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Transit security funds `offensive'
`An offensive grant:' Moscoe
Nov. 15, 2006. 06:15 AM
DAVID BRUSER
TRANSPORTATION REPORTER
"Spit in the eye ... A slap in the face ... Like handing a bum a dime and saying, `Go buy a cup of coffee.'"
True to his iconoclastic form, TTC chairman Howard Moscoe used these unrepentant words, and more, to describe how he felt after getting just $1.46 million in security funding from the federal government yesterday.
Transit agencies in six cities nationwide received a total of $37 million to help beef up security. That money included $5.3 million to GO Transit and $4.3 million to Union Station.
"Based on our ridership, we should be getting one-third of the money. The TTC carries 85 per cent of all of the passengers in the GTA on its transit system. It's spit in the eye," he said. "It shows utter and complete disrespect for the citizens of Toronto. It's like handing a bum a dime and saying, `Go buy a cup of coffee.'"
Moscoe, re-elected Monday in Ward 15 (Eglinton-Lawrence), said the agency wanted $17 million to pay the cost of installing 2,500 security cameras in subways. Already the TTC is paying that amount to install cameras on buses and streetcars by the end of 2007.
"It's a completely offensive grant," Moscoe said, explaining that the money is for "some kind of security assessment. We spent $100,000 on a security assessment already."
Ontario Conservative MP Gord Brown (Leeds-Grenville), who led the press conference on behalf of federal Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon, noted that Union Station, which the TTC uses, also got a significant amount of money.
The announcements yesterday rounded out just one stage of the two-year, $80 million Transit-Secure plan, announced this summer, to help prevent bombings such as those seen in London and Madrid.
"We're moving onto Round 2, which will address some things in smaller centres and then Round 3, the operators here at Union Station will be eligible to apply under that," Brown said.
After the announcement, Moscoe and TTC staff wanted no part of an invitation for a photo-op marking the occasion.
The federal money also went to operations in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, the Ottawa region and Montreal. When asked why the TTC got only a fraction of what Moscoe said was asked for, Brown said, "They may have been asking for more money under things that did not qualify under the criteria."
This first round should pay for risk assessment studies, employee training and the upgrade of security equipment.
Added Moscoe: "I mean, why don't they send out an announcement to the terrorists to wait for Round 3, when they hand out some real money?"
"I don't want to overplay the threat of terrorism," he added. But, "If somebody wants to blow themselves up on a subway train, nobody's going to be able to stop them. Cameras act as a significant deterrent."
*****
I think the best way that money could be spent on preventing terrorism on the TTC is to build more subway/rapid transit lines. With relief subway lines, the level of overcrowding decreases, and terrorists would be more discouraged from striking the subway network. Even if they did strike, fewer passengers crowded onto the trains would result in fewer casualties.
Transit security funds `offensive'
`An offensive grant:' Moscoe
Nov. 15, 2006. 06:15 AM
DAVID BRUSER
TRANSPORTATION REPORTER
"Spit in the eye ... A slap in the face ... Like handing a bum a dime and saying, `Go buy a cup of coffee.'"
True to his iconoclastic form, TTC chairman Howard Moscoe used these unrepentant words, and more, to describe how he felt after getting just $1.46 million in security funding from the federal government yesterday.
Transit agencies in six cities nationwide received a total of $37 million to help beef up security. That money included $5.3 million to GO Transit and $4.3 million to Union Station.
"Based on our ridership, we should be getting one-third of the money. The TTC carries 85 per cent of all of the passengers in the GTA on its transit system. It's spit in the eye," he said. "It shows utter and complete disrespect for the citizens of Toronto. It's like handing a bum a dime and saying, `Go buy a cup of coffee.'"
Moscoe, re-elected Monday in Ward 15 (Eglinton-Lawrence), said the agency wanted $17 million to pay the cost of installing 2,500 security cameras in subways. Already the TTC is paying that amount to install cameras on buses and streetcars by the end of 2007.
"It's a completely offensive grant," Moscoe said, explaining that the money is for "some kind of security assessment. We spent $100,000 on a security assessment already."
Ontario Conservative MP Gord Brown (Leeds-Grenville), who led the press conference on behalf of federal Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon, noted that Union Station, which the TTC uses, also got a significant amount of money.
The announcements yesterday rounded out just one stage of the two-year, $80 million Transit-Secure plan, announced this summer, to help prevent bombings such as those seen in London and Madrid.
"We're moving onto Round 2, which will address some things in smaller centres and then Round 3, the operators here at Union Station will be eligible to apply under that," Brown said.
After the announcement, Moscoe and TTC staff wanted no part of an invitation for a photo-op marking the occasion.
The federal money also went to operations in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, the Ottawa region and Montreal. When asked why the TTC got only a fraction of what Moscoe said was asked for, Brown said, "They may have been asking for more money under things that did not qualify under the criteria."
This first round should pay for risk assessment studies, employee training and the upgrade of security equipment.
Added Moscoe: "I mean, why don't they send out an announcement to the terrorists to wait for Round 3, when they hand out some real money?"
"I don't want to overplay the threat of terrorism," he added. But, "If somebody wants to blow themselves up on a subway train, nobody's going to be able to stop them. Cameras act as a significant deterrent."
*****
I think the best way that money could be spent on preventing terrorism on the TTC is to build more subway/rapid transit lines. With relief subway lines, the level of overcrowding decreases, and terrorists would be more discouraged from striking the subway network. Even if they did strike, fewer passengers crowded onto the trains would result in fewer casualties.
