nfitz
Superstar
He's given no indication that he would fulfil Ford's election promising of transferring the York VIVA funding to Scarborough subway extensions.
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Despite what Ford says The Streetcar in Toronto is here to stay.
- Thread starter Brans89
- Start date
Dan416
Senior Member
He hasn't said much besides being open to talking to the new mayor.
Calrissian
Active Member
Clearly, the assumption still stands; all indications are the Eglinton line is still moving ahead as currently planned and funded, TBM's on the way. Not even Ford has come out and said otherwise, not that if he did it would pass council, not that if it did, it would pass Province/Metrolinx, not that if it did that, it would actually go to anything else.
GraphicMatt
Looking forward to a FRESH START for Toronto
McGuinty said he would be open to discussion based on what the new council decided. That's a pretty big difference at this point between listening to Ford and listening to council.
GenerationW
Senior Member
At this point it's all idle speculation since Ford and the new council haven't even been sworn in yet.
If Ford gets his transit plan approved (and I'm betting he will) then TC will cease to be official city policy. Hard to see the Province fighting against that. Though it's also possible that what he sends to council will differ from what he campaigned on.
nfitz
Superstar
How, I don't think we can find a dozen councillors that would support Ford's transit plan of both cancelling the new streetcars and starting to close downtown streetcar routes, and cancelling the subway section of the Eglinton RT. Here's a challenge though ... name 22 councillors you think would support it.
Asterix
Active Member
Ford's transit plan is not to cost the citizens of Toronto "an arm and a leg". He's made it clear that is his first priority. Canceling Eglinton and asking to build subways in Scarborough will do that. Therefore, until he says otherwise, we should assume he will carry on with the projects which have already been started and are being paid for by someone else.
Dan416
Senior Member
Indeed. Unless we're told otherwise Transit City is toast, and not necessarily replaced with anything.
GraphicMatt
Looking forward to a FRESH START for Toronto
That's a crazy assumption. Council hasn't voted on anything yet.
Dan416
Senior Member
I know it might be crazy to assume that a politician might actually do what they say.
EnviroTO
Senior Member
Ford is going to need to become a different kind of politician now that he is the mayor. He can't be the same councillor that voted against almost everything brought up at council. Before he could vote against everything on the premise that it was spending money the city didn't have. Unless the city will do absolutely nothing for the next four years he needs to go with the will of council and I don't think the will of council has changed drastically on Transit City. I just don't see him voting to throw away money already spent on Transit City, most of which was to be paid by other levels of government which he would now need to absorb (i.e. spending money to cancel something that to city coffers was almost free), on a platform of fiscal restraint only to go ahead and spend more on subways. It is about as illogical a platform as you can get. I can't imagine Harper and McGuinty are going to swallow the bill on a cancelled project that they didn't cancel. They would have to answer to taxpayers elsewhere why millions was spent to do nothing.
GraphicMatt
Looking forward to a FRESH START for Toronto
He can do what he said he'd try to do, which would be to get council to approve an alternative transit plan, but there's no indication he'll be successful at that. You understand he can't do anything unilaterally, right?
If Stintz becomes TTC chair then Eglinton HAS to happen on schedule - she'd lose her ward if it didn't. So Ford's plan is blown out of the water as he presented it just by virtue of that.
Rainforest
Senior Member
I expect that it won't be all or nothing. Some of the projects that are currently underway will survive:
1) Eglinton will survive in some form; most likely as LRT. However, Ford might get the fully grade-separate section extended somewhat, and claim that he built a subway with little extra spending.
2) VIVA Next will survive, its funding won't be diverted to Toronto.
3) The legacy streetcar network will remain in place and the new vehicles for it will be purchased. However, the legacy network might see some neglect, through the lack of any effort to improve signal priority, optimize stop spacing etc.
Projects under question are:
1) SRT corridor; might be upgraded to subway.
2) Sheppard East; the LRT might be canceled and replaced with a short subway extension, bus jumper lanes, or nothing at all. Full Sheppard subway is out of question since there is no money for it.
3) Finch West; might get canned to pay for improvements on Eglinton, or to extend Sheppard subway a bit further.
Waterfront East is almost certainly dead. It has not been funded so far, and is very unlikely to get funded with Ford in charge.
1) Eglinton will survive in some form; most likely as LRT. However, Ford might get the fully grade-separate section extended somewhat, and claim that he built a subway with little extra spending.
2) VIVA Next will survive, its funding won't be diverted to Toronto.
3) The legacy streetcar network will remain in place and the new vehicles for it will be purchased. However, the legacy network might see some neglect, through the lack of any effort to improve signal priority, optimize stop spacing etc.
Projects under question are:
1) SRT corridor; might be upgraded to subway.
2) Sheppard East; the LRT might be canceled and replaced with a short subway extension, bus jumper lanes, or nothing at all. Full Sheppard subway is out of question since there is no money for it.
3) Finch West; might get canned to pay for improvements on Eglinton, or to extend Sheppard subway a bit further.
Waterfront East is almost certainly dead. It has not been funded so far, and is very unlikely to get funded with Ford in charge.
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W. K. Lis
Superstar
It could be a 43 to 2 voting pattern at city council. Guess which two on the losing side?
Towered
Superstar
I'm honestly not very worried about Eglinton getting cancelled at this point. It's in the advanced design and engineering phase, and TBM's are on the way, as has already been mentioned. Ford doesn't get sworn in until December, and his top priorities are the Vehicle Registration tax and finding efficiencies in the budget. By the time he even brings his transit plan to council for debate, I bet Eglinton will be under construction. At most, it might get a few tweaks here and there - perhaps an upgrade to full subway, or even have the tunneled portion extended both west and east into Scarborough and Etobicoke (he might even be able to claim he brought a subway to his ward).
As much as I'd like to see Sheppard East turned into a subway, I highly doubt that will happen as construction on the LRT is already underway.
Finch West might be at risk however, though I hope it gets through unscathed.
Obviously there's a good chance that all of the non-funded TC lines will be cancelled outright, though some of them might need a re-think anyway (Don Mills should be part of a DRL subway, for example, instead of an LRT line).
And lastly, I don't think he'll touch the legacy streetcar network. The ridership is simply way too high, and the new streetcars have been ordered. He would face way too much resistance if he attempted this.
As much as I'd like to see Sheppard East turned into a subway, I highly doubt that will happen as construction on the LRT is already underway.
Finch West might be at risk however, though I hope it gets through unscathed.
Obviously there's a good chance that all of the non-funded TC lines will be cancelled outright, though some of them might need a re-think anyway (Don Mills should be part of a DRL subway, for example, instead of an LRT line).
And lastly, I don't think he'll touch the legacy streetcar network. The ridership is simply way too high, and the new streetcars have been ordered. He would face way too much resistance if he attempted this.