Sorry, why exactly should the City of Toronto concern itself with how people from Markham - who pay no property taxes to the city - get downtown? That is, quite simply, the responsibility of Metrolinx/GO, not the TTC, and one wonders why it should be in the purview of Toronto City Council to make up solutions for regional GTA transportation.
Oh, dear.I could answer this question all day! But this isn't the transportation forum so I'll do my best to be succinct.
Firstly, those people from Markham (and every other suburb) come into Toronto by the 10s of thousands every day (and people go the other way too). Yeah, I know your property tax argument but I'd point out to you that those people from WAY OVER THERE in Markham go to Raptors games and buy lunches in Toronto and get a coffee in Toronto and ... you know, instead of listing 50 things I'll just point out to you that there is no concrete wall at the 416/905 border and if you don't think it's important to Toronto how commuters, from Markham or elsewhere get in or out of the city...well, I'm just going to guess that economic development isn't at the top of your resume. If you don't care about how they get to work, let's just bar them from getting into Toronto ("416 for the 416!") and see how that goes.
Is it Toronto council's "purview" to "make up solutions for regional GTA transportation"? No, it's not and that, along with a lack of ongoing funding, is arguably the single biggest obstruction to building transit in this region. Toronto council (and the TTC) really don't care what happens to some commuter who gets off one of their buses at the municipal border but riders feel differently; riders don't care what colour the bus is, they just want to get from A to B. So, you're right that Metrolinx has to do that job but the least Toronto could do is not obstruct them, say, by wasting 30-years worth of money on a subway that doesn't meet local OR regional needs. That's why some sort of upload or merger with TTC is likely inevitable though, sure, you'd be quite right to point out it hasn't happened yet.
But, to come back on thread, the fact that it's not their "purview," doesn't mean there's something wrong with the Mayor of Toronto acknowledging that the city is not an island and indeed its economic future is very much interlinked with those of its suburbs. So scolding Tory for having the temerity to have a line that terminates outside the city is beyond absurd to me.
Metrolinx - the guys doing the job Toronto couldn't care less about - are doing a large-scale study of how to relieve the Yonge line and the DRL is one of several solutions but the entire point of the whole enterprise is that the DRL provides REGIONAL relief because those annoying People from Markham are riding the subway anyway, crowding out people who want to get on further south. Giving those foreigners different transit options for getting into downtown is precisely the point of building a transit network.
I'm not going to defend every aspect of how Tory has done SmartTrack because it's definitely, obviously flawed, but at the broad level it is essentially the RER plan Metrolinx is already working on which, yes, uses GO's train lines. Whether it comes to be as a GO project or TTC or something else remains to be seen but it's not like he totally pulled the plan out of his ass, like Doug's subways.
As for Eglinton, I'm aware of the Richview corridor. I'll just say what I just said: Tory's SmartTrack isn't going to happen as presented because even if Toronto council votes to move forward with it, it's Metrolinx's rail lines so they'll almost certainly be the lead on it. I don't think any mayoral candidates should be talking about anything other than buses anyway, because they effectively can't build or fund any of these crazy lines-on-a-map plans they're devising. I hate the whole charade, sincerely. But since the core essence of Tory's plan is already happening, I'm not worried about being "too charitable," and I nearly take offence at the notion that it extending a stop or two into the 905 is somehow a further strike against it.