There was no long term plan for a heavy rail rapid transit line extension to Scarborough Town Centre along the Bloor line.
The last time there was a serious debate over subway expansion was back in 1994 when Metro could only approve two out of four rapid transit expansion projects. Even the Network 2011 plans were torn up in the 1980s along with what would have been a GTA wide rapid transit system known as GO ALRT. Nobody wants heavy tax increases and deeper deficits to pay for more subways. Back in 2000 the city even got a portion of light rail built linking Queens Quay from Spadina to Bathurst with no senior government funding with little work taken on any costly EA planning, which shows how easy and affordable it can be to expand streetcar rights of way and light rail. Surface level light rail is easy and cheap to execute and would not be hampered by weather since it would draw power from an overhead wire catenary and not a ground level power rail or a track level magnetic reaction rail like the existing SRT ICTS trains.
More of the suburbs becoming grand avenues would bring more downtown living to more areas. Living downtown I see many people visiting the inner city from the suburbs to go shopping and night clubbing. I am sure many Scarberians would rather shop at Wal Mart and No Frills than Loblaws and Sears, so why are we not pushing harder for more affordable rapid deployment transit solutions across the megacity and other parts of Ontario. Its not like the federal government pledged millions for better bus service in Scarborough, but they will pledge millions for some showy Subway expansion project. More condos are getting built on St. Clair now that the LRT style improvements have been made there. We have settled on the Bombardier Flexity LRV as the vehicle that will carry on our Streetcar tradition downtown and bring light rail to suburban Metro and other Ontario cities. It this low floor LRV design of the Flexity that is also closely also mimicked by the Alstom Citadis and the Siemens Combino of the bogey bridge design should we ever choose to look to other car builders in the future should we opt for open bidding. The mayor and others may try to spread lies about Transit City but the reality remains the same, let us build our affordable, urban friendly transit improvements that can be delivered far sooner and stop being short sighted and impulsive on our plans. And to anyone who thinks that a subway lasts a hundred years would know, even now the North Yonge subway extension completed in 1973/1974 is in danger of tunnel collapse, which is why there is such an aggressive and expensive effort underway to replace the tunnel liners now, partly exacerbated by the then tricky and tedious tunneling that had to be done originally to tunnel under the Don River, which is why there was a year delay in completing the north Yonge extension back in 1973/74.
Many low income people in Scarborough would still be in infrequently served bus routes with over crowded buses. Cutting the light rail plans means less transit expansion mileage in places like Scarborough. We already filled in the Eglinton West subway tunnel back in 1995 and Metro at the time nearly did not get the Sheppard subway built back in the mid-late 1990s. WIth the light rail plans for Transit City and other light rail plans in the 905 and beyond like in Mississauga, Kitchener/Cambirdge/Waterloo, Ottawa and Hamilton riding on standard light rail design, the possibility for a much wider web of a light rail network covering the entire 416/905 and beyond is there. Of course it was Mayor David Miller that started the momentum to get transit building off the ground back in 2007 with the original Transit City announcement and the current mayor that is trying to tear up the plans now. We have to fight hard for the future welfare of this city and city building across the GTA and beyond. Fight hard we must, and we have to fight to win!
