TTC revives consulting arm to oversee Sheppard subway
Tess Kalinowski Transportation Reporter
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Mayor Rob Ford has woken a long-dormant consulting arm of the TTC to help marshal a public-private partnership to finance and build the Sheppard subway extension.
Toronto Transit Infrastructure Ltd., (formerly Toronto Transit Consultants Ltd.) will be responsible for taking the business case for the Sheppard subway before the federal government to make sure “our business model makes sense,†TTC chair Karen Stintz told the Star.
“Someone just needs to be shepherding through that process and there is nowhere in the TTC that we can do that … so this consulting company has been re-established,†she said.
Although the subway would be financed and built privately, the TTC would operate it, said Stintz.
TTC commissioner Norm Kelly, the city councillor for Scarborough-Agincourt, Doug Ford, councillor for Etobicoke North and former city councillor Gordon Chong were named directors of the TTIL at a special public Toronto Transit Commission meeting early Tuesday.
“New directors will be added with expertise in P3 application,†said Stintz.
Reporters were not allowed into a private TTIL meeting on Tuesday, something that didn’t sit well with some city councillors.
“Unless they’re buying real estate there’s no reason for it to be in private, said Shelley Carroll (Don Valley East), who has been skeptical of the mayor’s plans to harness private capital to finance and build the subway he wants to run west to the Downsview subway station and east to Scarborough Town Centre.
Former TTC chair Adam Giambrone said the Ford plan “would only extend the current overbuilt white elephant†on Sheppard.
“It would spend all the money available for transit improvements in other parts of the city that really need better transit,†he added.
Giambrone was also skeptical of the TTIL role, saying, “their participation would likely only be for the purposes of creating the illusion of increased private participation.â€
“The last subway built by the TTC was over 92 per cent built by the private sector. Therefore a real P3 would only moderately increase private participation. It is, however, unlikely to decrease costs due to profit-taking and higher borrowing costs from a non-government entity,†Giambrone told the Star.
The latest step in Ford’s transportation plan comes even though the provincial transit funding agency Metrolinx hasn’t signed off on the scheme.
Ford’s proposal calls for the city to build and own the $4.5 billion Sheppard subway project.
That would leave the $8.15 billion in provincial transit funding to pay for underground light rail on Eglinton from Jane St. to Kennedy station. The remainder of those funds would be devoted to converting the Scarborough RT to light rail or subway and possibly boosting bus service on Finch Ave. West.
Ottawa has committed about $300 million to a light rail line on Sheppard Ave. East, but according to Metrolinx spokesperson Vanessa Thomas, “It is our understanding that the federal government would be responsible to make the decision on how it reallocates funding if the Sheppard East LRT project does not proceed as planned.â€
Although no details have been released, it’s believed Ford’s subway scheme would use a combination of development charges and tax increment financing.
But one city hall source noted that when former mayor David Miller’s administration explored similar schemes, it was found that it would be necessary to build 54,000 condos along the subway to raise $1 billion that way.
TTCL was formed in the 1970s as an organization through which TTC staff could consult with other transit agencies on the Scarborough RT technology, considered a major rail innovation at the time. It also provided consulting services to the Toronto Zoo after a monorail accident in 1994.
It was disbanded after the 1995 Russell Hill subway derailment, when “the TTC concluded it was too busy with its normal business,†said TTC chief general manager Gary Webster, who attended Tuesday’s special commission meeting.
The TTC is not bound by its decisions, said transit spokesman Brad Ross.
