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Mayor John Tory's Toronto

Seemed pretty ignored to me.
Sounds like it goes against every dictionary definition of "ignore" that I've ever read, but okay!

East of the 427, the Milton line makes one single stop; at Kipling station. Everything east of there could easily be routed south on a new track through almost entirely aging industrial areas to the Gardiner.
Great, and what about west of there? You know, the bulk of the ridership on the line?

You don't seriously think I'm defending the Gardiner for the benefit of people who live near Kipling station, do you? That is miles away from the Gardiner!

It's a bit disingenuous to argue about low-income communities while simultaneously defending a luxury like car ownership.
It's also fairly disingenous to champion the rights and concerns of poor people, while simulatenously proposing a distanced based fare system that would disproportionally affect them.

As for "forcing CP", that would be the domain of the governments higher up (and is certainly not outside of the abilities of said governments). But also, if the province can buy land for a Bradford bypass, it can certainly buy land for GO train tracks, and there are hydro and highway corridors that I'm sure could spare a couple of dozen feet for trackage.
We run a whopping six of them a day round-trip to Milton and back; not because of lack of commuters, but because we capitulate to the car every damn time and make driving the absolute easiest way as a result.
Do you think people deprived of the Gardiner would just "take" it? Or would they demand better regional transit? Would they vote more transit-friendly politicians in? VERY LIKELY.

I'm grouping these quotes together because they paint a toy railway like picture of how transit expansion actually works.

You don't just tear down a highway and suddenly, magically, transit friendly politicians and infrastructure improvements fall out of the sky. There is such a thing as election cycles, budgets, planning, and construction times. We just had provincial and municipal elections, which means that you're going to have to wait almost half a decade before the next ones, and that presumes that anyone who actually has a positive vision for transit development in the region will actually run, and that they will get elected, and that their plans won't get stonewalled by NIMBYs, incompetent project management, environmental issues, or pandemics. If you demolished the Gardiner tomorrow, there would still be a very, very long time for any actual works to get done. For that reason, you would have scores of cars crowding local streets in the vicinity of the Gardiner, or scores of people crowding onto trains and buses until they become unsafe to run, and it is for that reason that tearing down the Gardiner at this stage in time would be dangerously shortsighted and would benefit absolutely no one.

And no, we don't run a measly 6 trains on the Milton line because we capitulate to car ownership. If everyone in Milton and Mississauga rose up and demanded all day two way service on the Milton line, CP would still tell them to get bent, because it is their property, and they can do what they like with it. Back to reality, please.
 
Budget leak of the day from the Mayor, more $$ for EMS and Toronto Fire:

These 'leaks' are all coming from Tory who is clearly NOT answering questions about where all this extra money is to come from if taxes are not to go up more than inflation. I am not opposed to many of the 'expansion plans' he is announcing but until one can see (and understand) the whole budget and know which programs are getting less it is unwise to get too excited or supportive.
 
When the Yonge or Bloor/Danforth were being cut & covered, there was no car traffic, period.

Ummm, No.

Most of Line 2 in the east end runs north of Danforth and Danforth was not excavated; most of Line 2 in the west end runs north of Bloor and Bloor was not excavated.

The exception to that was largely around Yonge, and some bits in the Sherbourne to Broadview section as well.

****

It was true for portions of Line 1 south of roughly 501 Yonge. North of there, Line 1 runs to the east of Yonge, and, of course in an open-cut north of Bloor (that used to be much more open than it is today) .

The only extended portion of Line 1 directly under the road, for the most part is Line 1, under University Avenue/Queen's Park.

But even there, the section between just south of St. Patrick and just north of Queen's Park was actually tunneled.
 
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These 'leaks' are all coming from Tory who is clearly NOT answering questions about where all this extra money is to come from if taxes are not to go up more than inflation. I am not opposed to many of the 'expansion plans' he is announcing but until one can see (and understand) the whole budget and know which programs are getting less it is unwise to get too excited or supportive.

I don't believe I was conveying any 'excitement' LOL.

In point of fact, I've been critical on the TTC front.

I've seen a bit more than what's public facing at this stage, but not the entire budget by a long shot, which should be public next week and I will read it then. I also don't know the tax target.
 
I don't believe I was conveying any 'excitement' LOL.

In point of fact, I've been critical on the TTC front.

I've seen a bit more than what's public facing at this stage, but not the entire budget by a long shot, which should be public next week and I will read it then. I also don't know the tax target.
My 'reply' was not particularly aimed at you, dear friend. It was a more general word of caution to look at the whole budget package and look particularly at the sections we are NOT being 'directed to' through these leaks!
 
Ummm, No.

Most of Line 2 in the east end runs north of Danforth and Danforth was not excavated; most of Line 2 in the west end runs north of Bloor and Bloor was not excavated.

The exception to that was largely around Yonge, and some bits in the Sherbourne to Broadview section as well.

****

It was true for portions of Line 1 south of roughly 501 Yonge. North of there, Line 1 runs to the east of Yonge, and, of course in an open-cut north of Bloor (that used to be much more open than it is today) .

The only extended portion of Line 1 directly under the road, for the most part is Line 1, under University Avenue/Queen's Park.

But even there, the section between just south of St. Patrick and just north of Queen's Park was actually tunneled.
The cross streets for Line 2 were excavated for cut-and-cover.
 
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Eglinton's slow, but you can still get across it in almost every spot.

When the Yonge or Bloor/Danforth were being cut & covered, there was no car traffic, period.
The original (Union to Eglinton) predates my memory, but I have seen pictures of traffic including, I believe, street car tracks, operating on heavy timbers laid across the cut. I distinctly recall traffic on the timbers around Yonge and Sheppard.
 
As the expenditure on the Gardiner rehabilitation is, by far, the largest part of the 'road repair' budget, I looked at the City website about it. The map below seems to be the most recent and was updated last in March 2021. See: https://www.toronto.ca/services-pay.../gardiner-expressway-rehabilitation-strategy/

1673105346046.png


I note that they seem to have no plans to do something with the section from York to Jarvis and some of the bents here appear to be in very rocky shape. This is York @ Lake Shore!
1673105491094.png
 
In an article published in Today's Star, the mayor concedes, his proposed budget, with a below-inflation tax increase, isn't really balanced at all.

In fact, its out by 900M, which the Mayor is hoping will arrive from Queen's Park or Ottawa at some point, but if it doesn't, he's proposing to gut capital spending, including TTC SOGR.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...w-ahead-of-torontos-2023-budget-proposal.html (behind paywall); but the key bit is:

1673281371749.png
 
In an article published in Today's Star, the mayor concedes, his proposed budget, with a below-inflation tax increase, isn't really balanced at all.

In fact, its out by 900M, which the Mayor is hoping will arrive from Queen's Park or Ottawa at some point, but if it doesn't, he's proposing to gut capital spending, including TTC SOGR.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...w-ahead-of-torontos-2023-budget-proposal.html (behind paywall); but the key bit is:

View attachment 449422

Yet unwilling to raise property taxes...it boggles my mind how the City is so afraid of raising property taxes to fund services considering that there are so many wealthy residents.
 
Yet unwilling to raise property taxes...it boggles my mind how the City is so afraid of raising property taxes to fund services considering that there are so many wealthy residents.

Probably to avoid a public lynching.

As I said in another thread, the average mortgage payment on a $800000 home with the current interest rates is between $3500 and $4500 dollars. That said, raise property taxes and the average person is paying alot of money they cannot afford.

You can raise taxes sure... but then what happens when people sell their property because they cannot afford to keep it?

Rock meet Hard Place.
 
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