2018 Provincial Election Transit Promises

[Hopkins123]

^ I agree. The suburban voters are far to important and RER caters to them as does ST. I can see him continuing or even expanding on the RER system by totally grade separating them so he is bringing "subways, subways, subways" to the suburbs which in of itself wouldn't be a bad thing. Any future LRTs {except possible Hurontario} will be canned as will the DRL. I can also see him wanting to grade separate the entire Eglinton line from Kennedy to Jane which of course it should be.

Of course, I think Ford will result in another Liberal or potential NDP government.

Eglinton should have been fully grade separated from Day One. It was foolish on the Wynne Liberals' part to not even examine it east of Don Mills. Now we're potentially right back to where we started with the McGuinty-Ford MOU.

 

[Hopkins123]

My bet is that a putative Premier Ford pushes GO RER and the Scarborough Subway. Possibly Sheppard and Yonge North beyond that. I don't think the DRL would be a priority for him.

I think all GTA LRTs that don't have shovels in the ground are at risk.

Liberals talk a good game about building subways, Tories actually do.

Leaving Sheppard Subway unfinished for 15 years just may come back to haunt them.

 

[BurlOak]

Eglinton should have been fully grade separated from Day One. It was foolish on the Wynne Liberals' part to not even examine it east of Don Mills. Now we're potentially right back to where we started with the McGuinty-Ford MOU.

Rob Ford wanted Eglinton LRT grade-separated from Don Mills to Kennedy.
That was the reason the Liberals canned the idea. They didn't want to prop up Ford in any way when his drug troubles started.
Essentially, the Liberals put politics ahead of good transit.

 

[BurlOak]

Liberals talk a good game about building subways, Tories actually do.

Leaving Sheppard Subway unfinished for 15 years just may come back to haunt them.

Problem is, the Liberals never do what's right - its all about politics, and periodically that might align with what's right. They also always over promise and under deliver.
David Miller was popular in the 2008 period so the Liberals went along with the Transit City plan.
When Ford was first elected, he was popular so the Liberals went along with the grade-separated Eglinton plan.
When Fords troubles started, the Liberals returned to the Transit City plan to drive another nail into the Ford coffin.
When their election chances looked harmed, they pushed Council to build the subway.

 

[pman]

Liberals talk a good game about building subways, Tories actually do.

Leaving Sheppard Subway unfinished for 15 years just may come back to haunt them.

Right, so the Tories built the Spadina extension and the Liberals are dead against SSE. Not that I think either project makes any sense. But you know, facts sometimes matter.

 

[Juan_Lennon416]

If Ford becomes Premier, I wonder how soon the DRL would get started?

 

[BurlOak]

If Ford becomes Premier, I wonder how soon the DRL would get started?

Sooner than the 15+ years that it has taken since the Liberals have taken power.

 

[Kitsune]

... its time to have a golden horeshoe only party. Enough ridings for a majority and then we would never need to worry about the Libs Cons and NDP.

 

[hw621]

I don't know why people think the Cons have such a good record of building transit, what projects do they have to show for themselves.

It's more like what the Fords have to show for themselves.

 

[crs1026]

Ford will impale himself on the same "must lower taxes" pledge that is strangling Toronto at the municipal level. That will mean deferring just about everything.

I suspect the Finch LRT will be toast - especially with Mammo playing Sancho Panza to Ford's Don Quioxte. Whether Hurontario and Hamilton LRT's will survive is also good question. Eglinton west extension is Toronto funded so might survive. I bet he has reservations about LRT in Scarborough.

Whether he can swallow P3 based transit projects will be interesting - the good news, they involve private sector and they keep debt off provincial balance sheets. But they are fundamentally a fudge to hide borrowing. I suspect he will call for across the board reduction in annual operating costs, and that will threaten some transit projects which add operating expense (including the servicing cost for that debt financing).

- Paul

 

[nfitz]

Does this mean that the Lawrence stop is being added back?

Only in the sense that it's more likely they'll have to further life-extend the SRT. Obviously SmartTrack is dead.

Holy fuck, if Ford becomes a Premier it will set back GTA transit planning for a generation.

That's optimistic. Probably longer. Harris set us back at least a generation.

My bet is that a putative Premier Ford pushes GO RER and the Scarborough Subway. Possibly Sheppard and Yonge North beyond that. I don't think the DRL would be a priority for him.

In the unlikely event there are enough bigots in the province to make Drug Ford premier, it's more likely that most of those projects are dead in the water.

We'll be lucky if he doesn't try and find a way to fill in Eglinton again, or simply dump the costs on the city.

Druggie's dad was part of the group that pushed to kill all provincial funding to GO Transit back when he got elected.

If Ford becomes Premier, I wonder how soon the DRL would get started?

Why would that murdering piece of shirt start the DRL?

 

[BurlOak]

Goodbye Finch. Hello grade separated Eglinton.

I recall thinking about this before.

In the West - a grade-separated Eglinton line is a no-brainer. It is still very early in the planning and this can be easily done - just needs the will to do it right - which Ford has.

In the East, its a different story. First issue is the portal West of the West Don. There are two options: Either tear out the tunnel, peel back the last ~400m of tunnel, and curving the horizontal alignment so it moves to the south of the traffic lanes. Alternatively, could elevate the track as soon as you leave the portal, and curve the line south after enough elevation differential is achieved between tracks and road to allow Eglinton to go under. This would likely be East of the West Don.

The other issue is getting over the DVP. Ideally, the Don Mills station would be on the SW corner of Don Mills/Eglinton. That would have allowed a south alignment, which gives a bit more space to elevate the line over DVP. Relocating this station construction is an option, although a difficult one. It still may be possible to curve the line underground immediately east of the station to reach the south side. The line would then elevate over DVP, but with 5.0 to 5.5% grades.

Once you make it over DVP, the rest is pretty straight forward, although there may be some contracts that need to be scrapped or altered.

 

[kEiThZ]

I don't know why people think the Cons have such a good record of building transit, what projects do they have to show for themselves.

You do know what most of the transit we have today was built under 3 PC Premiers: Leslie Frost, John Robarts and Bill Davis.

I do agree though that today's PCPO is anything but progressive.

 

[christiesplits]

I know UTers think the sky is falling today on the Toronto transit file.

But let's be honest: Do we really think the Liberals would build the DRL before the Yonge Richmond Hill Extension and Scarborough extension?

Are they any less politically infatuated with the burbs than the Ford PCs? Hell, now that Ford has made all of the inner burbs - Scarborough, York, Etobicoke and North York - more competitive, it's quite possible that the Wynne Liberals go out and campaign on a Sheppard Extension to STC, Finch subway, etc.
.

 

[kEiThZ]

Ford will impale himself on the same "must lower taxes" pledge that is strangling Toronto at the municipal level. That will mean deferring just about everything.

I suspect the Finch LRT will be toast - especially with Mammo playing Sancho Panza to Ford's Don Quioxte. Whether Hurontario and Hamilton LRT's will survive is also good question. Eglinton west extension is Toronto funded so might survive. I bet he has reservations about LRT in Scarborough.

Whether he can swallow P3 based transit projects will be interesting - the good news, they involve private sector and they keep debt off provincial balance sheets. But they are fundamentally a fudge to hide borrowing. I suspect he will call for across the board reduction in annual operating costs, and that will threaten some transit projects which add operating expense (including the servicing cost for that debt financing).

- Paul

Only in the sense that it's more likely they'll have to further life-extend the SRT. Obviously SmartTrack is dead.

That's optimistic. Probably longer. Harris set us back at least a generation.

In the unlikely event there are enough bigots in the province to make Drug Ford premier, it's more likely that most of those projects are dead in the water.

We'll be lucky if he doesn't try and find a way to fill in Eglinton again, or simply dump the costs on the city.

Druggie's dad was part of the group that pushed to kill all provincial funding to GO Transit back when he got elected.

Why would that murdering piece of shirt start the DRL?

There's some good assumptions here on what Ford might cancel. But I don't know how you win in Mississauga or Hamilton while promising to cancel the LRT or GO RER. That's got to be a bet that people neither know nor care about these projects.

416 votes I get. I saw it happen in Malvern. They used the subway to flip the riding.

The question for me is how similar the 905 and outer 416 are in their concerns. And I just can't see it. The 905 has major transit issues and GO is bursting at the seams. It's not some issue only for transit geeks anymore.

If Wynne wins, will be interesting to see what she pushes. I think not advancing RER was a major political blunder on the part of the Liberals. And if they survive 2019 and don't deliver RER in 2023, they're toast then for sure.