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Ontario Budget Cut and Transit Expansion

This is very good news. The TC idea was a foolish waste of money. Don't trust a leftie with cash.:)

Twenty years from now with advancements in technology will be a better time to think about transit expansion. Perhaps the subways should have their rails removed and just run trolley buses under and around the city? Powered by solar cells?

Or sell the existing subway lines to private operators than a separate company run surface routes with trolley buses. Yes! They're quiet efficient cheap and good-looking--look at Vancouver's system.:)
 
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Lost cause

why is it that this news doesn't surprise me. i guess full system accessibility will be pushed even further into the future.

nothing ever changes. i guess public transit really is for losers, because those who take public transit are always losing.


p.s, don't forget to participate in earth hour because our government loves the environment so much.


network 2011, fool me once shame on you, transit city, fool me twice...ya ain't fool me again.
 
For once, I actually agree with Miller.

Anyways, I'm with unimaginative2. I'd rather see Eglinton implemented... but that's mainly because I'm biased. I don't care about Finch or Sheppard.

I wonder how much they could squeeze out of the SRT vehicles, in terms of extended lifespan...

BTW, I wonder if there is any significance to the $4 billion number. If it were $4.6 billion, we'd know exactly what they meant.

The original announced numbers were:

Finch: $1.2 billion
Eglinton: $4.6 billion
SRT: $1.4 billion
Sheppard: $0.95 billion
Viva: $1.4 billion

Finch + SRT + Viva = $4 billion. Hmmm.... Nah, doesn't really make sense according to Steve Munro and others here, but nonetheless I find that curious.

The ironic part is that the province got $3 billion more than they were expecting, from revenues.
 
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I'm assuming you're being funny but I'm completely digusted with the prospect of waiting decades to see if any real expansion even happens. I had hopes and foolishly thought I might live to see it happen. Crushed dreams again.

This city and region is choking on congestion and the polictians keep finding ways to delay transit expansion. On another note.

Were I prone to a conspiracy type thinking, I would almost say that with the backlash bulding against TC and some councilors openly questioning TC, maybe behind the scenes it was decided this was the best way of backing out of this without people questioning. Makes me wonder.
 
I'm not very surprised considering Ontario's finances and I must admit not very disappointed either. It will stop this tonka-toy TC system and allow Toronto to do it right the first time.
For the time being do the priorities straight...................cancel Don Mills, Jane, Finch, Kingston, Sheppard East LRT lines.
Using a PPP {only Toronto thinks its a dirty word} and build the Eglinton SUBWAY from Bayview to Pearson and get Pearson to throw in some money { YVR provided $300 for the Canada Line} and finish the Sheppard Line east to STC.
That would still be 35km of new subway due to the YorkU expansion already funded which is 30km more than Toronto has done in the precedding 20 years.
This would be a great time to go to Queen's Park and demand the city have the ability to bring in gas taxes. In Van right now regular is at $1.13/litre due to 7 cents of that being the Translink gas tax. If its only 3 or 4 cents than big deal. People say that it will cause people to gas up in another region..............that is a crock of shit. My god people won't even cross the street for 3 cents.
Also when building the stations do not need to be more than 100 metres and Toronto is going to have to do what every other city on the planet does...............elevate or at grade subways except in very busy/dense corridors like Laird to Bathurst. This will force Toronto to get over this stupid attitude they have about tunneling in the burbs. In todays age elevation and at grade is the norm not the exception.
Vancouver just built the Canada Line for $2.1 billion for 18km. Yes the stations are small but there at the same time they had to tunnel under False Creek, deal with the very steep Cambie/Broadway hill, build a very large subway only bridge over the Fraser still allowing for large ships to go under it and another bridge to get to Sea Island/YVR and this price included the trains.
There is absolutly NO reason why Toronto can't build subways at $175 million per km.
 
Heh. This page is still up:

MCGUINTY GOVERNMENT ACTION PLAN FOR RAPID TRANSIT WILL MOVE THE ECONOMY FORWARD

MoveOntario 2020 is a 12-Year Building Plan That Will Deliver 52 Rapid Transit Initiatives In The GTA And Hamilton
The Ontario government is launching a multi-year $17.5 billion rapid transit action plan for the Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton that will deliver jobs and investment by reducing congestion, Premier McGuinty announced today.
"Tackling gridlock is one of the most important things we can do to build a strong and prosperous economy," said McGuinty. "Building a modern rapid transit system that moves people and goods quickly and efficiently will ensure we can attract and keep thousands of good high-paying jobs."
MoveOntario 2020 will build 902 kilometres of new or improved rapid transit, starting in 2008.
It will create 175,000 jobs during construction and deliver 52 rapid transit projects.
 
agreed with your gas tax suggestion. Would like your eglinton subway suggestion although Id say it should go all the way to don mills. Completely disagree that TC would be a massive disaster. However I think at this time we should be putting our differences away to make sure something gets built. EGLINTON please.
 
You know, I really wish that in a few years, a future government with some vision and dedication to long term planning might actually build something like desperately needed transit expansion but my gut is telling me that some polictian is going to find another excuse to keep these and any other proposed projects on hold indefinitely.
 
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It's always interesting to compare pace of infrastructure implementation in Toronto vs Beijing (as my friend lives there).

Beijing is infrastructure and commerce, everything else be damned.

Toronto is bureaucracy and delay, everything else be damned.

It'd be nice to see something in a reasonable middle ground for a change. Or else a little bit of the Beijing attitude for a few years before reverting back to Toronto's old ways?
 
I'm not surprised that Transit City is on its last gasps. I mean, look at the kind of people that dreamed it up in the first place and just how marvelously they've ran this city into the ground ever since. What a waste of everyone's time these past few years have been. The lesson folks, depoliticize matters of grave public importance such as expanding transit systems. We need P3 consortiums brought in whom care about building lines properly and efficently such as to save on construction costs. And build subways where there's a market for them. Left up to the public sector, its been 32 years since the last major expansion of the subway system. Three decades is enough time to convince me that the system is broken and only the influx of new ideas and revenue sources can restore Toronto to its former glory.
 
Would it be considered ironic that the bandaid solution of the SELRT, SRT expansion and Eglinton LRT could actually be of use in the provincial government's timeframe for having it's hands wrapped around the throat of the region's transit?

Fresh Start, this really isn't a question of the politics of Transit City, and all about the politics of the recession. We screwed up majorly there, in so many easily foreseeable ways. Instead of wasting money on a broken industry that proved to the world it couldn't support itself, we could have actually been creating jobs with transit and funding subways, LRT, BRT and new busses all around without any fear of major repercussions like this (other than the fact that they'd already be built with the bailout money.)
 
I find it rather funny how some people think cancelled transit funding will lead to more subway lines.
 
Voltz: From the public sector alone to foot the bill for everything, no not likely. However, at least routes like Sheppard East and Eglinton can now be freed up for the subway option to be renegotiated and taken up by a potential public-private partnership. Eglinton has never made sense to be built as a light-rail tram, subway technology would only cost marginally more but attract 10x the ridership volume. Sometimes it takes a little setback for real solutions to emerge to the forefront.
 
558 days until Election Day! Time to start exercising some electoral muscle. Their OWN job uncertainty is the only thing that they care about.
-AmJ
 
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