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Spadina Subway Extension

I signed the petition and wrote about 400 characters in support of the project...hopefully, that "255 character max" is just a suggestion.
 
I think the provincial NDP don't care about big cities, they only care about Northern Ontario, so that is why they don't support the subway extension. They would prefer that money to be spent on roads in Northern Ontario instead.

When there is a federal election I will probably vote NDP, but in this year's provincial election, no way I will vote for them.
 
I moved Billonlogan's post about the HOV lanes that York Region is planning. It really is a different discussion.

Doady, I am not sure what you mean. The NDP has five seats in Toronto - Trinity-Spadina, Parkdale-High Park, Toronto-Danforth, York-South Weston and Beaches-East York. They have three in Northern Ontario - Timmins-James Bay, Nickel Belt and Kenora-Rainy River. Northern Ontario has a stake in Toronto subway construction, given that the Bombardier plant in Thunder Bay makes Toronto's subway cars.

I have not heard of the NDP directly opposing the subway, but they are critical of this proposal, maybe because it is pork-barrel politics. They are on record on opposing Blue 22, though.
 
Northern Ontario has a stake in Toronto subway construction, given that the Bombardier plant in Thunder Bay makes Toronto's subway cars.
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Er, not really.

Funny thing about Ontario is that it goes on for freaking ever. Thunder Bay isn't really "Northern Ontario"; it's "North-western Ontario." It's a 17-hour drive from the riding of the MPP for Kenory-Rainy River to the front door of the honourable MPP for Nickel Belt.

Speaking as one of them, the good citizens of Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie have more sympathy for the workers of Thunder Bay than they do for folks who think the world ends at Barrie. But will Toronto's subway-purchasing habits in Thunder Bay woo swing voters in Nickel Belt, who, god knows, have their own economic battles to fight? I doubt it.
 
Speaking as one of them, the good citizens of Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie have more sympathy for the workers of Thunder Bay than they do for folks who think the world ends at Barrie. But will Toronto's subway-purchasing habits in Thunder Bay woo swing voters in Nickel Belt, who, god knows, have their own economic battles to fight? I doubt it.
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Oh I agree, I am just countering Doady's argument that the NDP is only concerned with northern highways - I think they have other political motives. In fact, Mike Harris more than anybody did something about them, by announcing the Highway 11 widening straight through from Huntsville to North Bay, and accelerating the Highway 69 schedule.

I've taken the train all the way through from Toronto to Winnipeg (and at a different time, Winnipeg to Vancouver). It takes 27 hours to get from Toronto to the Ontario/Manitoba border, 22 of those north of Sudbury.
 
All we ever hear is Subway expansion - I say we build more buses. It takes way too long to get from Scarborough to the Yonge line. And another thing the TTC never addresses travel time - I mean geez whiz? What gives? It takes me over an hour sometimes. You know what? I am gonna petition to city council about this issue saying that we should ban cars on the road from my house to the Yonge-Spadina line so I can get to work faster. Who's in?
 
When the funding was announced for the Spadina Subway, Acceleride and Mississauga Transitway, Howard Hampton was opposed to this and complained the lack of funding elsewhere even though there were no other transit projects needing funding (except O-Train, which did get funding too) and there was $200 million or something like that to specifically to fix roads in Northern Ontario.

Funny that people in Toronto are no different from Howard Hampton and also constantly bitch about being ignored by the McGuinty government when it comes to funding, even though, for example, the way the Gas Tax is given out heavily favours Toronto. The problem with good compromises is that they leave everyone equally unhappy.
 
for the amount of money being spent and the area it's going through, spend the money elsewhere - transit city.
 
It's been said before, but I'll say it again (because some people obviously haven't heard). If they cancel the Spadina extension to try to spend the same money on transit city, both York Region and Ottawa will withdraw their funding, and possibly Queen's Park because its location is one of the primary motivating factors for Sorbara. So, once the Spadina line is cancelled, there will be NO money to spend on other projects (except, of course, for the 1/6 from Toronto)
 
^Exactly. Just look at what happened in Ottawa. After the O-Train was cancelled the money did not end up in other transit projects or lead to a different plan. The money disappeared and now transit planning has been set back 4 or 5 years for the city.

The Spadina extension might not be great planning, but, it is ok, and at least it is close to being started. I support it only because if it is not built, nothing will replace it, it will not result in that money going elsewhere to other transit projects, and at least it is some form of transit expansion.

Edit: And it is not as though the line does not offer Toronto any benefits. It is an extension of a line that leads into the center of the city and making it easier for those on the fringes of the 416 and 905 regions to get downtown is not a bad thing.
 
Exactly. The line might not be perfect, but it's certainly not bad. Keele and Finch will be an extremely well-used station, probably one of the busiest non-termini in the system. York U will also be quite successful, along with Steeles West. Sheppard West shouldn't be fully built-out until ParcDownsviewPark development happens or GO service becomes sufficiently frequent to make the interchange worthwhile.

I'd also argue that the O-Train cancellation has set transit planning back way more than 4 or 5 years. They'd been planning that thing for a decade already, and Larry O'Brien certainly won't let any serious planning happen during his term. I think it's set transit planning back decades.
 
Transit usage in western North York, Rexdale, and Vaughan will go up and in the long term there's tons of land available for intensification, so I think the 100,000 riders estimated to use the Sorbara extension per day shortly after it opens could be low. If Toronto had $2 billion lying around to spend on whatever it wanted, no, this project would not be the best choice right now, but we don't have that $2 billion...well, we do, but we don't feel like spending it on transit.
 
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