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In Thursday’s National Post, my colleague Chris Selley noted, rightly, that “Torontonians of all political stripes and worldview are prone fits of flamboyant, armchair-expert defeatism, cynicism and despair” whenever the topic of building out the city’s transport infrastructure comes up. It’s true, every word of it, and I’m as guilty as the next guy on this score. Perhaps Chris is, too, at least of the feeling, if not the expressing — he acknowledges later in his column that the cynicism is, in this case, entirely warranted.
Yes, it is. And, I’m sorry to say, things are actually even worse than we thought. For proof, I point to the proposed transit plan of mayoral candidate Olivia Chow, which ought to be possible … but isn’t.
Announced early in her campaign, Ms. Chow’s transit plan consists of three prongs. The long-term element, still many years away, agrees that a new subway line through the downtown core must happen, to relieve pressure on overcrowded parts of the current system. In the medium term, she prefers LRT to subway in Scarborough, Toronto’s generally suburban eastern borough. And in the short-term, and here’s where things get depressing, she simply wants to make things better, fast, by increasing bus service during rush hour periods by 10%, thus improving the service for the roughly 60% of Toronto Transit Commission riders who take a surface route on a good-old fashioned bus.
That is an entirely sensible, entirely reasonable proposal, and it is, of course, entirely impossible.
Last week, the Toronto Star — a paper generally favourably inclined to self-styled “progressive” candidates such as Ms. Chow — ran a news story that absolutely demolished the short-term element of Ms. Chow’s plan. First of all, there aren’t enough buses to boost rush hour service by 10%, as every available bus is already put into the field for rush hour. There are no more to be sent, and, in fact, the Star reported, Toronto will be pulling buses off the street to more aggressively address fleet-wide maintenance issues.
Second, even if Ms. Chow, if elected mayor, found a way to procure more buses — that would cost a lot more than the $15-million a year she has budgeted for the 10% service boost and involve a years-long procurement process, but even if — there’s no place to store the buses. The TTC already has too little garage capacity, and needs an additional $100-million to get started on a new facility in the north of the city. If fully funded, the facility would need at least five years — more than an entire mayoral term — to complete.
Oh, and even if Toronto found the buses and built the garage, the TTC’s bus driver pool is already largely tapped out. The city would need to hire more staff.
In summary, Ms. Chow’s “short-term” transit plan would not be possible to implement in the short term, and would cost more than what she’s set aside to pay for it, even if she chose to push ahead despite the inevitable years-long wait. Her plan is a nice idea, but the TTC insists it’s just not possible.
That’s a problem for Ms. Chow’s campaign — one of her key, early commitments cannot be delivered upon. She’ll need to rethink that one. But it’s also a symptom of the bigger problem Toronto faces, the one that has left the city in its discouraged, cynical state. Put bluntly, whatever you think of Ms. Chow or her policies, boosting rush hour bus service ought to be something that a modern, major world city is capable of. This shouldn’t be impossible, or even all that difficult. But there are at least three major impediments — vehicles, logistical infrastructure and personnel shortages — that, in combination, make even as modest a boost as a 10% bump to service for a few hours a day effectively impossible.
Sorry to sound cynical, but how depressing is that?
Buying buses shouldn’t be a years-long ordeal. The TTC shouldn’t be short of garage and maintanence facilities in the first place, and even if it does fall behind, it shouldn’t be a hundred million bucks and five years away from a solution. Properly staffing the fleet shouldn’t be as hard as we make it. But it is, three times over.
This isn’t the fault of the TTC itself (which has competent, expert leadership) but the government it serves. But that government, and its culture, will endure no matter who becomes the next mayor. When you consider the scale of the problem, and how limited the means to address them are, cyncism isn’t just understandable. It ought to be mandatory.
National Post
Mgurney@nationalpost.com
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