http://network.nationalpost.com/np/...-avenue-east-anxiety-over-a-transit-plan.aspx
On Sheppard Avenue East, anxiety over a transit plan
Posted: January 08, 2009, 5:14 PM by Rob Roberts
The TTC this year embarks on construction of Transit City, its plan to build a 120-kilometre network of light rail lines over the next 15 years. Peter Kuitenbrouwer begins a series of columns on the $8-billion project, which is almost entirely unfunded and remains largely a leap of faith for city hall.
At first glance, Sheppard Avenue, running east from Highway 404 through Scarborough toward the zoo, seems an unlikely place to pioneer Toronto’s light rail revolution.
The street is filled with car dealerships: Agincourt Nissan, Brimell Toyota, Scarborotown Jeep Chrysler Dogde, Hogan Chevrolet, Go Go Auto Sales, Ford Eastcourt and AAA Cars, plus gas stations and body shops. A sprawling Canadian Tire, fronted by a prodigious parking lot, dominates the corner of Sheppard and McCowan Road.
This is car country. And this is also ground zero for Transit City. The Toronto Transit Commission will soon start digging up Sheppard this year in the first phase of the plan, which will banish cars from the two centre lanes of this avenue along 14 kilometres, forevermore.
No wonder the natives are restless.
“The TTC are being very co-operative but I also believe that, on their best day, it’s going to be a train wreck for business,†says George Markakos (pictured above), owner of Joey Bravo’s, an Italian pasta and steak house his father founded 36 years ago, on Sheppard Avenue just west of McCowan. He has 44 parking spaces.
The Sheppard East Village Business Improvement Area mailed out a news release the other day warning that, “revenues lost as a result of LRT construction will threaten the existence of many small and family-owned businesses in Sheppard East Village -- and bankruptcy may be their only option.â€
Mr. Markakos also points out that, once the job is done, the right-of-way down the centre of Sheppard will force eastbound motorists to drive half a kilometre past his restaurant, then make a u-turn and double back to come for dinner. As for transit users, whose light rail vehicles will still stop at all traffic lights (as the Sheppard bus does now), “I’m not sure how much time you’re going to save,†he says.
The BIA folks say that, about a year ago, Mr. Giambrone convoked them to an emergency meeting, held at Brimell Toyota. He announced the TTC had picked Sheppard for the first LRT. He did not ask their opinion; instead he brought a box of LRT buttons for them to wear. Most left the buttons at the meeting.
“Giambrone just showed up one day and dropped this bomb on us,†says Mark Bozian, owner of Brimell Toyota, who recently invested $7-million in his business. He pays $30,000 a month in business property tax, he says.
Mr. Giambrone responded to my questions by releasing the BIA’s letter to him of March, 2007, in which the business owners wrote, “there are many ... reasons why this part of the TTC plan makes sense and ought to have priority status in any rapid transit development.â€
Yes, say the business owners, we support the goal. But they do fear that the TTC is rushing into this project without a clear plan. Indeed, look more closely at the Sheppard light rail project and strange details emerge:
•The city does not have the money to build the line. “Metrolinx [the provincial transportation planning agency] has supported the Sheppard line,†Mr. Giambrone says. “We have the money to commence the work in 2009. None of the money will come from the city.†(Metrolinx has asked the province to put $55-million in its budget this year for Sheppard; the province has the last say).
•The TTC has still not decided how the line will connect to the Sheppard subway, which ends at Don Mills Road. Either the TTC will extend the subway one station west to Consumers Road, tunneling under Highway 404, or run the LRT east, either in a tunnel or at grade, under the highway to Don Mills.
• The TTC apparently still has not decided how to run the LRT under a train bridge east of Midland, where the LRT may have to merge with car traffic to fit.
• There is no clear plan to connect the new line to the Scarborough rapid transit line, which is on the other side of Highway 401.
• The TTC has not ordered cars for the line.
• The price is rising. In March, 2007, a TTC report said the Sheppard line would cost $555-million, including vehicles. Today Mr. Giambrone says it will cost $800-million.
Because of the complexities on the west bit of this project, the TTC has decided to build from the east, which means some parts of Sheppard will have a train-only strip down their centre for years before anyone sees a train.
Few locals around here have heard of the plan, but many supported the idea when I told them about it. At Canadian Tire, I talked to Bob Drummond -- who had bought a lunch box for his job at the Cadbury Adams candy factory in Scarborough.
“If people don’t have cars it’s going to give them options, they can get downtown, it’s not going to be Scarberia anymore,†he says.
Greg Toth, who was eating a burger at the Agincourt Mall, is not so sure. He moved here four years ago from Florida; after two years struggling on the TTC, he bought a 1994 Mercury Topaz, which he uses to around Scarborough. He’s wary of the light rail deam.
“I’m very suspect about the TTC’s ability to make proper decisions,†he said.
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While I don't care much about what businesses on Sheppard say about the disruption caused by LRT construction (they'd probably react the same way to a subway line), I just think it's hilarious the way the TTC is pitching the LRT scheme to the businesses according to the above article.
