Yesterday, Toronto City Council debated, at length, the future of Toronto’s rapid transit network at a special meeting of council. The vote last evening was to approve a plan presented by TTC Chair Karen Stintz that would have resurrected much of Transit City, a light rail transit plan championed by former mayor David Miller and approved by the previous council.

Transit City was opposed by Mayor Rob Ford, who advocates building subways over surface light rail. Early in the winter of 2011 Mayor Ford had the Province agree to a reworked transit plan which cancelled planned light rail transit lines on Finch West and Sheppard East in favour of burying the eastern section of the Eglinton-Crosstown LRT and putting any savings towards the extension of the Sheppard Subway.

Transit Plan advocated last year by Mayor Ford, now rejected by Toronto City Councill

Ford promised that the Sheppard Subway could be partially or entirely funded by private sector investment, a claim since refuted by Conservative ally Gordon Chong, who was commissioned by Ford to study the financing of this extension. Recently Chong reported back that private sector interest was minimal, and that special taxes and road tolls would be required to fund construction.

Initially, a compromise of running the Eglinton LRT on the surface through the wide, suburban stretch of Eglinton east of the Don Valley, while extending the Sheppard line one or two stops to Victoria Park was put forward by Stintz and other councilors opposed to the Ford plan. This was rejected by Ford and allies, leading to yesterday’s meeting.

Following the day's deliberations, Council essentially voted to go revive the previous administration’s Transit City light rail plan. The vote puts the Finch West LRT back on the map, and supports the surface operation of Eglinton LRT east of the Don Valley, while assembling a panel of transit experts to examine the best option for Sheppard, which will likely advise a return to the Transit City LRT proposal. The vote also represents Council’s third major rebuke of Ford, and is another blow to the bloc of Ford-friendly councillors.

As opposed to settling the transit debate once and for all, new questions emerge in the afternath of the vote. Will Mayor Ford and his remaining loyalists – who after all still dominate the Executive Committee and the Transit Commission – ignore council? After all, Mayor Ford deemed Council's decision "irrelevant" at a press conference following the vote.