That just isn't true. Two of the LRT lines that have been discussed in recent years were Yonge north from Finch and Eglinton to the BD subway near Don Mills. Steve didn't support either,and said they should be subway instead based on demand.
It's not the cost that's the defining issue. It's the demand. Why spend $ to build something more than is needed?
If you can demonstrate that BRT can meet the demand, and cost a lot less, then I see no reason why you wouldn't be heard.
When the left hand fights for LRT everywhere and the right hand fights for LRT everywhere except in, say, one spot, there's really no difference. The results are the same. The more LRT lines drawn on the map, the happier they are. "Give LRT a chance!" they say.
Demand is less important than cost, at least purportedly, but neither is as important as politicians putting lines wherever they want (which isn't new). If demand was the main issue, Finch East and Dufferin would be getting LRT lines (and maybe King would get something in a tunnel or downtown would get some one-way ROWs), but they're all slated to get nothing. What wouldn't be proposed is 3 lines to Malvern, all competing for the same limited group of riders. What happened to not building more than necessary? That tenet gets thrown out the window whenever a new LRT line is at stake.
It's not like we need 15 new subway lines...the DRL plus a few short extensions of existing lines, coupled with ongoing GO improvements, new Rocket service, a some queue jumps, POP/fare schemes, etc., would utterly transform transit in Toronto. Until those basics are in place, LRT is a sideshow. It costs a fortune and as proposed will offer few benefits for a corridor like Sheppard East.
I don't think BRT is worth building in most places and I've never said otherwise. If an infrastructural transit improvement is needed beyond basic bus tweaks like Rocket service + queue jumps, might as well build at least an LRT line, not bus-only roadways. Ignore Socialwoe/Dentrobate/Fresh Start/whatever other 6 names he's used.
Still, we know that simple Rocket-style service (hardly "BRT") would be more than sufficient for a place like Morningside or the SRT extension path, places where ridership will never be high or even moderate, and where ridership will likely drop dramatically in coming decades to perhaps a few hundred per hour as demographics shift and as competing lines are built. LRT in these places is simply obscene and everyone knows it.
