TTC board wants more say in transit planning

Agency seeking to take over management of projects to extend Eglinton Crosstown

The TTC board wants to reassert its transit planning authority by taking over the project management role of the proposed east- and west-end extensions of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT.

It directed TTC staff Wednesday to develop a schedule that would see both projects begin service by 2021, when the central portion of the Crosstown is expected to be up and running.

“It’s basically track, cement and wire. The private sector doesn’t have the equipment or the competence around overhead stuff,” said Coun- cillor Joe Mihevc, a board member, who told the board that Torontonians and the federal government want some quick wins on transit.

“Once the federal government commits and throws some money at it, let’s get moving,” he said.

The Crosstown West would continue the LRT from Mount Dennis toward the airport employment hub. The Crosstown East is part of the latest Scarborough subway plan. It proposes a single stop extension of the Bloor-Danforth line to the Scarborough Town Centre and then a 17-stop LRT from Kennedy Station to the U of T Scarborough campus. But TTC CEO Andy Byford, who has been trying to get the overdue, over-budget Spadina subway extension back on track, wasn’t immediately enthusiastic about the prospect of managing and potentially building the LRT. “We need to take that away and think about it,” he said.

Only last week, in a memo to staff, he defended the TTC’s role as a partner in planning after Star columnist Royson James wrote that transit officials were being sidelined in the planning process that has migrated to the city and provincial agency Metrolinx.

On Wednesday, Byford repeated that, “It’s simply not true to say that we’ve ceded planning to city planning.

“Where maybe I differ from some people in the TTC, I passionately believe that the city has a part to play in transit planning as part of a wider city planning, but that we should do that in partnership,” he said.

Signalling its interest in a continued planning role for the system, the TTC board directed staff to produce other reports, including:

A potential connection between the Eglinton Crosstown and the Finch West LRT, to make the airport more accessible. Councillor Shelley Carroll, who also sits on the TTC board, said she was shocked by a recent Greater Toronto Airports Authority report that showed 3 per cent of Pearson workers come from the two job-hungry neighbourhoods close to the airport but can’t get there in a reasonable time by transit.

Options for connecting Union Station to future transit on Queens Quay East. Among the alternatives that have been considered is a moving sidewalk that would circumvent the need to run LRTs directly into the station.

The board also approved a presentation made by Toronto chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat last month on designs for steadily increasing transit over the coming 15 years, including SmartTrack, a relief line and the Scarborough subway extension. But the TTC made its approval contingent on being able to fund the maintenance of the existing system.

Many of the proposed transit expansion plans, including the relief line, remain unfunded. It’s not clear how much influence the TTC can wield over the city’s transit decisions, since city council approves new transit lines and has disregarded the TTC’s advice in the past. Meanwhile, planning of the Scarborough subway, including the environmental assessment, was delegated to the city’s planning department two years ago.

The TTC board has asked for a report that would clarify the role of the city and the TTC in transit planning.