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New Transit Funding Sources

TheTigerMaster said:
You bring up a good point.. IIRC in London (UK), anybody who owns a small business within the city is eligible to vote. This is a system that I'd be willing to consider for Toronto.
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What do you mean by city? The capital-C City? IIRC the population there has dropped from over 100k to under 10k residents these days so voting is heavily influenced by business interests (historically business owners even got extra votes in the parliamentary elections.) It's mainly office buildings and shops, so you can see why the system is set up that way.

Greater London is like the old Metro Toronto, with 30+ boroughs plus the cities of London and Westminster. Its main responsibilities are transit and police (well, the City has its own force), and I think only residents can vote.
 
Greater London Council is sort of Metro-esque, but different in some ways too. Laid on Toronto it would likely include the inner-905 as well (although a far more urban version of the 905) and we'd also have a huge amount more Councils/jurisdiscutions than the old Metro. Places like Parkdale, Riverdale, Willowdale, Mimico, etc. would all be their own Boroughs. Scarborough would probably be made-up for five Boroughs as another example. While I think there's merrit in this, I see Toronto's current system melting more into a NYC system of a strong central government and five strong boroughs (although, likely just four in Toronto's case). I wish it were actually an issue in this coming election, but it doesn't appear to be yet.
 
Interesting article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...anding-ttc-over-to-metrolinx/article17906582/

Here's my take on it (as I posted in the comments):

I'm generally in favour of this, but what I'd like to see is Metrolinx merely becomes the "umbrella" corporation. What I mean by this is that Metrolinx would actually be made up of 8 semi-independent corporations:

Metrolinx Planning - basically what Metrolinx' role is today, a comprehensive transportation planning agency for the entire GTHA

Metrolinx Rapid Transit - A transit operations company looking after all RT in the GTHA, including GO, the TTC Subway/RT system, VIVA, and any LRT/BRT lines being built. This will ensure a seamless connection between all RT in the region.

Metrolinx Toronto, Durham, York, Peel, Halton, and Hamilton - 6 transit operations companies that would look after local transit operations in those areas. For Toronto, it would basically be the TTC with a slightly re-jigged org chart.

This organization would allow Metrolinx to present a seamless front to the public and provide a seamless user experience, but the background work would still be done in semi-independent organizations.

As for funding, I'd like to see Metrolinx RT funded completely by the Province (although the TTC RT system actually makes money, so it's debatable how much outside funding will actually be required).

The 6 Metrolinx Locals would be funded by a combination of the Province and the municipality they cover. For single-tier municipalities (Toronto and Hamilton), the funding mechanism wouldn't change. For two-tier municipalities with a regional transit system (York and Durham), the funding mechanism wouldn't change. For Halton and Peel, their funding model would switch to those like York and Durham, with the lower-tier municipal systems being merged.

This setup, IMO, provides a nice balance of cohesiveness on a regional scale, but still addresses local concerns and lets municipalities keep some control over their local transit systems.
 
gweed123 said:
... although the TTC RT system actually makes money,...
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Only if you ignore the half-billion in capital that gets sunk into it every year.

Also, some assumptions need to be made with calculating the fare split. The fare split itself doesn't matter, but the theoretical reallocation of Toronto subsidy money to rapid transit via over-allocation to the trunk portion rather than the feeder portion would; as indirectly it subsidises other municipalities via Toronto property tax dollars.
 
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