2014 Municipal Election: Toronto Transit Plans

[ehlow]

I mostly agree with this article on what would actually happen re: transit with each candidate winning:

http://www.thestar.com/news/city_ha...ansit_with_a_chow_ford_or_tory_win_james.html

Any new mayor would need to not only get council on their side, but negotiate with the province.

 

[dowlingm]

I don't have much of a problem with the Chow tweet because Tory's blurring of lines between what GO RER and SmartTrack is, who is paying for what, and when anything will be built and in service has gotten us where we are. What I do have a problem with is where she hauls a neighbour before the mikes to denounce the extra track and trains the Province intends to build/operate, Tory or no Tory: https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/519121671530508288

 

[ehlow]

I don't have much of a problem with the Chow tweet because Tory's blurring of lines between what GO RER and SmartTrack is, who is paying for what, and when anything will be built and in service has gotten us where we are. What I do have a problem with is where she hauls a neighbour before the mikes to denounce the extra track and trains the Province intends to build/operate, Tory or no Tory: https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/519121671530508288

LOL.. oh man. Now she's basically positioning herself against GO RER and rallying the NIMBY troops.

Someone should tell that person that her house would be within walking distance of Agincourt station with electric trains going downtown every 15 minutes fast, likely significantly raising her property values.

 

[MrsNesbitt]

LOL.. oh man. Now she's basically positioning herself against GO RER and rallying the NIMBY troops.

Someone should tell that person that her house would be within walking distance of Agincourt station with electric trains going downtown every 15 minutes fast, likely significantly raising her property values.

It infuriates me. This is why Toronto politics itself is the great brake on transit expansion. You have the best, most realistic, furthest-reaching, and most cost-effective plan for transit in the GTHA brought forth by the province, and immediately one candidate outright copies it for their own glory, and others now position themselves as against it because they either don't understand or just want to score partisan points of their own.

Chow is doing herself and the city a disservice by whipping up NIMBY sentiments against RER. She ought to be ashamed.

And this is all spoken from someone who would probably still vote for her as the least evil of evils, were I a City resident

 

[Midtown Urbanist]

Between this and her Bus Plan, I hope Chow supporters stop telling me that her years as 'transit critic' for the NDP means she understands transit. She clearly doesn't, as every news conference, debate and her campaign has shown thus far.

 

[ehlow]

Hey, this makes sense:

Now we know why her transit map has 3 GO RER corridors on it, but no Stouffville:
http://www.oliviachow.ca/transit

Stouffville is left off her map, but she has Lakeshore east & west, and Georgetown.

Given her statements today against double tracking Stouffville, I guess she's against GO RER on Stouffville.

 

[kEiThZ]

Between this and her Bus Plan, I hope Chow supporters stop telling me that her years as 'transit critic' for the NDP means she understands transit. She clearly doesn't, as every news conference, debate and her campaign has shown thus far.

Worse than that. She's now going for scorched earth. With pictures like that, and pulling out people that live beside electrification corridors. She seriously pulled out a NIMBY beside a rail corridor. How low can she get?

 

[kEiThZ]

Hey, this makes sense:

Now we know why her transit map has 3 GO RER corridors on it, but no Stouffville:
http://www.oliviachow.ca/transit

Stouffville is left off her map, but she has Lakeshore east & west, and Georgetown.

Given her statements today against double tracking Stouffville, I guess she's against GO RER on Stouffville.

Didn't John Tory say that he is letting Finch and Sheppard go ahead?

 

[salsa]

Didn't John Tory say that he is letting Finch and Sheppard go ahead?

Yes, but he still didn't put them on his transit map.

 

[ehlow]

Yes, but he still didn't put them on his transit map.

Yeah he voiced support. He also didn't go to a given neighbourhood to rally people against transit lines like Chow is doing against GO double tracking in Stouffville.

 

[innsertnamehere]

Shes playing up as if there is no room on stouffville for a double track even though there clearly is as defined by the just completed rail expansion EA for the stouffville corridor which identifies double tracking to Unionville as part of the $270 million expansion. The Uxbridge sub portion of Smart-Track is possibly the only sound piece of planning of the whole thing (presuming replacement of the GO line which still has issues for GO users north of Unionville), and its the part shes showing as problematic. There are seriously so many parts of the plan that are bad that you could spend a year explaining why and how the plan is unworkable, and Chow managed to choose what is probably the one part of the plan that is backed by actual studies and has an actual possibility of occurring.


I've officially given up this election. Tory has Smart-track which is absolutely insanely unworkable and is essentially little more than a line on the map with no mention as how the hell it would fit or work with GO transit and in the corridors it runs off (Tory just waves that as "Engineers will do that"), Chow is lying about problems with Smart-Track even though there are dozens of valid criticisms, Ford is straight up incompetent. Its a lose-lose-lose. Honestly Tory would probably be the best mayor but the Smart-track plan is unbelievably idiotic as it is likely straight up impossible to construct and will likely do nothing but delay the DRL, which really disappointing me. Chow I was fairly sure of voting for but her hyperbole and false criticisms reek, and Ford is well, Ford.

 

[MrsNesbitt]

Shes playing up as if there is no room on stouffville for a double track even though there clearly is as defined by the just completed rail expansion EA for the stouffville corridor which identifies double tracking to Unionville as part of the $270 million expansion.

It's mind boggling. Difficult to justify trotting out NIMBY neighbours when the line has already been used by GO - in fact, louder and dirtier (diesel) trains than the electrics that RER will use - for decades.

Not to mention the eternal truth that: that rail corridor was there far before your houses were, and you moved next to it knowing that it was there.

Also, although the EA and plans are of course to Unionville, I'd rather see double-tracking and electrification up to Mount Joy, but what do I know

 

[innsertnamehere]

The 15 minute service will likely require that, but GO had planned 30 minute service to Unionville and hourly to Mount Joy, meaning that the train could get to Mount joy and back down to Unionville before the next one came by, meaning only a single track is required, though I think a double platform would be needed at Mount Joy to allow for peak period trains to pass on their way to Stouffville during peak times.

 

[ssiguy2]

I never liked Chow and now I like her even less.

She is a typical opportunistic politician who, when he campaign is completely collapsing, only idea left is too discredit her opponents. Her notion of "a few more buses" is childish and displays a shocking lack of understanding about Toronto's transit woes.

I think the idea of Smartrax going down Eglinton is stupid and expensive but Tory is an open minded individual and will not be opposed to positive feedback like taking over the UPX corridor from Metrolinx. He idea is sound and doable and will bring real relief to hundreds of thousands of people and many destinations.

It is true that much of his idea is very similar to GO RER except his will be affordable as it will be part of the standard TTC fare structure. This is why it has such good traction with Torontonians................improved rapid/mass transit but none of the higher fares that will come with GO RER. GO and Metrolinx have always seen GO rail service as strictly a 905 commuter service as clearly shown by their grossly inflated GO fares for inner-Toronto fares. GO says the system is based on distanced travelled byt it is $5 from Union to Bloor West but only $10 from Burlington. That works out to 80 cents per km for the Torontonian but only 18 cents per km for the guy commuting from Burlinton.

Tory knows GO contempt for Toronto and GO RER will be great for the 905 but still be too expensive for the average Toronto transit user. This is why the Smartrax is needed on top of GO RER because a GO RER service will still be too expensive for many Torontonians and all it will do is allow Torontonians to see more trains go by that they can't afford as they wait in the rain for another packed bus.

For those of you who think a GO RER will be fine by itself that is hypothetically true but only if they can use their Metropass to ride it in the city. Until such a time the city desperately needs Smartrax, desperately needs Tory to do it, and desperately need Chow to loose the election which she so richly deserves by her incompetence, playing to the NIMBY crowd, and lack of vision.

 

[MrsNesbitt]

I never liked Chow and now I like her even less.

She is a typical opportunistic politician who, when he campaign is completely collapsing, only idea left is too discredit her opponents. Her notion of "a few more buses" is childish and displays a shocking lack of understanding about Toronto's transit woes.

I think the idea of Smartrax going down Eglinton is stupid and expensive but Tory is an open minded individual and will not be opposed to positive feedback like taking over the UPX corridor from Metrolinx. He idea is sound and doable and will bring real relief to hundreds of thousands of people and many destinations.

It is true that much of his idea is very similar to GO RER except his will be affordable as it will be part of the standard TTC fare structure. This is why it has such good traction with Torontonians................improved rapid/mass transit but none of the higher fares that will come with GO RER. GO and Metrolinx have always seen GO rail service as strictly a 905 commuter service as clearly shown by their grossly inflated GO fares for inner-Toronto fares. GO says the system is based on distanced travelled byt it is $5 from Union to Bloor West but only $10 from Burlington. That works out to 80 cents per km for the Torontonian but only 18 cents per km for the guy commuting from Burlinton.

Tory knows GO contempt for Toronto and GO RER will be great for the 905 but still be too expensive for the average Toronto transit user. This is why the Smartrax is needed on top of GO RER because a GO RER service will still be too expensive for many Torontonians and all it will do is allow Torontonians to see more trains go by that they can't afford as they wait in the rain for another packed bus.

For those of you who think a GO RER will be fine by itself that is hypothetically true but only if they can use their Metropass to ride it in the city. Until such a time the city desperately needs Smartrax, desperately needs Tory to do it, and desperately need Chow to loose the election which she so richly deserves by her incompetence, playing to the NIMBY crowd, and lack of vision.

I'm displeased by Chow's comments, but at the same time I would still pick her over Tory, for a number of reasons which I won't re-hash here.

But I think that it's not fair to make the assumption that GO RER will maintain the same fare structure as GO does now. SmartTrack and RER cannot and will not be able to exist side-by-side, and Metrolinx has recognized the need for more equitable, integrated fares between TTC and GO RER.

Tory's re-branding of RER as his own idea still rubs me the wrong way, but so does Chow's opportunism in using that fact to bash the RER proposal.

Also, I have tried to overlook it, but I can't: SmartTrack, not Smartrax.