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Danforth Line 2 Scarborough Subway Extension

I really can't see the rationale in Ford not supporting the tax hike in order to pay for the Scarborough Subway. He's been on the "subways, subways, subways" bandwagon way more than he has been on the anti-tax bandwagon. He'd be shooting himself in the foot. If here were to oppose the taxes, it would leave a very obvious hole in his re-election platform: "Rob Ford loves subways. But he doesn't love subways enough to actually pay for them".

If I were Ford, I would think a minor tax hike would be the lesser of two evils. Then again, I can't even begin to understand his thought process, so what seems logical to me may not actually be worth a damn.
 
Mapleson said:
Metrolinx is looking at twinning the remaining 17 miles of the Bala subdivision to allow up to 10-minute headways. This would create 10K pph of capacity, which could divert some traffic away from Yonge (higher cost of $198.65 vs $128.50 monthly, but faster and more comfortable trip).
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They would be stupid to double twin the current alinement, where it takes 23 minutes to travel 11.3 miles just to get to the first stop. It's just a waste of money. They own the damn Don branch of the Belleville sub, time to make use of that(of course that section would need an entire rebuild and upgrade). They need to get back to the table with CP(gotta wonder if they even had any serious discussions here), build a separate set of twin trackage south of CP's portions of the Belleville sub then a fly-under/over onto the Leaside connection, negotiate with the city to use the Leaside connection and rebuild the bike path next to a rebuilt rail corridor(the old right of way seems to be about 60-80ft wide more than enough for 2 tracks and a path, which is what they managed to do with the West Toronto bike path) and grade separating Leaside. Sure it'll cost significantly more, but it would cut the travel time & distance to about 13-14 minutes for 10.0 miles saving each and every train 10 minutes a trip(the current alinement is limited to 35-45mph due to the curvature of the track age, the new alinement would support speeds of 60-70mph). Plus it would avoid one of the two flood prone areas of the RH line which would save them the money required to raise that section in the future. But knowing them they'll take the more inefficient but easier way.
 
datamouse said:
So Ford came out saying he won't support the tax hike.
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It would be absolutely hilarious if Ford's only significant election promise that he kind of kept was the Danforth subway extension ... and then when it came to the campaign, he'd be in the position that his opponents would be attacking him for voting against it.

Could make for some interesting debates ... at least if they are allowed to have debates in the Don Jail ...
 
nfitz said:
It would be absolutely hilarious if Ford's only significant election promise that he kind of kept was the Danforth subway extension ... and then when it came to the campaign, he'd be in the position that his opponents would be attacking him for voting against it.
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It will be interesting see Ford wiggle out of the current vote.

Right now the vote is setup as:
YES) Authorize subway + Tax
NO) Proceed with LRT option and not subway


I'm not sure other councillors will allow YES to be modified to extend the deadline and demand more money from the province/feds.
 
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rbt said:
It will be interesting see Ford wiggle out of the current vote.

Right the vote is setup as:
YES) Authorize subway + Tax
NO) Proceed with LRT option and not subway


I'm not sure other councillors will allow YES to be modified to extend the deadline and demand more money from the province/feds.
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the reality is that YES means start planning the subway until the next 2 elections (one Municipal, one Provincial), when either that planning money is wasted, or we revert to another plan.

NO means we continue planning the LRT until the next 2 election, when either that planning and potential started construction is cancelled and we rever to another plan.

Find a compromise between the two plans and something may actually be built.
 
BurlOak said:
NO means we continue planning the LRT until the next 2 election, when either that planning and potential started construction is cancelled and we rever to another plan.
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Infrastucture Ontario issued the Request for Qualifications for the Eglinton and Scarborough LRT lines back in January. The Request for Proposal (RFP) was to have been issued this summer, but presumably is held pending the resolution of the current situation.

If the City confirms they are proceeding with the LRT, then all the agreements are in place, and the RFP can be issued. They should have finalized the bid, and awarded it before the late-2014 city election.

Meanwhile, the Sheppard Maintenance and Storage Facility RFP already closed back in May. If the LRT is approved, this could be awarded almost immediately, and this would commit everyone to the line being LRT rather than subway ... or risk building the yard twice as big as it needs to be.
 
salsa said:
Surprise surprise, Karen Stintz flip flops again. We were supposed to revert to the lrt unless a number of financial conditions were met. No harm done, right? That clearly hasn't happened, so now Karen Stintz decided that there is no going back at all.
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That wasn't Karen's decision. The province said they're going to build their version if the city doesn't step up with funds. The subway subway subway campaigning in the by-election did that.

There is no going back to LRT because the province took that option off the table.
 
I don't understand how the province can unilaterally go with the subway when there is a master agreement to build lrt. Technically the original plan still stands even after all those press conferences. Am I missing something?
 
salsa said:
I don't understand how the province can unilaterally go with the subway when there is a master agreement to build lrt. Technically the original plan still stands even after all those press conferences. Am I missing something?
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Ontario can do whatever it likes to Toronto and any other municipality. Cities are slaves to the province.
 
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