steveintoronto
Superstar
I bite my lip, some of your posts from an engineering standpoint are excellent. Your political acumen isn't:That article says she tried to stop it in 2013. It does not mention, but my links show that she strongly supported the 1 stop SSE again in 2016. And there is no mention of the combined ECLRT/SRT, which was found to be the best in 2012 and would have been acceptable to all side if she truly cared about fact based transit.
https://www.thestar.com/news/city_h...ave-paid-for-scarborough-lrt-emails-show.htmlIn January 2016, then-chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat presented the revised one-stop plan, claiming that cutting two stations would allow council to fund a different LRT line along Eglinton Ave. East, which would go north on Morningside Ave. to end at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus.
Council endorsed that plan, declaring it a compromise. But the ballooning subway costs soon priced out the Eglinton East LRT, creating the standoff at council in July 2016 over whether a single subway stop or a network of LRTs would better serve Scarborough residents.
https://www.thestar.com/news/city_h...scarborough-subway-costs-before-election.htmlCouncil gave staff direction in March 2017 to report back to executive committee when the project reached 30 per cent design and an updated cost was ready. At that time, council would decide whether to move forward with construction.
Keesmaat said the last cost increase — the estimate ballooned by $1 billion in 2016 — caused her to wonder if there is a breaking point. She noted it’s unclear whether the cost will continue to climb, though it usually does with major infrastructure projects.
“There has to be a threshold, there has to be a moment where you say, wait a minute, the cost-benefit analysis no longer works,” Keesmaat said.
The former chief planner was the one that introduced the new plan in early 2016 that saw the number of subway stops reduced to one from three. The savings from those eliminated stops, she and other staff said at the time, could fund the cost of extending the Eglinton Crosstown light-rail line from Kennedy to the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus.
After it was reported the cost for the subway had climbed — effectively pricing out that LRT — Keesmaat maintained the network option was still the best recommendation for Scarborough. She told council the value for money question was one they had to grapple with.
To date, there has never been a cost comparison of the subway option and the previously-approved, seven-stop LRT option to replace the aging Scarborough RT.
That LRT was months away from being ready to go to tender for construction when it was scrapped by council under former mayor Rob Ford with staff analysis Keesmaat would later call “rushed” and “problematic.” [...]
When do you get it? Keesmaat, as she's now detailed since Paglario's story and other disclosures, was forced into "presenting options" of a limited number determined by Tory and Council.
Keesmaat has detailed this in podcasts and other stories. I've linked them in another string last night, can't remember which one now. And the best thing?
There's a hell of a lot more to come out yet.