Transit City Plan

[Juan_Lennon416]

Dalton McGuinty to City Hall: Get your act together on transit

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...ty-hall-get-your-act-together-on-transit?bn=1

 

[Tulse]

I think there is a real possibility the province may pull their funding if the circus goes on much longer.

 

[MetroMan]

“So I can say that we’re running out of patience. The people of Toronto are running of patience,†said McGuinty.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...ty-hall-get-your-act-together-on-transit?bn=1

Sounds like a threat. McGuinty should just take major transit planning out of the hands of municipalities and vest it in Metrolinx. Subways, LRTs and busways should be of the purview of Metrolinx while municipalities can take care of local bus routes. The subway network has already expanded beyond Toronto into Vaughan and there's no reason why it shouldn't go into Mississauga except for invisible city limits. It's clear that this kind of transit infrastructure should be under regional leadership.

 

[Paleo]

Sounds like a threat. McGuinty should just take major transit planning out of the hands of municipalities and vest it in Metrolinx. Subways, LRTs and busways should be of the purview of Metrolinx while municipalities can take care of local bus routes. The subway network has already expanded beyond Toronto into Vaughan and there's no reason why it shouldn't go into Mississauga except for invisible city limits. It's clear that this kind of transit infrastructure should be under regional leadership.

What reasons are there for that? Are there lots of people along Bloor/Dundas that are moving to points on Bloor West in Toronto? Enough to justify the expense? When Mississauga has never wanted to spend a cent on it? (is that not a valid reason?)

 

[Marcanadian]

I think McGuinty is going to threaten to pull funding if Ford doesn't comply.

 

[M II A II R II K]

There should be a vote of no confidence at City Hall and prompt another election.

 

[CDL.TO]

Found in the Globe comment threads are some interesting quotes from Ford's opponents in the election...

There is also a presumption in proposing subway construction that you can present a sound business plan to finance its construction.

The mayor's four opponents - who got 55 percent of the vote between them - all pointed out that Ford's plan was unaffordable.

From a media report the day Ford released his plan during the election campaign

Sarah Thomson:

“I have been saying since March that Toronto needs to build subways, not streetcars. Mr. Ford echoed this in his transit policy but his subway plan is not well thought out. Toronto cannot expand the Sheppard Line without first building a Downtown Relief Line (DRL) to accommodate the added capacity that comes with an expanded system. Anyone who has done their research on our subway system would know that the DRL is a priority before any other expansion, especially when talking about moving people to their jobs.”

Rocco Rossi:

“This is a transit plan without desire, it’s clearly a guy whose heart isn’t in it. The single biggest amount of money extracted from development [fees] doesn’t even go to public transit, it goes to roads.”

George Smitherman:

“On transit, Rob Ford claims he can arbitrarily spend $3.7B from the province on new subway lines. This is pure fantasy. The money is not his to spend – LRT cars and earth boring machines have already been ordered for transit lines now underway. There will be massive financial penalties for cancelling these now. That’s money for nothing and the ultimate in waste and mismanagement. Second, $790M of the money he’s counting on from the province is for York Region’s bus expansion. Not only will his plan kill transit expansion across Toronto – by putting a knife in the back of the Eglinton cross-town transit line for example – he’s trying to to kill York Region’s transit too. It’s a good thing he set aside some money for walking trails, as that’s the only form of transportation guaranteed under Rob Ford’s plan.”

Joe Pantalone:

“Mr. Ford is suggesting we do less and spend more. When one whole generation has already had to wait for transit construction, Mr. Ford proposes to build all of 12km of transit, and only for a small part of the city? That is a tenth of what we could do, and it is five times more than we should spend.”

 

[spider]

Sarah Thomson:

“I have been saying since March that Toronto needs to build subways, not streetcars. Mr. Ford echoed this in his transit policy but his subway plan is not well thought out. Toronto cannot expand the Sheppard Line without first building a Downtown Relief Line (DRL) to accommodate the added capacity that comes with an expanded system. Anyone who has done their research on our subway system would know that the DRL is a priority before any other expansion, especially when talking about moving people to their jobs.”

Sarah got it right on transit.

 

[neubilder]

There should be a vote of no confidence at City Hall and prompt another election.

Yes.

 

[Voltz]

There should be a vote of no confidence at City Hall and prompt another election.

If Fords losses on the budget were to have occurred in the Provincial or Federal governments then it would have been a confidence issue, and there would have been a election.

 

[M II A II R II K]

And needless to say, his cars only policy and attitude makes him not suited to run a large city anywhere.

 

[andrewpmk]

I continue to think that "Transit City" is totally inadequate for a city the size of Toronto. See for example Singapore, a city-state with a land area roughly similar to the City of Toronto (ignoring the 905). In 1980 its population was 2.41 million people (source: Wolfram Alpha), roughly comparable to the City of Toronto now. It originally planned to build a "rapid bus" system, but it decided to build a subway system because it thought the bus system would be inadequate, which turned out to be a great success. Its population is now 4.84 million people, the subway system has turned out to be a great success, and it is building more lines.

 

[Johnny Au]

And needless to say, his cars only policy and attitude makes him not suited to run a large city anywhere.

Except for Bangkok, Manila, and the like probably

 

[Northern Magus]

There should be a vote of no confidence at City Hall and prompt another election.

If only. Unfortunately the mayor is directly elected and does not serve at the pleasure of Council -- unlike in a legislature or Parliament.

He'd have to resign of his own volition -- which ain't gonna happen in a million years.

We're stuck with the Ford Brothers Circus for another 2 1/2 years.

 

[Northern Magus]

I continue to think that "Transit City" is totally inadequate for a city the size of Toronto. See for example Singapore, a city-state with a land area roughly similar to the City of Toronto (ignoring the 905). In 1980 its population was 2.41 million people (source: Wolfram Alpha), roughly comparable to the City of Toronto now. It originally planned to build a "rapid bus" system, but it decided to build a subway system because it thought the bus system would be inadequate, which turned out to be a great success. Its population is now 4.84 million people, the subway system has turned out to be a great success, and it is building more lines.

Like ohmigod, building subways totally caused another 2 million people to suddenly materialize!! Just like with our original Spadina extension and the Sheppard stubway!!

Oh, right.