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Rob Ford's Transit plan

With a provincial election coming next year, the Liberals are starting to feel the pressure in the polls from the Tories, so who knows how McGuinty and co. would react if Ford wins and goes full-steam ahead to scrap TC.

Then there is the unknown factor that is Ford's supposed close ties with Jim Flaherty and the federal Tories. They could conceivably agree to pull their share of funding from the Sheppard LRT and then up the ante by funding a Sheppard subway extension (possibly as some kind of a pre-election goodie).
 
The provincial liberals are also strategically signing contracts and placing orders for things like Tunnel Boring Machines that will make outright cancelation very costly.
 
GraphicMatt said:
The provincial liberals are also strategically signing contracts and placing orders for things like Tunnel Boring Machines that will make outright cancelation very costly.
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Didn't stop Harris in 1995. Unless TC projects are past an indisputable point of no return come the next provincial election, they're still fair game for a Tory chopping block.
 
gweed123 said:
Didn't stop Harris in 1995. Unless TC projects are past an indisputable point of no return come the next provincial election, they're still fair game for a Tory chopping block.
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When Harris cancelled funding for the Sheppard and Eglinton subways in 1995, no vehicles had been ordered. I'm not aware that the TBMs had been ordered ... eventually 2 were used on the Sheppard line, which was funded by Metro rather than the Province. There was some preliminary excavation that had been started at Eglinton West station, but I've never heard of how much it cost to get out of; as far as I know there was just the single excavation contract.
 
nfitz said:
When Harris cancelled funding for the Sheppard and Eglinton subways in 1995, no vehicles had been ordered. I'm not aware that the TBMs had been ordered ... eventually 2 were used on the Sheppard line, which was funded by Metro rather than the Province. There was some preliminary excavation that had been started at Eglinton West station, but I've never heard of how much it cost to get out of; as far as I know there was just the single excavation contract.
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Which raises a good point, with all the contracts currently tendered, Ford, would in essence put all those workers lined up, out of work - because there is no way his plans would be shovel ready by the time these would, if ever (but again, his plan isn't really to build anything.. just to stop everything and remove current infrastructure.)
 
nfitz said:
There was some preliminary excavation that had been started at Eglinton West station, but I've never heard of how much it cost to get out of; as far as I know there was just the single excavation contract.
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I read somewhere that the dig / fill the hole exercise costed about $50 million.
 
OK, RF's plan is a complete trash. The most realistic alternative at this point is Smitherman, with his imperfect but relatively much more sound transit plan.

However, RF is leading in the polls.

What can Smitherman do to regain the lead? Step up his campaign? Team up with Pantalone or Sarah T and offer him / her a deputy mayor position?
 
ssiguy2 said:
As a matter of fact yes. Why? Because he will not use this stupid union or nothing rates for tendering. Often that means working not just 9 to 5 before demanding double time as stated in the union contract. If that means 7AM to 9PM 7 days a week then so be it. That would be impossible under a union contract due to huge amounts needed for overtime.
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Hi ssiguy,

The engineering, design and construction of current projects such as the TYSSE (Toronto-York-Spadina-Subway-Extension) is currently being constructed by the private sector with overall project management and tending from the public sector. Virtually all aspects of the actual construction in terms of labour is under union management. This has absolutely nothing to do with public vs private management or ownership. The unionization structure in Ontario is generally by trade vs by organization or company. Major ICI construction companies employ tradespeople that have union membership and those unions negotiate their employee pay and benefits packages with the broader construction sector. Therefore any subway project built in Toronto by any company (public, private etc) will be contracting labour at unionized rates as per collective bargining agreements. Major infrastructure projects, let alone any condo tower or even a house (most, but not all trades in low-rise construction) built in south-central Ontario is being constructed by unionized trades.
 
Rainforest said:
What can Smitherman do to regain the lead? Step up his campaign? Team up with Pantalone or Sarah T and offer him / her a deputy mayor position?
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Pantalone has been a Deputy Mayor for years and believes now is the time to be "the man" of Toronto. He won't team up with Smitherman.
 
Now that Rossi, and Smitherman have officially shifted to the right, Pantalone can lock up the centrist, and left votes.
 
It is funny how Rob Ford's transit plan does nothing for his own riding of Ward 2. I thought he would at least keep the Finch West LRT. Good one Fordy Boy! :rolleyes:
 
The subway network in Scarborough is so poorly conceived, do not see how Scarborough resident will fall for it. It's clearly a vote grab.
 
It seems as though every candidate talks about Subways just to get votes. I'd love to have a candidate propose a legitimate, feasible plan.
 
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Justin10000 said:
The subway network in Scarborough is so poorly conceived, do not see how Scarborough resident will fall for it. It's clearly a vote grab.
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The rest of Rob Ford's plan might be trash, but the subway network for Scarborough that he's proposing is the one thing he's has gotten right. This post of yours is just asinine.
 
If Rob Ford was so pro-subway, why didn't he just say make the entire Transit City network as heavy-rail subway? No? Because it would much too expensive. So he would do the minimum, and without Eglinton (the tunnels of which are to be built to handle both light rail and heavy rail).

And why didn't he even mention a Downtown Relief Line to replace the streetcars he would get rid of?

Just shows how anti-transit and how pro-car he is.
 
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