GO Transit: Construction Projects (Metrolinx, various)

[TOareaFan]

There's no need to force people to click on a link to read your tweet. If you have something to say, say it here!

Sorry. was in a rush

 

[reaperexpress]

Well, in other news, here's my update on Barrie Line double tracking from this past weekend, heading northbound from Downsview Park to Rutherford.

At Downsview Park, it's really odd how they arranged the track and platforms. There's a triple-track bridge over Sheppard Ave, but instead of aligning the future triple-track railway with it, they put the northbound platform across it leaving space only for the northbound local and the centre express track, not the southbound local track which is the next one we need ASAP. So whereas I thought it would be trivial to double-track Downsview Park station once it opens (just pour a platform, all the other infra already in place), it looks like it may actually be a big engineering job involving a new bridge and acquiring property on the northwest side of the bridge for the approach. I really hope I'm wrong.

Between York University and Rutherford stations, construction was supposed to be completed exactly 1 year ago (August 2016), but there doesn't seem to have been any progress since my last video in May 2017.

At Rutherford, work is now beginning on the station's reconstruction, with a large trench being dug alongside the line, with some pipes that look like they may become drainage. This supports my suspicion that the current platform is actually built on the trackbed of the second track, and all-new platforms will be required. Also worth noting is that soon (next year?) work will start on the Rutherford Road grade separation, which will include a pedestrian & bicycle bridge alongside the railway, connecting to the existing multi-use trail further north and presumably some new bike parking on the east side of the tracks.

Also, I just noticed that the GO logo is stamped on each one of the new ties at Rouge Hill station:

 

[steveintoronto]

Shouldn't we also be concerned that the Metrolinx board originally approved the station list in secret?

Public agencies should have the same rules as municipalities, and should only go in camera to deal with legal issues, real estate negotiations, and HR matters.

Featured piece by Marcus Gee just up at the Globe: (I'll post in full with full accreditation as this is a topic with legs, and ones that Kathleen Wynne won't have. This one gaffe just might tip the odds back against her again next election. And God help the result of that)

Metrolinx should make decisions based on facts, not the whim of a minister

Marcus Gee
23 minutes ago

Political meddling in transit is a fine Toronto tradition. A Liberal cabinet minister's intervention to get a new GO Transit station for his riding is a classic of the type.

According to an article in the Toronto Star by reporter Ben Spurr on Monday, Ontario's Transportation Ministry pressured Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency, to approve the Kirby GO station, which just happens to be in Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca's Vaughan constituency. The ministry also pushed for a Scarborough station, Lawrence East, that is part of the SmartTrack transit line championed by Toronto Mayor John Tory.

An analysis for Metrolinx originally said that authorities should not consider building the two stations for at least 10 years. Adding them would increase travel times on the GO lines by forcing trains to stop more often, it concluded, so fewer people would use the GO service. In other words, the facts simply did not justify the stations.


The Metrolinx board ended up approving them anyway, in June, 2016. Documents obtained by the Star through the freedom-of-information process help explain why. The head of Metrolinx at the time, Bruce McCuaig, said Mr. Del Duca seemed "disappointed" that Kirby was not on the list of favoured new stations. After much to-ing and fro-ing at the transit agency, Mr. McCuaig added the two dubious stations to the list. Mr. Del Duca duly announced they would be built, along with 10 others.

Metrolinx insists nothing untoward happened here – nothing at all. Deciding which stations to build "is a collaborative process that requires many inputs, including from public servants and elected officials, which must be blended together in final judgments." In the case of Kirby, "municipal officials, community stakeholders and Minister Del Duca collectively made the case that Kirby be included among the new stations to be approved." So, you see, the minister in charge of transportation for the province is just one voice among many.


If you believe that, then there is some lovely wetland property in Florida you might want to buy. Assuming the Star's report is correct – and the great clouds of fog emitted by Metrolinx and Mr. Del Duca in response do nothing to contradict it – then it would seem Metrolinx changed its mind under political pressure.

That is not how things should work. Metrolinx is supposed to make decisions based on the facts, not the whim of a minister. Where transit lines and stations go should depend on how many people might use them, not how many votes a politician might win by announcing them.

The agency's founding documents say its role is to "provide leadership" in the planning and development of a regional transportation system. Some leadership. The members of its board, a blue-chip group of leading Ontarians who are duty bound to scrutinize its decisions, should be hanging their heads today.

Building these political stations would cost tens of millions of dollars. If the original analysis is correct, then that will not just be a waste of public money; it will hamper the efficiency of the region's commuter rail system, actually discouraging commuters from taking it. People don't get on the train to take a milk run. They want fast service with the fewest possible stops on their way to work.

What makes this episode doubly discouraging is that it is so very typical. Again and again in Toronto, powerful politicians have intervened to make sure that favourite transit projects get built, whether the facts justify them or not. It really should end. Political leaders should set the broad goals of the transit system and round up the money to build it, then leave the details to the experts. A minister ought to know better than to use his muscle to favour a stop in his own backyard that might win him political advantage.


On Monday afternoon, Mr. Del Duca issued a statement on the Kirby affair. He defended his "long-standing support" for the station, saying that a surge of new residents coming to the area would justify building it. But then he seemed to throw the matter back to Metrolinx, telling the agency it shouldn't sign any contract to build the station until the staff and board were satisfied it was justified by local land use, the shape of the growing rail network and other factors. "If the aforementioned information is not adequate, then I would recommend that the proposed Kirby GO station be deferred to the next round of consideration at a future date."

It was the right thing to do, but it shouldn't have taken an investigation by an enterprising reporter to make him see the wisdom of standing back.

https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/ne...36110335/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&

We all knew this was a stitch-up, what we didn't know is that so many emails would get pried free with FOI to prove it beyond doubt...and have a legal case against Il Duce. Is that a projection? Absolutely...if there's a way to take this before a court, it will be found.

 

[steveintoronto]

And the Star Editorial:

Metrolinx must rethink approval of two new GO stations: Editorial
The locations of new GO stations at Kirby and Lawrence East in the $13.5 billion expansion program should be based on evidence, not political pressure.

By Star Editorial Board
Mon., Aug. 28, 2017

The revelation this week that the provincial transportation ministry pressured Metrolinx leadership to approve a new $100-million GO station in the minister’s riding, despite overwhelming evidence that this was a very bad idea, should no longer surprise us.

For too long, politics rather than good policy has determined transit decisions in this region. Politicians, with little or no regard for the evidence, declare what’s to be built, often in a crass effort to garner votes, and city staff scramble to do their bidding.

But while it should not surprise us, it should trouble us profoundly. This is among the key reasons our traffic congestion crisis continues to deepen, costing the Greater Toronto-Hamilton area upwards of $6-billion a year in everything from traffic delays to increases in accidents and pollution. It’s time we demanded better.

Plans to build this and another questionable GO station should be halted until the province can make a compelling case that carrying on is in the public interest. The province says more analysis is necessary. That is for sure.

And Ontario Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca should fully explain his role in the decision and his reasons for pushing these stations if he hopes to restore the public trust.

As the Star’s Ben Spurr reports, Del Duca’s ministry pressured Metrolinx leadership to approve two new GO Transit stations, Kirby and Lawrence East, at a combined cost of $123 million, despite an independent study that showed building these stops would actually worsen traffic congestion and pollution.

The evidence of political meddling uncovered by Spurr through a freedom of information request is overwhelming and ugly.

At a closed-door meeting in June 2016, on the advice of agency staff, the board of Metrolinx, the province’s arm’s-length transit agency, approved a list of new stops as part of its expansion program that did not include Kirby or Lawrence East.

A day later, Metrolinx officials were shocked to receive copies of draft press releases from the ministry indicating that the following week Del Duca would announce that the Kirby and Lawrence East stations were going ahead.

This news was met with confusion within the agency. After all, Metrolinx had not only rejected the stops; they had done so roundly. An independent analysis recommended neither Kirby nor Lawrence East be considered for at least 10 years, in part because they would lead to a decreased ridership on the GO network.

Building them, the report suggested, would increase travel times for many riders on the network, encouraging some to drive their cars instead. And neither stop would attract enough new riders to offset the passengers lost.

Meanwhile, the social costs associated with greenhouse gas emissions and traffic congestion over the next six decades resulting from building the two stations would total around $750 million.

What possible reason could the ministry have for pushing these stations? In the absence of a compelling story, it’s hard to ignore the fact that one of the stops, the $100-million Kirby station, happens to be in Del Duca’s riding. The other, the $23-million Lawrence East station, has been championed by Mayor John Tory as part of his “SmartTrack” plan.

While Del Duca has rightly promised further analysis, this time it should be conducted transparently and free from ministerial interference so Ontarians can be assured choices on transit will finally be based on evidence, not politics.

At the very least, the current optics are disastrous – and Del Duca isn’t helping matters. Asked a number of questions by Spurr, including whether Del Duca overstepped his authority in his dealings with Metrolinx, the minister responded with a generic statement in which he suggested, among other things, that the population density around Kirby justified a station. Yet the Metrolinx analysis strongly disagreed.

This province cannot afford to waste yet more infrastructure money on politically motivated projects. If Del Duca can’t demonstrate to Ontarians that that is not what’s going on here, he will have left no doubt not just that these projects are wrong-headed, but also that he is unfit for the job.

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/edi...pproval-of-two-new-go-stations-editorial.html

 

[reaperexpress]

Maybe this brings back hope for Concord station (at Highway 7 on the Barrie Line). I found it odd at the time that Concord station was dismissed on the basis of 'low demand' - a station which provides a link from York Region's north-south regional rail line (the Barrie line) to Vaughan's two biggest development nodes (VMC and Promenade) via a Metrolinx-funded BRT line (Viva Rapidway), while another faster rapidway (407 Transitway) is also proposed to connect it to destinations across Ontario, meanwhile the stations at Kirby and in Innisfil got approved just fine.

 

[amnesiajune]

We all knew this was a stitch-up, what we didn't know is that so many emails would get pried free with FOI to prove it beyond doubt...and have a legal case against Il Duce. Is that a projection? Absolutely...if there's a way to take this before a court, it will be found.

How do you put a legal case together against someone who hasn't done anything illegal? There's no law forbidding the Minister of Transport from pressuring the Ministry of Transport to approve projects he likes. He could publicly say that he's ignoring and overriding Metrolinx's decision if he wanted to. As long as he isn't personally benefitting from the station (for example, if he owned the land there and was going to make money by selling it to Metrolinx) it's not illegal for him to interfere with his bureaucrats' decisions.

Maybe this brings back hope for Concord station (at Highway 7 on the Barrie Line).

I don't see why this would. The rail line doesn't actually intersect with the BRT (the bus lanes are forced to end west of it because of the bridge width), and there are already two connections between the Barrie Line and VMC: Viva Silver and TYSSE.

 

[reaperexpress]

I don't see why this would. The rail line doesn't actually intersect with the BRT (the bus lanes are forced to end west of it because of the bridge width), and there are already two connections between the Barrie Line and VMC: Viva Silver and TYSSE.

The rail line doesn't currently have a connection because there's no station there. That's my point. If Concord Station were built, Viva Orange would serve it, as would GO Transit according to the public meeting I went to years ago for the 407 Transitway. And Viva Silver is hardly the same calibre connection as Viva Orange, being a mixed-traffic bus that has a much longer route to get to the train. Viva Orange will actually be pretty fast from VMC to Concord, there are very few traffic signals or stops, and of course there's a bus lane so never any traffic. And neither Viva Silver nor the subway provides direct access to the Thornhill-Promenade node.

 

[amnesiajune]

The rail line doesn't currently have a connection because there's no station there. That's my point.

I'm not saying there's no station. I'm saying there's no BRT for a station to connect to. Viva runs in mixed traffic there (it's actually right in the spot where buses would be merging across three lanes of traffic) because the existing bridge doesn't provide enough room for bus lanes to be added underneath it.

And Viva Silver is hardly the same calibre connection as Viva Orange, being a mixed-traffic bus that has a much longer route to get to the train.

It's not, but what's the difference in time going to be? The current transit trip on the 4 and 20 buses is a bit under 30 minutes. Viva's fewer stops reduce that to 25 minutes at most. How many people are going to make this transit trip, and how much money is it worth spending to reduce the trip time for those people (from north of Maple Go to VMC) by no more than ten minutes?

It doesn't provide access to Thornhill-Promeade either.

That's true, but I don't think there's much commercial growth planned for that area. Certainly nothing compared to VMC.

 

[steveintoronto]

How do you put a legal case together against someone who hasn't done anything illegal?

What makes you so sure? Did you know all about the emails before the FOI application? I stated it was a "projection". Nothing illegal about pushing for gas plants either...

There's no law forbidding the Minister of Transport from pressuring the Ministry of Transport to approve projects he likes.

Your degree of apology and confidence is quite impressive...I think there's more to come out yet, and it will.

The rail line doesn't currently have a connection because there's no station there. That's my point.

Exactly. I suspect Il Duce didn't think FOI would reveal the emails. The Minister of Pronouncements meets his pronoun, and now he knows he's dancing in the spotlight, but not the one he wanted, the MX Board will suddenly find their own song to sing. And it will be a lot more believable. If Wynne wants to win, then she'd best learn some new dance steps too. Now the Sun has something genuine to paint their front page with.

As an added thought, Keesmaat's leaving is just a tad too coincidental with the FOI revelations. Maybe Tory's boat is about to take a hit too, and Ms Keesmaat would rather float her own, and now is an excellent time to leave. Is this finally the end of SmartTrack? Has Baron von Münchhausen met his match with FOI?

 

[amnesiajune]

What makes you so sure?

If there was anything even remotely illegal, The Star would've made it extremely clear in their story. They didn't, and that's what makes me so sure.

Your degree of apology and confidence is quite impressive

As an added thought, Keesmaat's leaving is just a tad too coincidental with the FOI revelations.

She chose to leave the municipal government on a whim because of this provincial government story? Yeah... no. She probably left because she's planning on running against Christin Carmichael Greb in her home ward, and she can't do that while she's a public servant.

Is this finally the end of SmartTrack?

No.

 

[steveintoronto]

If there was anything even remotely illegal, The Star would've made it extremely clear in their story. They didn't, and that's what makes me so sure.

lol...I see. Getting back to apology and confidence. There were thousands of emails in the FOI release. There's more to come...

She chose to leave the municipal government on a whim because of this provincial government story?

A number of posters appear to have a problem reading lately. Since when was Tory back at provincial level? SmartTrack is far from being a QP favourite, in fact Toronto still hasn't the budget to afford it. I guess the sinking ship allegory was lost on you.

It's not just Il Duce who's going to hang for this...
Perhaps I have to point out that Lawrence East is a City responsibility?

And just how prescient is this?

Scarborough activists file auditor general complaint over transit spending
By Ben SpurrTransportation Reporter
Tues., Aug. 22, 2017

Scarborough Transit Action asks provincial watchdog to probe "the use of non-evidence-based decision-making” in approval of new GO Transit stations and the Scarborough subway extension.

Scarborough Transit Action filed a request with Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk on Wednesday morning requesting that her office investigate the planned construction of the Kirby and Lawrence East GO Transit stations, as well as the Scarborough subway extension.

“The auditor general has a responsibility to ensure that there is a good value for money, and we feel that this is very bad value for money,” Moya Beall, a spokesperson for the group, said in an interview Tuesday.

The auditor general is tasked with overseeing provincial spending and reporting any misuse of public funds. “We will give the request from Scarborough TransitAction serious consideration, as we do all citizen submissions,” said spokesperson Christine Pedias. [...]

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/tr...-general-complaint-over-transit-spending.html

Nothing to see here kiddies! Just move along now....

 

[reaperexpress]

I'm not saying there's no station. I'm saying there's no BRT for a station to connect to. Viva runs in mixed traffic there (it's actually right in the spot where buses would be merging across three lanes of traffic) because the existing bridge doesn't provide enough room for bus lanes to be added underneath it.

The great thing about BRT is that buses can continue to operate off the end of the busway, accessing destinations that aren't directly served by it. In this case we're talking about 3200m of busway and 144m of mixed-traffic operation, which may require a signal in order to access the station.

It's not, but what's the difference in time going to be? The current transit trip on the 4 and 20 buses is a bit under 30 minutes. Viva's fewer stops reduce that to 25 minutes at most. How many people are going to make this transit trip, and how much money is it worth spending to reduce the trip time for those people (from north of Maple Go to VMC) by no more than ten minutes?

That's true, but I don't think there's much commercial growth planned for that area. Certainly nothing compared to VMC.

How does it compare to Kirby or Innisfil stations in these respects?

 

[steveintoronto]

And so it starts:

Tories ask auditor general to investigate new GO stations

[...]
Premier Kathleen Wynne’s office and Metrolinx declined to answer questions Monday about the stations. A spokesperson for Del Duca said he was away and unavailable. [...]

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/tr...r-general-to-investigate-new-go-stations.html

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

Maybe this brings back hope for Concord station (at Highway 7 on the Barrie Line). I found it odd at the time that Concord station was dismissed on the basis of 'low demand' - a station which provides a link from York Region's north-south regional rail line (the Barrie line) to Vaughan's two biggest development nodes (VMC and Promenade) via a Metrolinx-funded BRT line (Viva Rapidway), while another faster rapidway (407 Transitway) is also proposed to connect it to destinations across Ontario, meanwhile the stations at Kirby and in Innisfil got approved just fine.

Only problem is the neighbours don't want the station.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

And so it starts:

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/tr...r-general-to-investigate-new-go-stations.html

Away and unavailable, where, I wonder considering this is a once-in-a-career photo-op he cannot afford to miss.

Having said that, my confidence in the NDP or PC in practising "evidence-based decision making" as opposed to "decision-based evidence making" on the transit file is also exactly zero.

AoD