London Crossrail shows the better way for Toronto: Hume
By
Christopher HumeUrban Issues
Wed., Nov. 5, 2014
For Toronto, the lessons of Crossrail are less about why, when and even what, but how.
All transit is politics. And all politics is local. The result, as Torontonians know only too well, can be a constantly shifting landscape of schemes and dreams that go nowhere, slowly.
The record is clear: Three mayors, three transit plans. David Miller, Rob Ford and now John Tory all arrived at city hall with their own version of the truth and how to achieve it.
Meanwhile, the real decisions get made by the provincial government, which is every bit as prone to extreme mood swings, arbitrary mind changes and bouts of idiopathic indecision as any municipal regime.
So when Martin Buck, senior executive with London’s much-heralded
Crossrail line, came to town recently, the questions he faced weren’t just about why, when or even what, but how.
The huge $28-billion project, which will run 118 kilometres through the heart of London and beyond, uses existing railway lines outside the city and a 42-kilometre tunnel extending beneath it.
Crossrail was launched more than a decade ago, when Ken (Red Ken) Livingstone was mayor of London. It continues under his successor, Boris Johnson, who hopes to be the UK’s next Conservative prime minister. During the same period, the British central government changed several times, like the city, shifting from left to right.
Through it all, Crossrail prevails. In addition to its innovative financing methods and clever accounting practices, the organization has a governance structure that provides the space and distance needed to fend off meddling politicians convinced they know better.
Balancing the demands of accountability and autonomy is a skill this province and city need to learn. The Toronto Syndrome, the inability to draw up a plan and stick to it, is pathological.
Who could forget that time when ex-premier Mike Harris ordered the filling-in of the new subway tunnel when he cancelled the Eglinton subway in 1995? That $50-million reversal came barely a year after his predecessor, NDP premier Bob Rae, had launched it.
As the provincial finance minister of the day, Ernie Eves, said, “We will proceed with transit projects in a phased approach, beginning with the Sheppard line in Toronto. We are deferring the Eglinton West project until the province and Metro Toronto have sufficient funding to proceed.”
The Sheppard line made no sense but for the fact it was preferred by former mayor Mel Lastman, who, like Harris, was a Conservative. It was left to the Liberals to resuscitate the Eglinton line, now called the Crosstown, this time as an underground LRT.
By contrast, Crossrail has remained immune to crass political interference of that kind and managed to remain focused on getting on with it regardless.
“The project has tremendous stability,” says Buck. “It is reasonably autonomous.” As he explains it, the key is a “sponsor board” to which both central and London governments appoint members. The sponsor board in turn names the chair of the Crossrail board.
As well as being able to fend off grasping political fingers, the corporation also enjoys the support of business lobby group London First, and of much of the population. It has managed to raise commercial property tax rates as much as 2 per cent and impose a surcharge on anyone who owns property within a kilometre of the line.
If Toronto transit had the same level of independence — and civic support — the city might well have an Eglinton subway by now. It might also have built the Downtown Relief Line, first proposed in 1910.
As it is, we start from scratch with every new regime — provincial or civic — if not every election. Welcome to Groundhog City, where there’s always tomorrow.
Christopher Hume can be reached at chume@thestar.ca
They will quickly slice off 2 or 3 stations and arrive to roughly same stop spacing they propose for the east now.
