Another Giambrone pet project: 120k to study the creation of a TTC museum...
Approved by city hall.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/767846--wheels-turning-on-transit-museum
Spending our tax dollars wisely.
Can't wait to see the operating and capital budget it will need.
I guess Giambrone and the other councillors are back to business as usual.
It will however make great grade school field trips.
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Cities such as New York, San Francisco and London, England, attract tourists, history buffs and transit fans to museums dedicated to their unique transportation systems.
The Toronto Transit Commission is considering doing something similar, preserving the TTC’s history in the city’s own transit museum.
While the idea is still being studied, a vacant bus garage across from the Coxwell subway station is considered the frontrunner location for what’s being called a transit visitor or interpretation centre.
Councillors on the TTC approved Wednesday the second phase of a study that would look at how the facility could be governed, including the possibility of a not-for-profit board that would have a TTC representative and raise funds to support the venture.
Attendance revenues and capital costs will also be considered in the second part of the study that was initiated last year.
Not all transit museums are mass-market attractions, said Ted Silberberg of Lord Cultural Resources, the company hired to study the idea. The firm has designed museums and cultural centres around the world, including Ontario House at the Vancouver Olympics.
“We see (the Toronto centre) as more than a place to display historic vehicles,†he told the commission.
The concept could be widened to include both science and history, and the present and future of public transit.
But not all TTC commissioners agreed with the plan. Peter Milczyn, referring to the TTC’s recent poor public relations and ongoing financial challenges, said, “This certainly should not be a priority for the commission now.†He voted against a second phase of the $120,000 study.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, TTC chair Adam Giambrone stressed that it would be a transit interpretation centre, not a museum.
“This allows us to address some of the issues we’ve been hearing from the community about the role that transit plays, both past, current and future,†he said.
“It is expected that a substantial amount, if not all of it, would come from outside funding. This is what happened in New York (and) London; the major transportation companies are usually partners in these,†Giambrone said.
The consultant looked at 23 potential locations, but few were considered both sufficiently accessible and suitable because of the size requirements of such a facility.
A visitor centre would require between 4,100 and 7,500 square feet and a museum between 3,800 and 10,800 square feet, according to Silberberg’s report.
It would probably require five to eight staffers, plus volunteers. A modest admission fee would likely be appropriate, with special incentives for token and Metropass users.
A collection of decommissioned TTC vehicles and those from other regional transit services are already housed in the Halton Radial Railway Museum near Milton. That museum, which runs mainly on volunteer power, was founded about 50 years ago by the Ontario Electric Railway Historical Association.