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TTC: Other Items (catch all)

The Star is reporting that the announcement is for Smart Track funding. It's being announced at Hillcrest because it is in Joe Oliver's riding.
 
Is that official? Seems like work is progressing pretty rapidly on the DRL. I have a friend who is on the team that is planning it and he seems pretty confident that it is still moving forward as there is a lot of work and resources going into it.

With all 3 Federal parties committing to regular transit funding, I have no worries for the DRL. By time it is ready for funding, there should be billions available for the cause, as Smart Track will likely be under construction already.
 
The DRL will also take a lot more planning and work before construction begins, whereas SmartTrack is largely piggybacking on existing infrastructure, and so can be ready to go much more quickly.
 
You guys are forgetting it is an election year - the specifics doesn't matter, it's about PR. It doesn't matter even if the Smarttrak couldn't be built until the next decade.

AoD
 
Tuscani01 said:
Is that official? Seems like work is progressing pretty rapidly on the DRL. I have a friend who is on the team that is planning it and he seems pretty confident that it is still moving forward as there is a lot of work and resources going into it.

With all 3 Federal parties committing to regular transit funding, I have no worries for the DRL. By time it is ready for funding, there should be billions available for the cause, as Smart Track will likely be under construction already.
Click to expand...

SmartTrack has completely undermined political support for the DRL. Tory is still trumpeting the idea that SmartTrack can relieve the Yonge line and be build in only 7 years, so now politicians have yet another excuse to continue ignoring the DRL so that they can go back to pursuing more suburban vanity projects instead. During all his shmoozing with Harper and Wynn, I highly doubt Tory talked at all about the DRL, but yay he got an election year funding promise for an unstudied pet project whose cost is still unknown, from the same government who also promised money for the political subway in Scarborough. So why isn't the DRL worthy of funding too? Because it doesn't buy enough votes in an election. The only reason why it's talked about at all is to enable the extension of the Yonge line to Richmond Hill. Now that relief is on the way thanks to SmartTrack (which it isn't), those "billions available for the cause" will most likely be spent elsewhere on RER, GO electrification, Yonge subway extension, and 905 BRT/LRT projects.
 
salsa said:
So why isn't the DRL worthy of funding too?
Click to expand...

Because there is no DRL to fund yet. Alignment has yet to be determined, stops have yet to be determined, there is no Provincial funding yet, and there is no city funding yet beyond the money being spent on the ongoing planning of the DRL.

Smart Track is piggy backing on already built and planned infrastructure, most of which could already start being built without rolling stock or stations.
 
The DRL is officially an afterthought. Smart Track has squeezed out all the available funding. If Toronto had prioritzed it, there would actually be funding for it which is now going to Smart Track. Sure they can plan, but if there's no money for it it's basically on life support.
 
Adjei said:
The DRL is officially an afterthought. Smart Track has squeezed out all the available funding. If Toronto had prioritzed it, there would actually be funding for it which is now going to Smart Track. Sure they can plan, but if there's no money for it it's basically on life support.
Click to expand...
Fund what for the DRL? They are just at the stage of picking general routes -- there is no specific alignment, no set station locations, no decisions on how it will cross the Don, etc. etc. etc. I don't know if makes sense for the province or feds to commit billions to a project that has no budget and where significant money won't be spent for a few years.
 
Tulse said:
Fund what for the DRL? They are just at the stage of picking general routes -- there is no specific alignment, no set station locations, no decisions on how it will cross the Don, etc. etc. etc. I don't know if makes sense for the province or feds to commit billions to a project that has no budget and where significant money won't be spent for a few years.
Click to expand...

If you can't see that Smart Track has come and sucked out all the momentum out of the DRL, then I don't know what to say. A year ago who was talking about the DRL? When was the last time anybody talked about the DRL at city hall? When last did John Tory talk about the DRL? Where is all the set station locations for Smart Track? Where are all the studies done for it? We have gone from no one talking about Smart Track last year to it being funded within one year. They are still debating and studying on the feasibility of the Eglinton section but all of a sudden we have all this funding coming for it? What a joke. Nobody even knows what Smart Track is. Whether it is part of GO RER or what it is. But we all of a sudden have the Feds committing 2 billion for it. Smart Track has taken all of the spotlight from the DRL. They can plan all they want but no money is coming for it.
 
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