Politicians still failing commuters
Like dogs chasing their tails, politicians make a futile game of transit planning in Toronto. It’s not an exaggeration. Doug Ford’s transit policy announcement this week takes us back to the future — a kind of merry-go-round in which we lose time, money and have the sense of optimism spun out of us by a succession of politically-motivated decisions. Ford’s transit policy will cost us the same: time, money and our sense of optimism. Ford promises that, as premier, he w would take over responsibility for subww Toronto. Commuters should be rejoicing. Queen’s Park should be paying for this. It’s the rest of his transit policy that raises concern. In isolation, Ford’s pronouncements and claims have resonance with many transit users. As often is the case with his ideas, holes appear after scrutiny. Ford would: Complete the Sheppard Subway as originally planned, from Don Mills out to the Scarborough Town Centre. This would abort current plans to construct an LRT line from the Don Mills subway terminus, eastward, as far as the Toronto zoo area. A reasonable analysis of this might conclude that today’s Sheppard Subway is underperforming. For it to have any chance of breaking even, it has to connect to the Scarborough City Centre, as originally designed. But the numbers also suggest that, even with a full extension, the original plan, ridership numbers will never justify a subway along Sheppard in our kids’ lifetime. Instead of killing Sheppard as a subway, former Conservative premier Mike Harris mortally wounded it by approving what is now known as the Sheppard Stub-way. Ford plans to beat the dead horse. Extend the Bloor-Danforth subway line from Kennedy, both using three stops, to link with the Sheppard subway somewhere around McCowan Rd., and also closing the loop. The current plan, amended and gerrymandered and manipulated to appear feasible, is a one-stop extension from Kennedy to the Town Centre at 401 and McCowan.
Even that is an over-build. Ford would widen the pit and pour in more tax dollars, money he plans to cut from valuable services. Analysis suggest this is Exhibit A in the dictionary of how not to plan and deliver transit. Every step taken so far is demonstrably wrong. The gap between Kennedy and the Scarborough City Center is now served by the Scarborough RT, an intermediate-capacity system that’s been allowed to atrophy to the point of rendering it unlovable.
All the TTC had to do was retrofit and update the RT (it opened in 1985) and we would have a modern, functional line similar to the ones in Vancouver, which use the same system. Instead, city council opted for a LRT system, under Mayor David Miller, fully funded by the province.
Miller’s successor Rob Ford bellowed that LRT is the worst thing on the planet. Before you know it, city council passed a 30-year property tax to pay for something that was already paid for by the province. Subway was now cemented in the people’s mind. But that wasn’t all. Enter John Tory and his own plans for transit, plans hatched during a mayoralty campaign. Let’s use existing GO tracks and put in Smart Track, faster and cheaper than the TTC can provide.
City planners observed the obvious: placing Smart Track right beside a subway is an overbuild on top of an overbuild. Both lines would cannibalize each other. In a decision worthy of Solomon, chief city planner Jennifer Keesmaat found a political solution: reduce the number of Smart Track stations and reduce the number of subway stops. The one-stop subway was born, with a pricetag now pushing north of $4 billion. Unfazed, Doug Ford, is looking to deliver what his brother wanted.
The three-stop subway is back. And what that means for Smart Track stop at Lawrence is a question Tory wants to avoid. Exhausted? There is more. Bury the Eglinton Crosstown LRT underground, where feasible. Current plans would see phase 2 of the Crosstown operate on the surface for 11 kilometres west of Black Creek Dr. and 12 kilometres east of Kennedy. Putting the LRT underground would “respect drivers” and “respect neighbourhoods,” says Ford. Huh?
Support Yonge subway extension up to Richmond Hill, and the construction of the downtown relief line, a project the TTC and the city says is a prerequisite for the northerly extension of the Yonge subway. Hip hip hooray! Who doesn’t want any of those?
But consider this: Ford is setting aside an extra $5 billion, when, as Councillor Josh Matlow has calculated, the projects total more than $30 billion and have funding for $9 billion. Ford is short $16 billion.
Also, Ford has been silent about the surface LRT planned along Finch Ave. West, heading out to his riding. It’s already burning up provincial money: more than $200 million and counting.
Surely, not even a sub waymad politico would put a subway on Finch where a Bus Rapid Transit would suffice for another 30 years.
Ford seemed to be speaking truth to himself when he said: “Too many special interests are making even the simplest investments outrageously expensive.”