I may not be paying enough attention. What's happening? And was it unexpected?
**SIGH**. I wish I were a teenager writing this. I am a middle-aged person who was drawing lines on maps in high school for urban geography transit planning projects. I was born here, but I have been lucky enough to have lived and worked in a variety of cities around the world. I was a teen-ager when I went to Paris and saw my first faregate - amongst other things. Coming home, it was apparent that we had a problem with vision in the late 1980s.
rbt - I think we are sitting quietly - on the edge of our seats - because after two generations and thirty years of
total failure on the vision front, the Eglinton LRT is progressing along - more or less on time - and with no backhoes in sight about to fill in the tunnels. There is a consensus that this is good. And it's happening. Credit to Metrolinx - notwithstanding other legitimate criticisms for station renders that show light, airy, consistent design and for having the balls to start a network by doing things like building Caledonia station as inter-modal (GO Barrie / Eglinton Crosstown LRT) from the get-go, and for that matter Downsview Park also as an intermodal (GO Barrie / Line 1 - YUS) station.
With a little federal help on maintenance...and (quite) a bit of help from the province, we are on the verge (again after thirty years) of seeing: TYSSE (Toronto, York, Spadina Subway) complete in 2017, Eglinton Crosstown LRT complete mid-2021, Finch West LRT complete late 2021. On the fleet side, there will be a slew of new vehicles in the fleet including the oft-criticized Flexity streetcars, new (additional) buses and perhaps more Toronto Rocket trainsets.
The city is planning a network - instead of more ridiculous spur lines (hallelujah) and we have waterfront reset, GO RER, perhaps some good ideas left in the Smart-track concept, getting the east and west extensions to ECLRT (Eglinton Crosstown LRT) funded and built on the same timeline as the current project and if we are very brave - and persistent as residents, voters and citizens maybe even shovels in the ground on the Relief Line.
It's happening - I think - means that we are growing up, getting our act together, making a plan, sticking with it, and building it out.
I just wish I were a teenager today...