Scarborough residents, community groups press province to consider an alternative to subway
Transportation minister says project will proceed without requested comparison of subway to LRT.
By
Jennifer PagliaroCity Hall reporter
Mon., April 24, 2017
Community groups, environmental activists and more than 500 residents are calling on Premier Kathleen Wynne to properly study a subway extension in Scarborough in a letter sent to her office Monday.
“We need the province to step in and do this study comparing a one-stop subway with the LRT because Torontonians deserve to know which is the best public transit option for our city and for Scarborough,” Brenda Thompson, a member of the advocacy group Scarborough Transit Action, said in a joint press release including umbrella organization TTCriders.
“It’s never been done, and it’s time to do it.”
And a leading transportation planning expert, Eric Miller, a professor at the University of Toronto whose recent research was cited in the plea to the province, said such a study is “long overdue.”
But at Queen’s Park on Monday, Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca said the province has no plans to order a comparison.
“We remain steadfast in our commitment. We’d like to see this project proceed,” he told the Star. “We look forward to continuing to work with the City of Toronto to make sure that we can get the shovels in the ground as soon as possible.”
Last month,
city council rejected a motion from Councillor Josh Matlow to do a business case analysis of the one-stop extension to the Scarborough Town Centre compared to the originally-proposed, seven-stop LRT that would have been fully funded by the province. That comparison, top city officials say, has never been undertaken despite council’s about-face in 2013 or recent changes to the subway plan.
The six-kilometre subway, which is estimated to cost at least $3.35 billion, would eventually replace the aging Scarborough RT. It would be finished in 2026 at the earliest.
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The letter cites a new study from University of Cambridge and University of Toronto researchers, including Miller, that looked at how rail transit projects contribute to a city’s greenhouse gas emissions.
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The letter to Wynne and Murray notes the Scarborough subway extension is only expected to carry 7,300 people during the rush hour in the busiest direction — which is less than half the capacity of an LRT and would leave the subway extension 80 per cent empty during rush hour.
By adding instead of removing access to rapid stations, the LRT would “encourage more dense development along its stops, more jobs and greater walkability,” the letter also says.
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