Toronto Ontario Line 3 | ?m | ?s

When people say this project is not (fully) funded, do they mean there’s no money for construction or no money for ALL of the construction. Also, if there is transit funding from the provincial and federal governments, and they’re not directed at a specific project, that means the direction is undefined so no projects are funded? So is the problem that there’s no direct funding commitment to a specific transit project for a specific timeline, which seems to be the case for the Relief Line. Am I understanding this correctly?
 
Leo_Chan said:
When people say this project is not (fully) funded, do they mean there’s no money for construction or no money for ALL of the construction.
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Correct. There is some funding for the EA and a bit of engineering but not for construction. At this time there isn't even a marker in provincial books to set aside debt capacity (our ability to borrow has a limit) in order to find funding. GO RER, for example, did have those markers in the last Liberal budget.

Also, if there is transit funding from the provincial and federal governments, and they’re not directed at a specific project, that means the direction is undefined so no projects are funded?
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The federal funding had very few strings. GO RER or the niagara expansion would be a qualifying projects (some is going toward Kitchener service) which might use up the full funds available. Ultimately, the province is in control of those funds (not the cities) although the feds are required to approve of the spending; but their option is to withhold or approve of the project and I expect they would opt to approve RER spending which is a perfectly reasonable project rather than have no funds going to Ontario.

We have something like $35B in funding requests over the next 10 years (between GO/TTC SOGR, RER, LRTs with finished EAs, SmartTrack, Yonge extension, DRL, and Scarborough extension) and roughly $18B in funding commitments (committed funding wasn't reduced when Ford slashed the carbon tax but it's going to be a struggle for the province to meet without an unexpected jump in commercial tax revenue) with very few project specific earmarks.

Some of the things we expect by 2030 will be built but several projects won't be.

Doug is grasping at developers hoping to top up the gap; I expect construction inflation expenses caused by the delay may be much higher than revenue received from developers (meaning despite receiving funding the province books are hit harder).

Perhaps Trudeau will double-down on their transit package in this years election but considering how few results they got from the 2015 promise it doesn't seem likely.
 
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TheTigerMaster said:
I believe it’s been accelerated from 2031 to 2029. That’s what I saw on CP24
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Ok. For me I already thought it was scheduled to be open 2029ish so not huge news. But good nonetheless. Personally wouldn't mind if they put a bit more onto that $162M to study RL West though.
 
44 North said:
Ok. For me I already thought it was scheduled to be open 2029ish so not huge news. But good nonetheless. Personally wouldn't mind if they put a bit more onto that $162M to study RL West though.
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With GO RER expansion looking more and more unlikely as the days go by, that might not be such a bad idea.
 
Isn't GO RER a provincial agenda? This money is coming from the City of Toronto not the upper 2 governments. Toronto is trying to push the process further in parallel rather than the typical in sequence. Money will still come from the Province eventually though, and/or having the TTC uploaded.

All in all a plus that they are pushing to complete this on a faster timeline.
 
While good news, is shaving 2 years off the date the best that can be done? Kind of underwhelming.

Everyone knows we needed this line yesterday.

Can we throw more money at this and accelarate it even more?
 
pstogios said:
While good news, is shaving 2 years off the date the best that can be done? Kind of underwhelming.

Everyone knows we needed this line yesterday.

Can we throw more money at this and accelarate it even more?
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I'm assuming the extra city money announced today is only for accelerated design and utility relocations, which allow for major construction to start sooner. However, the speed of construction will stay the same unless more money is thrown at it specifically to make construction more efficient and less down time.
 
They better find all the extra money they can find to get the line not only up and running sooner, but keep on building it north to Eglinton as Phase 2, Sheppard as Phase 3, Finch as Phase 4 and Steeles as Phase 5. Phase 6 going into York Region down the road.

If this thing opens 2030, it will be 110 late in opening and 120 years when it was first approved.
 
Let’s hope that extensions are at play to open a few years later, to connect with Eglinton at Don Mills to intercept Line 5 riders, and riders north of that would feeder route to that line instead of going to Yonge street as they do today.
 
drum118 said:
They better find all the extra money they can find to get the line not only up and running sooner, but keep on building it north to Eglinton as Phase 2, Sheppard as Phase 3, Finch as Phase 4 and Steeles as Phase 5. Phase 6 going into York Region down the road.

If this thing opens 2030, it will be 110 late in opening and 120 years when it was first approved.
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I can understand two phases for Danforth to Eglinton and Eglinton to Sheppard, but 3 phases to get into York Region doesn't make much sense, as it would be 1 phase, Sheppard to ~Highway 7.
 
Leo_Chan said:
I can understand two phases for Danforth to Eglinton and Eglinton to Sheppard, but 3 phases to get into York Region doesn't make much sense, as it would be 1 phase, Sheppard to ~Highway 7.
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You need to get to Steeles first to deal with the Yonge line and building it in phases allows those sections to open sooner than later. Stopping the line at Sheppard will do to next nothing for the Yonge line. Going into York is too far down the line as we will be all dead before its built.

Hell, most of the phases will not be built before we die at the rate of things get done in Toronto.
 
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