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New Transit Funding Sources

Trudeau is probably not worried about the money as they are just assuming that it will take Toronto a decade to get a single shovel in the ground and the Libs will be out of power by then.

How Toronto can bitch about this largess is bizarre. Toronto only has 20% of Ontario's population and yet 50% of the infrastructure money but no doubt Toronto having to contribute a nickel is an affront to Torontonians.
 
ssiguy2 said:
How Toronto can bitch about this largess is bizarre. Toronto only has 20% of Ontario's population and yet 50% of the infrastructure money but no doubt Toronto having to contribute a nickel is an affront to Torontonians.
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I'm not sure what you're going on about. Everyone seems to be very pleased with the announcement.
 
Juan_Lennon416 said:
If you guys are willing to pay for transit construction, please pay for me
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Yet LA is from Scarborough. Hijacked by a part of the city which wants the most expensive transit with no intention of paying for it. All because people are resentful of urban elites.
 
BurlOak said:
So the message is for medium sized towns to not bother with a transit system.
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No - it's a message to build ridership. It also means that GO Transit - which could theoretically claim a huge population, but only ridership of 70 million a year or so, isn't at a huge advantage. It also means a place like Brampton - with just under half the population of York Region, but similar ridership numbers to YRT (and growing, unlike YRT) - is eligible for decent funding for new capital projects, like a Queen Street transit corridor or new Zum routes.
 
ShonTron said:
No - it's a message to build ridership. It also means that GO Transit - which could theoretically claim a huge population, but only ridership of 70 million a year or so, isn't at a huge advantage. It also means a place like Brampton - with just under half the population of York Region, but similar ridership numbers to YRT (and growing, unlike YRT) - is eligible for decent funding for new capital projects, like a Queen Street transit corridor or new Zum routes.
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I agree with what you are saying .....but also have some sympathy for the notion that some will have around a "how do they build ridership without equal (or even more) investment"
 
Juan_Lennon416 said:
If you guys are willing to pay for transit construction, please pay for me
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Deal, but only if you promise not to complain when I build it as surface routes. None of this spending $4B to maintain 2 lanes of roadway for private vehicles like Eglinton.

If I'm footing the total bill to increase capacity of the street (where warranted), I'm not going over the top to maintain the low-efficiency (capacity per sqft roadspace) legacy model. Those who want that model can pay the premium to keep it. My goal is to grow the Toronto economy, not the level of comfort during a commute.
 
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rbt said:
It's something I welcome with open arms and maybe even a "woo". However, many in the city are not as enthusiastic as I might be.
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As an Ottawa ratepayer (still own my condo there, despite not living there atm), I have zero sympathy for Toronto complaints. Ottawa residents not only voted out a mayor who promised to build a cheap solution (the original LRT plan). They voted in a guy who promised a more expensive plan and then raised their taxes to pay for it.

One would think that paying for transit would not be controversial at all in Toronto. If I was paying taxes in Scarborough, I would have zero issues with Scarborough paying the entire surplus cost of the subway (over the LRT). If that's what people want, they should pay for it. And ditto for the DRL and other LRT lines. Toronto property taxes are low enough that they could easily fund a continuous construction program. Torontonians though, are terrible cheapskates. And to be fair, most of Canada is not far behind.
 
kEiThZ said:
One would think that paying for transit would not be controversial at all in Toronto. If I was paying taxes in Scarborough, I would have zero issues with Scarborough paying the entire surplus cost of the subway (over the LRT). If that's what people want, they should pay for it. And ditto for the DRL and other LRT lines. Toronto property taxes are low enough that they could easily fund a continuous construction program. Torontonians though, are terrible cheapskates. And to be fair, most of Canada is not far behind.
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Its that way in Ottawa? Only people along LRT route have to pay?
Or are you forgetting that Scarborough is in Toronto?
 
kEiThZ said:
Was that actually the case? I thought the lanes were quite cheap.
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The train tunnels and stations were really expensive. Remove those underground expenses and we have trains running on Eglinton (on the surface) and 2 to 3 fewer lanes for vehicles. There are no technical reasons why trains cannot run on the surface on Eglinton just as they do St Clair; the only constraint to increasing capacity of the street in that way is the loss of capacity for the less efficient (for moving people) mode. A King St. style solution would have worked perfectly well for surface LRT and deliveries/local traffic through that stretch.

If you begin with the assumption that capacity needs to increase, then we paid roughly $4B for 2 to 3 lanes for private vehicles travelling through Eglinton for 10km.

I realize it's a cultural thing and a portion of the population would have lost their mind; but that doesn't change the choices made or costs involved. If I was CEO of the city running it like a capital efficient private business (as some rate payers claim to demand); Eglinton would be on the surface and no lines would have been shortened. That said, I might still have killed Sheppard LRT in favour of running Finch from the Airport to Morningside.
 
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