Quebec-Windsor Corridor

[Urban Sky]

Arguably. But it's also true that most of the transit projects under Ford have been continuations or variations of those started before he was elected, such as GO expansion, the Ontario Line, and the Crosstown for example. While I'll give credit to Ford for not cancelling them, I also give credit to Wynne and McGuinty for starting them. In the post-Harris years were were at a baseline of zero mass transit investment and these are long term projects that can't be credited to just one premier.

Maybe from the perspective from one of these hated consultants, Toronto is the one place which binds not just the overwhelming majority of resources and capabilities in the domestic architecture, engineering, construction and systems industries, but also monopolizes a sizeable chunk of those provided by firms south the border. As I noted previously in the VIA Rail thread:

The striking thing about the GTHA is how these expansions almost dwarf the existing network:

• Extending 2 of the existing 3 Subway Lines: SSE and YNSE
• Building the first Light Metro line: Ontario Line
• Building the first three (!) LRT lines: Eglinton (incl. Western Extension), Finch, Hurontario
• More than doubling the train volume of the Commuter Rail network while electrifying most of it: RER/ONxpress

All of that is already funded and happening simultaneously…

This is kind of the golden age to be in this industry (if you are on the building things rather than needing to get things built side) and I believe that Ford deserves at least as much credit for that than Wynne with her insincere HSR election stunt…

 

[nfitz]

Arguably. But it's also true that most of the transit projects under Ford have been continuations or variations of those started before he was elected, such as GO expansion, the Ontario Line, and the Crosstown for example. While I'll give credit to Ford for not cancelling them, I also give credit to Wynne and McGuinty for starting them. In the post-Harris years were were at a baseline of zero mass transit investment and these are long term projects that can't be credited to just one premier.

The Downtown Relief Line wasn't funded - and had been undergoing various studies and plans, since the 1940s, when it was first approved in an earlier variation; before being deferred shortly after approval.

Sure Phase 2 of the Eglinton Line had been discussed seriously, along with a Scarborough subway extension, and the Yonge subway extension - for decades. But actually accelerating them along is commendable. And continuing with Finch and Hurontario, which hadn't started significant construction. GO expansion has also been promised for years, and the commitment for this could very easily have been (yet again) dialled back - if anything it's been dialled forward.

Urgency seems to have slipped with the latest tranche of projects (Phase 3 of Eglinton, Line 4 extension and the BRTs), but if they make it to tender, then I think that any future government will be hard-pressed to ever achieve as much. Though only other challenger really is the successive Conservative governments under Frost/Robarts/Davis.

(don't get me wrong - I'll still never vote for him, but it's not what I expected)

 

[crs1026]

While I'll give credit to Ford for not cancelling them, I also give credit to Wynne and McGuinty for starting them

More accurately, they boasted that they had started them - but released no money and formed no project organizations. They lied. And that set the stage for today’s culture where ML offers fiction and under delivers.

- Paul

 

[MisterF]

More accurately, they boasted that they had started them - but released no money and formed no project organizations. They lied. And that set the stage for today’s culture where ML offers fiction and under delivers.
- Paul

Under the Liberals there was funding and/or construction for a lot of major projects, including Eglinton, Vaughan extension, Scarborough extension, GO expansion early work, Sheppard LRT, etc. The DRL may not have been funded but it had a lot of momentum and detailed planning work, including for a second phase. The Liberals did a lot to get mass transit expansion happening in the GTA for the first time in decades. Giving Doug Ford all the credit is revisionist history at best.

 

[nfitz]

Under the Liberals there was funding and/or construction for a lot of major projects, including Eglinton, Vaughan extension, Scarborough extension, GO expansion early work, Sheppard LRT, etc. The DRL may not have been funded but it had a lot of momentum and detailed planning work, including for a second phase. The Liberals did a lot to get mass transit expansion happening in the GTA for the first time in decades. Giving Doug Ford all the credit is revisionist history at best.

I don't see where anyone has given Ford more credit. Just that "Ford's regime from a Transportation and Infrastructure perspective has ended up being better than Wynne, McGuinty, Harris, Rae or Peterson". We are way off-topic though.

 

[C_Johnson_1995]

Harpers regime was 10x better than what PP could ever be. He's just a mini trump wannabe

More like Canada's Javier Millei, but I get the sentiment.