The planners, in this case, went along with the mandates they received from the politicians. Then revised their plans when the politicians changed these mandates. Then revised their plans when the politicians changed these mandates. Then revised their plans when the politicians changed these mandates. Then revised their plans when the politicians changed these mandates. Then revised their plans when the politicians changed these mandates. Then revised their plans when the politicians changed these mandates. Then revised their plans when the politicians changed these mandates. Then revised their plans when the politicians changed these mandates. Then revised their plans when the politicians changed these mandates. Then revised their plans when the politicians changed these mandates. Then revised their plans when the politicians changed these mandates. Then revised their plans when the politicians changed these mandates...
It should not surprise us that the outcome is unsatisfactory, and it is silly to blame the planners for this state of affairs.
There's actually a wonderful industry term for transit and traffic planners who stick firmly to best practices and resist political efforts to monkey with their plans. That term is "unemployable".
The planners and the politicians do not talk to each other directly. Responsibility for that coordination rests with the high-level managers at Metrolinx, TTC, or the City's Transportation Department.
The planners have to perform the modeling and produce the best results based on their knowledge, and then truthfully report those results to their supervisor within the organization. If their model is poor and the results are inaccurate, it is the planners' responsibility.
If the model is good, but they are too afraid to even pass their accurate results confidentially to their supervisor, that's still their responsibility. Do your job well, or switch to another area altogether.
Now, if the planners tell the accurate results to their management, but the management decides to hide the truth and publicise something other than the truth in order to please the politicians; that's the management's fault. In that case we can't blame the planners if they did not become whistleblowers and did not go to the public directly. But we can and should blame the high-level managers responsible for the project.
In any case, we can't say that "noone is responsible" or "the politicians are solely responsible". Elected politicians are a messy bunch by definition, hardly capable of carrying any sort of responsibility. But in this situation, there should exist a direct culprit (or a few of them), and a public inquiry to find those would be a good idea.
