Mayor John Tory's Toronto

[Midtown Urbanist]

Reminder that Tory has firmly chosen that this is the hill he's going to die on:



https://twitter.com/jpags/status/846840255814782977

http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/thread...ronto-design-phase.2975/page-797#post-1206264

Quick recap in the Scarborough thread. I look forward to the youtube video of the exchange.

 

[salsa]

Speaker: "next up, councillor Perks"

 

[jje1000]

When Mammoliti has more sense than Tory:

Mammoliti to Tory: "This particular line will never be built."

https://twitter.com/jpags/status/846849123865313285

 

[salsa]

Tory: "subways last for 100 years, that’s quite a different story than an LRT"

 

[pman]

Tory: "subways last for 100 years, that’s quite a different story than an LRT"

That's more or less what Hudak said in the last election. What does Tory actually mean?

 

[jje1000]

It means that he wanted to do everything to get it passed, even throw out the truth.

 

[animatronic]

That's more or less what Hudak said in the last election. What does Tory actually mean?

What Tory means is that surface lines need to get torn up and replaced every 20-30 years. However, if you put tracks in a tunnel they won't need any maintenance or replacement for a century.

This is why we haven't spent the last five years shutting the subway down on weekends for track replacement and signal upgrades. It's just common sense.

 

[pman]

So does that mean SmartTrack is as ephemeral as LRT's?

 

[W. K. Lis]

What Tory means is that surface lines need to get torn up and replaced every 20-30 years. However, if you put tracks in a tunnel they won't need any maintenance or replacement for a century.

This is why we haven't spent the last five years shutting the subway down on weekends for track replacement and signal upgrades. It's just common sense.

Then why all the subway non-closures in the tunnel sections on Line 1, Line 2, and Line 4? See link.

Line 1: King to St Andrew closure on April 1 and 2

There will be no subway service between King and St Andrew stations on April 1 and 2 due to track work. All trains on Line 1 will turn back northbound at King Station (Yonge line) and northbound at St Andrew station (University line).

Shuttle buses will not be utilized during this closure.

Wheel-Trans buses will operate between King and St Andrew stations upon request. Customers can speak with any TTC staff member to request the service.

Please note that customers travelling southbound on the Yonge side of Line 1 who require an elevator should exit the train at Queen Station and speak to any TTC staff member to request the Wheel-Trans bus.

Line 1: Downsview to St George closure on April 8 and 9

There will be no subway service between Downsview and St George stations on April 8 and 9 due to signal upgrades. All trains on Line 1 will turn back southbound at St George Station.

Due to traffic impacts from numerous on-street construction activities, shuttle buses will operate between Downsview and Lawrence West stations during this closure. Customers are encouraged to use existing east-west bus/streetcar routes to the Yonge portion of Line 1 or north-south bus routes to Line 2. Additional service is being added to these routes during the subway closure.

Customers travelling on Line 2 who wish to travel northbound should transfer at Yonge-Bloor Station. There is no shuttle bus service from St George Station.

Wheel-Trans buses will operate between Downsview and St George stations upon request. Customers can speak with any TTC staff member to request the service.
​

 

[animatronic]

Then why all the subway non-closures in the tunnel sections on Line 1, Line 2, and Line 4? See link.

Line 1: King to St Andrew closure on April 1 and 2

There will be no subway service between King and St Andrew stations on April 1 and 2 due to track work. All trains on Line 1 will turn back northbound at King Station (Yonge line) and northbound at St Andrew station (University line).

Shuttle buses will not be utilized during this closure.

Wheel-Trans buses will operate between King and St Andrew stations upon request. Customers can speak with any TTC staff member to request the service.

Please note that customers travelling southbound on the Yonge side of Line 1 who require an elevator should exit the train at Queen Station and speak to any TTC staff member to request the Wheel-Trans bus.

​

Line 1: Downsview to St George closure on April 8 and 9

There will be no subway service between Downsview and St George stations on April 8 and 9 due to signal upgrades. All trains on Line 1 will turn back southbound at St George Station.

Due to traffic impacts from numerous on-street construction activities, shuttle buses will operate between Downsview and Lawrence West stations during this closure. Customers are encouraged to use existing east-west bus/streetcar routes to the Yonge portion of Line 1 or north-south bus routes to Line 2. Additional service is being added to these routes during the subway closure.

Customers travelling on Line 2 who wish to travel northbound should transfer at Yonge-Bloor Station. There is no shuttle bus service from St George Station.

Wheel-Trans buses will operate between Downsview and St George stations upon request. Customers can speak with any TTC staff member to request the service.
​

That's vile anti-subway propaganda, perpetuated by unions who are trying to protect unneeded subway maintenance jobs.

 

[salsa]

So does that mean SmartTrack is as ephemeral as LRT's?

Since he likes to equate SmartTrack to a "surface subway", then in his mind I guess it means it will last 100 years.

 

[expat]

Reminder that Tory has firmly chosen that this is the hill he's going to die on:



https://twitter.com/jpags/status/846840255814782977

I've said this before, but I have no idea why Tory has decided he wants to stake everything on this. I disagree with the man's politics, but I assumed he was smarter than this.

 

[narduch]

My guess is that they do polling that shows this is popular with enough Toronto voters that it makes sense for them to support it.

The people against it are a smaller but vocal minority. They don't care if they lose those votes.

 

[expat]

Yes, the populist angle is clear. But the votes come at an absolutely insane cost ($3.5 billion at a bare minimum) and only from one area. Nobody in other parts of town is going to love him because he spent their money building a subway to Scarborough.

More to the point, it suggests a glaring deficiency in him as a politician that after looking at the evidence and the opinion polling, he wasn't able to make a better case for the LRT: why not go out and convince people it's what they want? He seems instead to have given himself over to this dissociative fever dream of alternative facts: "if people believe that the one-stop subway will reduce their commute times, that's the truth!" And even if his gambit works, he gets what? More votes in Scarborough that might help in the short-term, as against a decades-long legacy of vastly overspending on a ridiculous vanity project.

Again, I don't particularly like the man's politics or his vision for the city, but I certainly thought he was much smarter than this.

 

[pman]

At least three possibilities come to mind:
1. Tory just isn't that smart and actually believes his own bullshit on SSE;
2. Tory understands that SSE is simply wrong on the numbers, but sincerely believes it's a good project because it brings justice, if not much in the way of transit, to the neglected and underserved folks of Scarborough; or
3. Tory knows SSE is a pig that will actually do little for the people of Scarborough, and make it financially impossible to build the transit we actually need, but he desperately wants to be re-elected and has calculated SSE will win him a lot of Scarborough votes and Oxford money.
I'm torn between 1 and 3.