TJ O'Pootertoot
Senior Member
I remember when I read that York Region cancelled the bus lanes on Yonge, because they were anticipating Yonge Subway extension. What a dumb move.
I've posted the details at some point on the Yonge subway thread so I'm not going to Google the exact dates again but it was LITERALLY the week that York Region council was set to approve the expropriations for the BRT on Yonge that McGuinty announced Move2020 (I think the announcement was a Tues or Wed and council was voting on Thurs.). In that context it made COMPLETE sense for them to hold off and pursue the subway. They did everything they were supposed to up to completing the EA. To have gone ahead with tearing up Yonge Street - not to mention spending billions on it - while the province's plan for the extension was down in black and white would have been nothing less than "a dumb move." The BRT would now be under construction but it also would have been totally inadequate for the 2031 population the same provincial government mandated (and likely inadequate for 2015 ridership) AND provided Torontonians with ammo to argue those darned suburbanites don't need a subway now that they have BRT.
The problem wasn't the region's decision; it was the feds not coming through with the $6B the province expected (or hoped) to get all 15 of those initial projects built + Metrolinx taking forever to finish its "investment strategy" which will likely be no more elaborate than the 2008 Toronto Board of Trade report on transit funding.
Further, as I recall, the TTC plans for BRT from Finch to Steeles were not particularly well co-ordinated with the Viva plans which just goes to show that the whole problem with this entire enterprise is the lack of a REGIONAL plan, or at least one that's funded or implementable, so let's place the blame where it lies. God forbid a suburban municipality commits whole hog to rapid transit and intensification!