Richmond Hill Yonge Line 1 North Subway Extension | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx

innsertnamehere said:
Presuming there even is one this spring, the liberals can still post 3 more budgets before they actually have to go to the polls. The papers are all predicting an election, but they did that last year as well.
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All depends on what the NDP chooses to do. The Golden Panel recommended a Corporate Tax as one of the revenue tools, and that's exactly what the NDP wanted. Hopefully that will be enough of a carrot for them to support the entire revenue tools package.
 
gweed123 said:
All depends on what the NDP chooses to do. The Golden Panel recommended a Corporate Tax as one of the revenue tools, and that's exactly what the NDP wanted. Hopefully that will be enough of a carrot for them to support the entire revenue tools package.
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The Golden Panel also recommended an increase in the gas tax and that is exactly what the NDP said they could not support ;)
 
gweed123 said:
All depends on what the NDP chooses to do. The Golden Panel recommended a Corporate Tax as one of the revenue tools, and that's exactly what the NDP wanted. Hopefully that will be enough of a carrot for them to support the entire revenue tools package.
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Yes, it does depend on the NDP. This polling on wiki shows that that NDP close to or ahead of the Liberals the past two years around budget time - I guess the public is thinking more of the terrible job they have done managing the economy. Either Horvath can hope for another bump this spring, combined with some assumed poor campaigning by Hudak, which would put her in top spot. Although it may give Hudak a majority if he performs well and give her no voice. But the alternative is to continue to support the Liberals for another year or two and then finish dead last and lose her job as leader.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/41st_Ontario_general_election#Opinion_polls"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/41st_Ontario_general_election#Opinion_polls"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/41st_Ontario_general_election#Opinion_polls

Relating to the Yonge line, I do not think anyone is even listening to Wynne anymore since a Liberal promise (or even a strong suggestion as this is) means nothing.
 
BurlOak said:
Yes, it does depend on the NDP. This polling on wiki shows that that NDP close to or ahead of the Liberals the past two years around budget time - I guess the public is thinking more of the terrible job they have done managing the economy. Either Horvath can hope for another bump this spring, combined with some assumed poor campaigning by Hudak, which would put her in top spot. Although it may give Hudak a majority if he performs well and give her no voice. But the alternative is to continue to support the Liberals for another year or two and then finish dead last and lose her job as leader.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/41st_Ontario_general_election#Opinion_polls"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/41st_Ontario_general_election#Opinion_polls"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/41st_Ontario_general_election#Opinion_polls
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NDP has no chance to finish first and form the government of Ontario, no matter what the polls say. NDP's support is very clustered (even more than Tories support), so they can win a few ridings by a large margin but that will not help them win the majority of seats, or even a relative majority. In a proportional system, their prospects would be much better, but not in our first-by-the-post system.

At most, NDP can hope to finish second and become Official Opposition.
 
^FPTP also gives the Liberals an advantage as well, as their vote is relatively spread out through urban ridings, with little support in other areas. The PCs problem is that almost all of their support is concentrated in rural ridings, and the NDPs problem is that all their support is concentrated in highly urban ridings. Liberals get support in some highly urban ridings, and most suburban ridings.
 
I almost couldn't believe Gila was running for PC MPP in Thornhill. For those that don't know, she wanted to cancel the VIVA rapidway through Thornhill. As someone who was going to vote PC I can tell you I will specifically not because of her.

But back on the topic of the Yonge North Extension. As a staunch supporter of the project I'm realizing that more and more people in Thornhill and Richmond Hill are starting to lean towards favouring a DRL before an extension because the subway is absolutely ridiculous nowadays. I know a few people who used to take the subway everyday who now prefer to just drive downtown (taking twice as long) because they can't stand the claustrophobia of being stuck on a subway for 30-50 minutes (depending on if there are any passenger assist alarms).
 
Everyone seems to be forgetting that it's mostly the TTC that is stalling on this issue. Even if they fully funded the extension, they need the co-operation of the TTC and the city of Toronto to actually get moving on the project. And given how reluctant they were to even do anything for Spadina under David Miller, what are the chances that they'll approve this?

The TTC has already said time and time again that they're going to use the push for the Yonge extension as a reason to bump the Bloor-Yonge station redesign up the priority list, and now the DRL has popped in as yet another project that is a pre-requisite for the Yonge extension.

How is this even an election issue if the power is not in the province's hands? It's merely a promise that if Toronto says "okay", they'll have money on the table to make it happen. That's it.

BMO said:
I almost couldn't believe Gila was running for PC MPP in Thornhill. For those that don't know, she wanted to cancel the VIVA rapidway through Thornhill. As someone who was going to vote PC I can tell you I will specifically not because of her.

But back on the topic of the Yonge North Extension. As a staunch supporter of the project I'm realizing that more and more people in Thornhill and Richmond Hill are starting to lean towards favouring a DRL before an extension because the subway is absolutely ridiculous nowadays. I know a few people who used to take the subway everyday who now prefer to just drive downtown (taking twice as long) because they can't stand the claustrophobia of being stuck on a subway for 30-50 minutes (depending on if there are any passenger assist alarms).
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The subway has definitely gotten worse year over year. Either the riders need a re-training about what the passenger assist alarm should be used for (and an increase in fines and enforcement for mis-use), or the TTC needs to change their policy regarding what they do in the event of an alarm press during rush hour.

Not only that, but some of the biggest headaches are caused by jumpers. And you know it's a jumper when subways are shut for over 30+ minutes with no explanation other than "track level injury". Happened to me once during rush hour and I've opted for the GO ever since (if my destination is near Union, anyway).
 
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BMO said:
I almost couldn't believe Gila was running for PC MPP in Thornhill. For those that don't know, she wanted to cancel the VIVA rapidway through Thornhill. As someone who was going to vote PC I can tell you I will specifically not because of her.

But back on the topic of the Yonge North Extension. As a staunch supporter of the project I'm realizing that more and more people in Thornhill and Richmond Hill are starting to lean towards favouring a DRL before an extension because the subway is absolutely ridiculous nowadays. I know a few people who used to take the subway everyday who now prefer to just drive downtown (taking twice as long) because they can't stand the claustrophobia of being stuck on a subway for 30-50 minutes (depending on if there are any passenger assist alarms).
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I bet a lot of those people had wished York Region had approved the bus lanes along Yonge instead of holding out for the subway. At least the bus lanes would have been a decent stop-gap measure until the DRL is built and the subway can be extended further north.
 
gweed123 said:
I bet a lot of those people had wished York Region had approved the bus lanes along Yonge instead of holding out for the subway. At least the bus lanes would have been a decent stop-gap measure until the DRL is built and the subway can be extended further north.
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issue is, it is exactly that. A Stop-gap measure. The question isn't if york region is going to get an extension up to Highway 7, but when. Having to endure 2-3 years of road construction for rapidways and then another 3-4 years of construction for a subway is not a very compelling choice for many. Everybody in Thornhill wants the subway it's just a matter of Toronto and York Region funding it.
 
BMO said:
issue is, it is exactly that. A Stop-gap measure. The question isn't if york region is going to get an extension up to Highway 7, but when. Having to endure 2-3 years of road construction for rapidways and then another 3-4 years of construction for a subway is not a very compelling choice for many. Everybody in Thornhill wants the subway it's just a matter of Toronto and York Region funding it.
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Well said. I've said this before but at the time it was totally the right decision. York Region was literally set to approve the Yonge St expropriations the same week (I think the day after) Move2020 was announced. It made perfect sense not to spend hundreds of millions on a stop-gap measure that involved tearing up the most important street in the region twice in a decade.

It's easy to have 20/20 and acknowledge they are now stuck in limbo but that's a result of several interlocking problems. The longer this goes, the more the BRT seems like it would have been the right way to go but there are too many plans, and too much ridership tied to the subway for me to really agree with that.

xtremesniper said:
Everyone seems to be forgetting that it's mostly the TTC that is stalling on this issue. Even if they fully funded the extension, they need the co-operation of the TTC and the city of Toronto to actually get moving on the project. And given how reluctant they were to even do anything for Spadina under David Miller, what are the chances that they'll approve this?
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There are two sides to the equation. Money is a pretty huge one - arguably the bigger one - and that is in the province's hands. If they fully funded it and Toronto held it up, that would be a different matter. But right now I think it's very understandable why it's a provincial election issue. You dismiss $3B on the table rather lately.
 
The TTC and the City of Toronto were very clear...They are not interested if the DRL is not opened at least at the same time.
 
Solid Snake said:
The TTC and the City of Toronto were very clear...They are not interested if the DRL is not opened at least at the same time.
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which is what makes it more frustrating that Toronto can't get their house in order and actually build the transit they need. York Region is trying to do the right thing, but for obvious reasons there needs to be improvements made further down the line in Toronto. Which, agreed isn't just a Toronto issue, but a regional one, put it stands to point out that these projects don't simply get funded because somebody wants them, they get funded through proactive lobbying and a consensus with the stakeholders involved (i.e. Council, Province, the regional councils, the taxpayers). Something that is clearly a result of Toronto being Toronto and not York Region's fault.
 
BMO said:
which is what makes it more frustrating that Toronto can't get their house in order and actually build the transit they need. York Region is trying to do the right thing, but for obvious reasons there needs to be improvements made further down the line in Toronto. Which, agreed isn't just a Toronto issue, but a regional one, put it stands to point out that these projects don't simply get funded because somebody wants them, they get funded through proactive lobbying and a consensus with the stakeholders involved (i.e. Council, Province, the regional councils, the taxpayers). Something that is clearly a result of Toronto being Toronto and not York Region's fault.
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Toronto never could build their own network. All they could do was to agree to a plan and ask Queen's Park to finance it. Toronto can build streetcar lines, manage their bus routes and maintain the subway. Toronto never could extend the subway on its own therefore we bear witness to that comedy at city hall on who's plan would land on Metrolinx's desk. It's a waste of time and a farce.

Metrolinx should take over if Toronto council can't keep their politics out of transit like other major cities around the world has done...even Montreal.
 
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