Ford moves to kill Transit City

Those who live and work downtown, and already riding overcrowded, 40-year old streetcars will just have to suffer, I guess. Looks like Boss Hogg wants to spend billions on cancellation fees and a subway to the suburbs that no one will ride and even if they did, would simply stress tha the already overcrowded subway system. How is that "respect for taxpayers?" Transit City is the best thing to happen to Toronto in DECADES and this moron wants to kill it out of spite. This is what happens when you let people who REVEL in their ignorance and indifference take charge.

So Mr "reign in spending at city hall" wants to go from a 950 mil project to a 3 bil project. Strange math these tighty righties have.

Transit City is, or should I say was, the dumbest idea period. The last thing Toronto needs is more above ground rail, be it light or street cars. Those were the solutions in a bygone era. What Toronto needs is a better developed subway system. A system that covers all areas of the city and beyond into adjoining municipalities. All transit city was going to do was take away lanes for traffic to move about. St. Clair was and still is an absolute disaster. Good riddance to a bad idea from a shitty mayor.

Toronto needs a new east-west subway line well north of the Bloor line (restart the Eglinton line methinks), connect Downsview station to the Sheppard line (not hard to do as some of the track exists already as run-off), and kill the extension of the Spadina line into Vaughan. Make it go no further than York U.

Add some rapid bus lanes, and maybe convert the Streetcar routes into bus routes if necessary. In concert, all of the above might make things better transit wise.

-J.

Agreed, extending the subway system is the way to go, expensive and will hold up traffic big time while constructing, but ultimately it's the way to go.

I'm as conservative as the day is long, but I agree.

Subways are unaffected by the weather and they're also unaffected by traffic as opposed to light rail that typically features grade crossings and are adversely affected by weather all the time.

I'm also supporting high speed rail in California between San Francisco/Sacramento and Los Angeles/San Diego. Air traffic and road traffic between the two metro areas is at capacity and there's no more room for new freeways or airports. Rail is the only option practicable.

I disagree with you.

He is not Boss Hog so much as a brain-dead Baron Harkonnen. If he just cancels enough street-cars, he will control the Spice!

The solution to Toronto's traffic problems is the reduction of automobiles in the city. Any plan that makes automobile travel easier is an error.

huh, for a moment there I thought it was Ford the car company that's killing Transit City.

By cancelling the deal signed in June with Bombardier, Toronto will face penalties that could be over $100 million.
I'm not sure how much power he now has as mayor but I would have assumed he was only one vote out of all council and that this would need a vote.

That's ok, I thought Ford Motor Co. was screwing around in Michigan...then I remembered it's called Traverse City

I used to take the bus to Jane and Hwy seven where the Spadina subway extension to Vaughan will end. The bus service was once every 15 minutes, on the east west direction - from Brampton. That's not a lot of traffic to connect a $3 billion 30,000 people an hour subway to.

The last subway they built, the Sheppard line, was an all around rouse. Built in the suburbs it will never have a high level of traffic. This was so obvious to everyone involved that the stations are only 4 train cars long, instead of the standard 6. I used to live at the terminius at Fairview Mall and the express bus service was good to excellent already. The subway cost $900 million, about $130 million a mile.

That's just a rouse. Nobody is going to pony up the 3 billion. The TTC drivers I talk to say he could buy some buses. The passengers on the current subway say some extra cars would relieve crowding. One fix that's possible is computerizing the driving of the subways, this decreases the minimum time between cars from 2 minutes and 45 seconds to 2 minutes. The technology is made by Acatel here in Toronto. It's a $700 million fix.

Premier McGuinty's list of tax nicks and pricy programs is pretty extensive by now. There's growing resentment of his ideas. The opposition is unknown but people may bolt the so called Liberal cause.