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New TTC Chair and Board

The Mad Navigator said:
I'm willing to forgive those who do not fully understand why varying transit modes are important to the health of a city and the purposes they serve.
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Dear God.. Here's a copy of a post I made in another forum:

In my ideal world, when Miller announced Transit City he would have done it pragmatically. Eglinton as a subway, Sheppard as a subway, DRL subway, and then play fill in the gaps with LRT. That would be ideal; however, Miller took an all or nothing approach and now his legacy will be cancelled and fade away into public imagination. That was one of the reasons Miller is loathed in the suburbs. They have made it clear they'd like to see subway expansion on corridors designated by the TTC as high priority for subway expansion and he just comes in and cancels decades of due diligence for his own pet project. That angered the suburbs, especially those living in these corridors to the point of madness.

I don't oppose LRT.. I oppose TC for its all or nothing approach.
 
In terms of Eglinton I'd be happy with a completely grade-separated LRT line. We could even call it a subway if we wanted to since it'd basically operate like one except with different rolling stock. Assuming the stations are designed like a subway station with a fare paid area and such, which I'm not sure that they are.

Other cities with grade-separated lines that use LRT rolling stock call them subways. So if they just build the tunnelled portion and use the LRT trains they bought, we could theoretically call it a subway. The only problem with that? That LRT vehicles cost more than subway trains, so it's not cost-effective.
 
The stations probably cost less though.

I really don't understand why people are against Eglinton LRT. despite the claim that TC was an "all or nothing" approach, the Eglinton line is fully grade-separated in the congested parts, and in a segregated ROW at street level where there are very few cross streets to slow the trains down. Sounds like a single technology being applied to fit different conditions along the route. Calling for subways through low-density suburbs with no proven need for that level of capacity sounds more like an "all or nothing" scheme.
 
Do the new commissioners undergo a course or presentation where they are taught what the Toronto Transit Commission actually does? Are they given the who, what, when, why the commission does things? Do they go on field trips to become familiar with the maintenance and operations of all the components? I hope that they don't just enter a board room and just sit around a table.

I would rather see something like what new managers for McDonalds undergo before they take over a store.
 
nfitz said:
As Ford was elected for stopping the Gravy Train, I'd think appointing a rookie councillor who just happened to be his brother to such a job would raise questions.
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The Fords had to get the city to stop the Gravy Train so that they could jump on it as they were to slow to jump on it without anyone else's help.
 
EnviroTO said:
And then?? With what?? Even the gravy train didn't have that much money to spend.
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From Filip's list, Eglinton (if we cut it down to the tunnel) we could have as subway for basically the same price we're paying now. Sheppard we could extend a few stops with the SELRT money. DRL needs full funding. Any additional LRTs I don't think are funded anyway. So yeah I could see Ford doing the first two, but I don't think Ford has any plan for the DRL.
 
Need money for Scarborough which is where things get complicated. There's a real chance the provincial commitment might end at 3-4 billion dollars.

The TTC chair's primary responsibility isn't expansion/construction anyway.

Mihevic really wants it:

The city’s longest serving transit commissioner, Joe Mihevc (Ward 21, St. Paul’s) said he’s never seen a council with so little transit experience and he may not be back on the TTC himself after supporting Ford’s rival, George Smitherman, in the election.

Former TTC commissioners Bill Saundercook, Suzan Hall and Sandra Bussin were defeated. Former TTC chairs Adam Giambrone, Howard Moscoe and Brian Ashton didn’t run.

“I’ve been at that file for 13 years. I would say without hesitation I’m still learning,” said Mihevc, who said he received the most support in his own ward from those living and working along the much-maligned St. Clair streetcar line.
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http://www.thestar.com/news/article/881629--ford-won-t-touch-streetcars
 
Filip said:
Dear God.. Here's a copy of a post I made in another forum:

In my ideal world, when Miller announced Transit City he would have done it pragmatically. Eglinton as a subway, Sheppard as a subway, DRL subway, and then play fill in the gaps with LRT. That would be ideal; however, Miller took an all or nothing approach and now his legacy will be cancelled and fade away into public imagination. That was one of the reasons Miller is loathed in the suburbs. They have made it clear they'd like to see subway expansion on corridors designated by the TTC as high priority for subway expansion and he just comes in and cancels decades of due diligence for his own pet project. That angered the suburbs, especially those living in these corridors to the point of madness.

I don't oppose LRT.. I oppose TC for its all or nothing approach.
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Well, you could have fooled me!
 
I am going to bet that Peter Milczyn will be the new TTC chair, based on this bit in a National Post article:

Like some kind of pre-Halloween spectre, Councillor Peter Milczyn (Etobicoke-Lakeshore) sauntered into the Press Gallery at City Hall yesterday wearing jeans, a black leather jacket and a broad smile. We all went to bed thinking he had lost the election, but apparently he pulled it out of the fire at about 1:30 this morning, when the 1,000 ballots from a broken counting machine were finally counted.

Mr. Milczyn said a ballot-counting machine broke last night at a poll called Stonegate, north of the Queensway near Park Lawn Road, in a Polish and Ukranian neighbourhood where his support was strong. “They took the ballots out to the scrutineer’s office on Victoria Park Avenue,” he said. “So everybody went to Scarborough. My lawyer, my opponent’s lawyer, a clerk from the City Clerk’s office downtown, and two lawyers from the city.”

He said 86 ballots didn’t go through the machine initially but with a fair amount of struggle, eventually did get counted. At 1:30 he heard he had won.

“I had eight scotch last night and got kicked out of the hall,” he says. “Then we had a street party in my driveway until 4 a.m.” I asked how many cars were parked in his driveway. “That’s classified,” he said. “That bylaw is the first thing we are going to change.”

Mr. Milczyn said he will work with Rob Ford, the mayor-elect, to get his agenda through, though he also revealed that it had not been an easy decision: his wife, Rose, stopped talking to the councillor for 10 days after he came out for Mr. Ford.

And Mr. Milczyn, a TTC commissioner, added, “I had a brief sitdown with Rob. The one policy I will not support is ripping up the streetcar tracks downtown, because it doesn’t make sense. You will need more buses to make up the capacity, which means hiring more drivers, and more congestion.”



Read more: http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/1...rs-to-winners-heed-the-message/#ixzz13bZTgqLn
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It sounds like he and Ford have similar interests.
 
GraphicMatt said:
I am going to bet that Peter Milczyn will be the new TTC chair, based on this bit in a National Post article:

It sounds like he and Ford have similar interests.
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He would be totally usless as chair as he has a hard time as a Commissioner now. Other than Joe, Bill and Adam, rest of the commision was out to lunch.
 
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