OneCity
Senior Member
Your alternative fact list about me is entirely made up. If you need to make this about me to deflect from the fact that there's virtually nothing in this debate that lends validity to the SSE, then go for it.
Cost of Scarborough subway extension rises to $3.35 billion as number of new riders fall
"The overall updated cost is a $150 million increase over the earlier $3.2 billion estimate, and doesn’t include the cost of financing.
The new estimate includes significant changes to a planned bus terminal at a new Scarborough Town Centre station which staff said requires 34 bus bays — the largest bus terminal in the entire TTC network.
However, staff said in the report that because the new $3.35 billion estimate is still based on very little design work being completed at this point, the range of accuracy for that estimate is massive. The estimate, staff said, could be off by up to 50 per cent — putting the high-end estimate at $5.02 billion."
Has the Scarborough subway already gone over its available funding?
"The $3.35 billion estimate covers construction of the subway tunnel, new station, associated infrastructure, including a new bus terminal on Triton Rd. at the Scarborough Town Centre, and the decommissioning of the existing Scarborough RT.
The report outlines several additional costs that are not included in that base number.
The additional costs include $14 million for platform edge doors that line up with subway doors at the station — a safety feature that has not been implemented elsewhere in the system but council requested the TTC consider as part of future expansions.
There is also an estimated $11 million for public realm improvements like wider sidewalks, plazas and street furniture.
According to consultants hired by the city to review cost estimates, the city should also establish a reserve in case of changes to the scope of the project. While the city staff report said the TTC believes that $100 million is adequate for that reserve, the consultants recommended that fund be twice as much.
Staff said the city must also build in a contingency for construction cost overruns and costs related to construction schedule delays — estimated, at what staff said are upset limits, of $115 million and $190 million respectively.
The base cost also does not include an estimated $40 million needed for the construction financing model recommended by staff or an additional $15 million required for project advisory fees.
Those additional costs, when you consider the higher-end estimates, total $585 million, putting the cost of the subway at $3.93 billion — leaving the subway $370 million short on funding."
...
"The new estimate includes significant changes to a planned bus terminal at a new Scarborough Town Centre station which staff said requires 34 bus bays — the largest bus terminal in the entire TTC network.
However, staff said in the report that because the new $3.35 billion estimate is still based on very little design work being completed at this point, the range of accuracy for that estimate is massive. The estimate, staff said, could be off by up to 50 per cent — putting the high-end estimate at $5.02 billion."
As Scarborough subway price rises, Mayor John Tory looks for cost-saving measures
"Earlier, Coun. Joe Mihevc told CBC Radio's Metro Morning he's worried the city has written a blank cheque for the 6.5-kilometre subway extension, and that he expects the cost to blow past the current price tag and go as high as $5 billion.
"It is still going way, way beyond expectations," he said.
Mihevc, who supported an earlier version of the subway that had three stops, said he expects city council to reluctantly OK the new recommendations for the subway, including using the McCowan alignment.
"We have to find a way to make peace with it at some point," he said.
"And that's perhaps the tragedy of our time."
Globe editorial: The Scarborough subway, a boondoggle on rails
"This week, it was revealed that the cost of the proposed one-stop Scarborough subway continues to grow. On Tuesday, a city staff report pegged the estimated cost at $3.35-billion, up from $2-billion last year. The report says the final price tag could end up as much as 50 per cent higher. So we may be looking at a $5-billion, one-stop subway.
The staff report upping the price also reduced the line's low projected ridership; it expects to attract just 2,300 new riders a day.
The Scarborough subway is illogical transit policy. Its only logic is political. Politicians, municipal and provincial, get to tell voters in Scarborough that they're getting a subway – even though most of Scarborough is far from the line and its solitary station, the cost of which is impoverishing transit elsewhere."
This will likey be, at least, a $5 billion+ subway line.
Neither the anti SSE Left media or yourself use the worst case numbers for any other plan?
Fear mongering the worst case to fit their agenda. I would completely understand if this was a standard reporting style for all projects at this stage.