It's fair to "blame" 905 municipalities for creating their own sprawl but they were essentially financially incapable of doing anything else.
How so? They certainly have enjoyed the revenue from development charges, but what prevented them from developing in a more compact form based on the old downtowns of Richmond Hill, Unionville, Streetsville, etc.?
I doubt you (unless you're psychic) could have guessed what Markham would look like today 20 years ago or 40 years ago or 100 years ago but you know that it will never (in bold!) be able so support a system as cost-efficient as the TTC? NEVER! I wonder what people said about a subway up to the farms around Yonge/Finch 50 years ago? (I don't really wonder; I'm being sarcastic there.) Crikey, why even build one along Sheppard? It's not like more than 10,000 people are living there now, specifically because the subway brought intensification!
I remember what Markham looked like 20 years ago - much like it is today, only without the condos on Hwy 7, and without as much of the traffic on said Hwy 7. Of course, YRT is already improving local transit by building a busway (roughed in for LRT) right down Hwy 7. And it takes some of those sacred traffic lanes that *both* Doug Ford and John Tory have criticized in various contexts (see Tory's Eglinton Connects "clarifications").
As for Yonge and Finch, that particular extension didn't come about until the mid-70s when the entire area was already developed. Sure, there were still farms in Thornhill, but most of North York had been developed in a low-density fashion 10-20 years earlier. Not many if any farms there in 1964. Towne and Countrye Square opened in the 50s at Steeles and Yonge. Even with Finch built by 1974 it still took over 20 years for high-density residential development to appear. Most of those condos weren't there in the 80s or let alone the mid-90s.
And, indeed, why build a subway along Sheppard? A handful of condos beside Bayview Village and Ikea aren't exactly strong examples of transit-oriented development. The area is still extremely car-oriented and, you can be sure, that's how people in Willowdale still get around. Condos have been built all over the city in a seemingly unending boom now for over a decade. It's occurred just as much next to the 401 as it has along Hwy 7 or next to the Promenade (though those are mostly older). I'm sure the subway is a selling point for developers on Sheppard (albeit only at Bayview, Bessarion, or Leslie; Don Mills already had a lot of high-rises), but you are incorrectly attributing such development to the presence of a subway station. If you want to see how subways do NOT necessarily lead to density, I invite you to glance outside at Yorkdale station.
The people who created and ran Metro didn't, and that's why it was regarded for decades as a model. Today people are looking at Markham (and maybe even Mississauga) as model suburbs trying to urbanize. But if you want to treat them as lost causes; distant, un-saveable islands that have nothing to do with Toronto, you can do that and see where you end up a generation or two from now.
Both York Region and Missassauga are pursuing BRT and/or LRT projects to assist with that development. I don't think either Markham or Mississauga need "saving". However, it would be more helpful if there existed a coordinating transit body that included representatives from both of the province and GTA municipalities. Before 2009, that was Metrolinx. Now it is an essentially unaccountable agency that doesn't do much more than take its cue from the province. If the Mayor of Toronto had a formal leadership role in regional transit decisions, there might be more to be said for advocating regional transportation approaches. Tory should certainly advocate for just that. I'm not sure where he has.
Yes, GO RER is an excellent and long overdue idea. It's not Tory's though, and his transportation plan on his own website fails to mention streetcars or buses (apart from nebulous "express" buses). He only mentions LRT in his ridiculous Eglinton Connects "policy". Where's the Sheppard and Finch LRTs? What does he plan there?
We may have to agree to disagree here, but the bottom line is quite straightforward.
1) Tory has taken contradictory positions on the DRL. He does not list it amongst his top 2 priorities.
2) SmartTrack does not in any way replace the DRL.
3) SmartTrack is largely made redundant by GO RER and may be unworkable as a plan given stated intended capacity, headways, and routing.
4) Tory has failed to make any definitive, clear commitments to the Sheppard East and Finch West LRTs.
5) Tory has explicitly opposed very reasonable service improvement proposals by the TTC on the basis that they are not funded, even though his own centrepiece plan is also completely unfunded and will likely be unworkable with TIF.
6) Tory has rightly criticized Doug Ford for cuts to TTC service made under Ford and Stintz as TTC chair. He has, however, made no commitments to restore these service cuts.
7) Tory supports an expensive Scarborough subway extension that is the product of another master flip-flopper, namely Karen Stintz. The cost of constructing and operating this extension will be directly borne by Toronto property taxpayers, along with any cancellation costs accruing from replacing the previously fully funded and "shovel ready" (not to mention fully grade-separated) LRT. That's a billion dollars so that people can avoid a brief transfer at Kennedy.
So, overall, sure, it's great to talk about regional transit solutions. It's not, however, acceptable to have such a weak platform on local transit, or to support the fundamental misallocation of resources represented by the BD extension. As near as I can tell, Tory's local transit policy involves nothing else but pandering to (some) Scarborough voters (*Forum* polls have shown that the LRT is actually slightly preferred even on the false premise that it costs the same as the subway!) and to drivers who don't want "congestion" on Eglinton. Must not be enough for them to eliminate the bus lanes.
