Danforth Line 2 Scarborough Subway Extension

[BurlOak]

I just read in the star they still don't have enough money to take it to Sheppard.

It appears this is the missing $400M. Eglinton was projected to cost $4.2B and the SRT $1.8B. When the SRT was cancelled, the Province stated that $400M (or was it $320M) from the SRT was part of the Kennedy LRT Station - so they essentially move the $400M over and effectively said that Eglinton is $4.6B and only $1.4B is available for the Scarborough Subway. The City and Federal Goverment are talking as if the full $1.8B is available for the Scarborough Subway.

 

[Voltz]

I just read in the star they still don't have enough money to take it to Sheppard.

Don't worry, I'm sure city council will keep dragging out the decision with the belief that funding will appear, meanwhile nothing will get built

 

[GenerationW]

Wouldn't there need to be another station between Kennedy Station and the station at Lawrence and McCowan?

Could happen. We don't even have a funding agreement yet.

As for the decision by the feds to fund this, I think this should delay the Yonge extension, which is a good thing in the grand scheme of things. Buys us a little time to get our DRL ducks in a row......assuming we can ever get them in a row.

 

[drum118]

The city is on the hook one way or another for about $85m over this mess. This was stated at Metrolinx BOD on Sept 10.

If the province allocated $1.8B for the SRT because of Kennedy Station, there is no reason why the province can't move $315m from the SRT plan to the subway other than screwing the city.

At the same time, the city will have to cover the cost of the reduction in the number of LRV to be built, but should be off set for new subway cars for the extension as the T1 are replace for the line.

If council can't live up to its comment to fund the extra cost to built this dumb extension, they should be voted out of office in Oct 2014 election.

 

[Electrify]

One benefit to the subway is that it ensures that all growth nodes in Toronto are connected to the downtown area. Etobicoke and North York both have connections without a transfer (from the west you need to transfer to get to the Financial District, but from the north you need to transfer to get to the university), while Scarborough has that disconnect.

Further more, it means that there are better transit connections to the eastern suburbs. From Yonge and Bloor you will be able to get to Mississauga Centre, Vaughan Centre, and Richmond Hill Centre with at most one transfer by rapid transit. Pickering Centre would require two.

If anything should be blamed it is the piss poor planning of Scarborough. If they built their downtown closer to the city limits like Etobicoke and North York the east end of the Danforth line would end at a destination rather than the middle of nowhere.

 

[freshcutgrass]

If council can't live up to its comment to fund the extra cost to built this dumb extension, they should be voted out of office in Oct 2014 election.

The capital funding is only one part of the equation.

Where's the additional funding coming from to pay for the operating budget shortfall to run this extra subway? And let's not forget the new Spadina extension is hardly going to be paying for itself either when it opens. Someone has to subsidize these dink stations.

Build a subway to North Bay if you like. Just don't complain when the bill comes in and needs to be paid.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

It appears this is the missing $400M. Eglinton was projected to cost $4.2B and the SRT $1.8B. When the SRT was cancelled, the Province stated that $400M (or was it $320M) from the SRT was part of the Kennedy LRT Station - so they essentially move the $400M over and effectively said that Eglinton is $4.6B and only $1.4B is available for the Scarborough Subway. The City and Federal Goverment are talking as if the full $1.8B is available for the Scarborough Subway.

Watching Council try to solve this will be amusing. So we've went from a fully funded LRT plan to a still unfunded subway plan. Great.

 

[Voltz]

Watching Council try to solve this will be amusing. So we've went from a fully funded LRT plan to a still unfunded subway plan. Great.

They will likely approve the subway conditional on funding, like they already did, but keep on kicking the finding deadline down the road.

 

[gweed123]

Watching Council try to solve this will be amusing. So we've went from a fully funded LRT plan to a still unfunded subway plan. Great.

What's the over/under on the time it'll take for a councillor to propose a tax increase to help pay for the subway, and the subsequent time it'll take for Rob or Doug to say no? My bet is an hour for the former, and about 20 mins for the latter.

 

[TOareaFan]

What's the over/under on the time it'll take for a councillor to propose a tax increase to help pay for the subway, and the subsequent time it'll take for Rob or Doug to say no? My bet is an hour for the former, and about 20 mins for the latter.

Did I miss something....did the city not already say they would raise property taxes by 2% to contribute to this line?

 

[datamouse]

For now it looks like the province is standing its ground.

From today's Hansard:

Hon. Glen R. Murray: Next week, the Ministry of Transportation, the Ministry of Infrastructure, the growth secretariat and Metrolinx will release some of the most detailed data and metrics on ridership impact, job creation and evaluation of routes. The iCorridor tools that have been developed by the ministry are arguably the best in North America. This government will let the evidence speak for itself on ridership, access, job creation, affordability and impact.

I think once people see the evidence—it was interesting that when I read the TTC report, there wasn’t even a ridership projection. We’re not a government that wants to build subways that are going to be running empty, or the inappropriate technology. We’ll get value for tax dollars and we’ll choose the options that meet the needs.

 

[Adjei]

This guy Murray is another fool, how did we let such fools planning our transit? Murray, Ford, and Stintz are leading our transit planning down the drain.

 

[TOareaFan]

This guy Murray is another fool, how did we let such fools planning our transit? Murray, Ford, and Stintz are leading our transit planning down the drain.

I think they all studied at OWIT where they are taught that everything is ok as long as you end with "You get a subway, and you get a subway EVERYBODY gets a sbuway!"

 

[datamouse]

In some defense of Murray, Toronto's chief planner did say that the RT route had more development potential. Though this puzzles me since it's mostly industrial land that the city really wants to hold on to and it's not really expandable beyond it's current state.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

I think they all studied at OWIT where they are taught that everything is ok as long as you end with "You get a subway, and you get a subway EVERYBODY gets a sbuway!"

I'm sorry, don't usually post GIFs on UT but what you said reminds me so much of this:

[video=youtube;xAhuSDRIDHE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAhuSDRIDHE[/video]

Just replace "bees" with "subways".