SmartTrack (Proposed)

[Northern Light]

A report coming to Council next week notes that the province is trying to increase the bill to the City for the 5 stations in this program, again.........

Beyond the 585M the City has already committed.

The costs here, in my judgement exceed what is reasonable and credible for the work scoped, but I digress.

The Report to Council recommends that King-Liberty and Finch-Kennedy be de-scoped pending federal or other contributions, as the City does not want to pay more than it already is...

https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2024/cc/bgrd/backgroundfile-251517.pdf

From the above:

***

Update on the status of each of the stations in terms of design/construction:

 

[innsertnamehere]

What? I thought contracts had already gone out and this was all a done deal. Damnit. Especially frustrating since St. Clair Weston is critical to the wider road network modifications in the area which will offer substantially improved mobility for a whole chunk of the city.

 

[crs1026]

The irony of ML coming to the City for more money, after proclaiming that it has derisked the whole cost escalation problem through its firm, fixed-price P3 contracts......

I'm caught off guard also, because there does appear to be work going on already down at Liberty-King.....?

And yeah, the biggest benefit to St Clair-Old Weston is the widening of road underpasses, which needs to keep moving. So I buy this choice.

- Paul

 

[innsertnamehere]

The irony of ML coming to the City for more money, after proclaiming that it has derisked the whole cost escalation problem through its firm, fixed-price P3 contracts......

I'm caught off guard also, because there does appear to be work going on already down at Liberty-King.....?

And yeah, the biggest benefit to St Clair-Old Weston is the widening of road underpasses, which needs to keep moving. So I buy this choice.

- Paul

To be fair these are being done through traditional procurement, not P3s. Metrolinx does a ton of traditional procurement still and only offloads it to a P3 on the absolute largest contracts through IO.

 

[Northern Light]

To be fair these are being done through traditional procurement, not P3s. Metrolinx does a ton of traditional procurement still and only offloads it to a P3 on the absolute largest contracts through IO.

The cost issues here, so far as I'm concerned, mirror the Railpath.............where there was I was certain, here I don't have all the details.......yet.......but I am confident that if we saw what Mx is charging the City for it would include many costs unrelated to what is strictly necessary to deliver the stations in question.

We're talking about costs of 200M 337M per station on average before the latest escalation, for stations that are entirely above ground, and that for the most part, appear rather basic in design and amenity.

 

[robmausser]

How the hell did we end up with paying for the Lansdowne station again? That was never originally part of smarttrack and it was really pitched as a gift to the people of the Davenport Diamond area for putting up with all that work.

Really pisses me off to see it included here

 

[generalcanada]

Just kill the branding already, its just go stations.

Sad that king-liberty is just going to be straight cancelled.

 

[ProjectEnd]

View attachment 619026
Just kill the branding already, its just go stations.

Sad that king-liberty is just going to be straight cancelled.

It doesn't say that.

 

[generalcanada]

It doesn't say that.

It might as have
Look how long it took to get federal funding for new trains.

>Request that the Province find a funding solution, including exploring funding opportunities with the Government of Canada, for the delivery of King-Liberty and Finch-Kennedy stations at no cost to the City

 

[chrisw]

Get the province to pay for East Harbour, as if that is able to get cancelled.

 

[christiesplits]

A report coming to Council next week notes that the province is trying to increase the bill to the City for the 5 stations in this program, again.........

Beyond the 585M the City has already committed.

The costs here, in my judgement exceed what is reasonable and credible for the work scoped, but I digress.

The Report to Council recommends that King-Liberty and Finch-Kennedy be de-scoped pending federal or other contributions, as the City does not want to pay more than it already is...

https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2024/cc/bgrd/backgroundfile-251517.pdf

Very frustrating. We've needed a King-Liberty Station since yesterday.

We're talking about costs of 200M per station on average with the latest escalation, for stations that are entirely above ground, and that for the most part, appear rather basic in design and amenity.

@Northern Light, can you confirm where the $200M figure comes from?

 

[Northern Light]

@Northern Light, can you confirm where the $200M figure comes from?

Since you made me look.........its actually worse than that............

The Program consists of five stations along three GO rail corridors: East
Harbour, Bloor-Lansdowne, St. Clair-Old Weston, Finch-Kennedy and King-Liberty. The
SmartTrack Program Budget is $1.689B (Program Budget), inclusive of $878M from the
City of Toronto (City), $585M from the Government of Canada and $226M from the
Province of Ontario (Province)

From: https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2024/cc/bgrd/backgroundfile-251517.pdf

That's 337M per station; before considering the latest cost escalation request!

 

[robmausser]

Get the province to pay for East Harbour, as if that is able to get cancelled.

East Liberty and Bloor/Lansdowne absolutely 100% should be paid entirely by the province.

 

[goodcitywhenfinished]

That's 337M per station; before considering the latest cost escalation request!

Half of these stations don’t even have platform canopies, none of them have escalators, and they will be finished with bare concrete interiors and visible conduit. Insane.

We need a national inquiry into infrastructure waste and corruption in this country asap

 

[Bordercollie]

Half of these stations don’t even have platform canopies, none of them have escalators, and they will be finished with bare concrete interiors and visible conduit. Insane.

We need a national inquiry into infrastructure waste and corruption in this country asap

Even look at Bramalea, who in their right mind builds a station with a completely open platform with exposure to the elements expect for a tiny strip over the platform. A simple wall or glass wall to block the wind would be nice. Not to mention some more enclosed waiting areas other than the main building and the end where zum buses load.
There is zero consideration for the people who use the station on a daily basis.

At least the newer TTC stations on the Vaughan extension were constructed with passenger flow in mind to some extent. The architecture is also acceptable, the only issue is the lack of washrooms other than at terminal stations.