scheme, “is the only idea that ever really cut through, besides “subways, subways, subways,” said Bozinoff.
Support for Mayor Rob Ford’s transit platform — 32 kilometres of subway at a cost of $9 billion (an estimate that has been widely disparaged as much too low) — has split support across the city, with 46 per cent on either side of the approval divide. In Scarborough, however, 63 per cent approved Ford’s plan.
When it comes to transit planning, “It’s almost as if there were two cities involved — Scarborough and everywhere else,” Bozinoff said.