agreed, spadina and st clair aren't that much of an upgrade over buses.
I don't know how many times this needs to be repeated, but the LRT lines where not going to be like St. Clair or Spadina. The Traffic lights and stations are spaced further apart where they were planned to run. That being said, I would say that St. Clair is a huge improvement over a bus, but that is just opinion and cannot be argued.
Some facts that can: LRTs average about 23 km/h service speeds, subways 33 km/h. The new Eglinton line will be underground, but with more frequent stops, so lets say 30 km/h average. So over a 22 km route it will take 44 minutes, the old design, with 6 km underground would take 54 minutes. So 10 minutes savings for 4 billion. People, possibly including yourself, made a huge fuss because st. clair only improved travel times by 3-5 minutes and cost 0.15 billion. Having it below ground doesn't increase the capacity of the line either, the only thing it does ist get it out of the way of cars. For 4 billion, at the expense of 25km of rapid transit.
Oh whats that you say? Its not at the expense of a full 25 km of rapid transit because the Sheppard line is getting half built as a subway. Really?, funded with future development fees along the line? Lets look at those facts. Average development charge for Toronto is 12,500 per unit. Lets say they double that for the privilege of building along the Sheppard line and give it all to the subway developer. That would require 166000 new units along Sheppard or 330 40 story buildings, IS YOU SERIOUS? Add to that the fact that the city is on the hook for all of the infrastructure (sewers, schools etc) for all these new units that development fees would usually go to, and the fact that the developer of the subway or the TTC (still fuzzy on these details) will be taking a bath on the operating costs of the subway for the next 30 years.
All of that being said, I think its an OK plan, it gets transit moving, A DRL is needed more than Sheppard, but beggars can't be choosers. I am also OK with my taxes going up to pay for transit expansion, I hope you all are as well.