Hopkins123 said:
Yes, but arguably John Tory's positions now are superior to the ones he previously held that he "flip-flopped" from. Say what you will about SmartTrack, but it did catalyze a lot of positive progressive things for Toronto:

- Eglinton West LRT now a priority again, and to be at least 60% grade-separated
- At least 6 new GO stations in the 416
- Kept a downtown relief line discussion ongoing, not just amongst us transit nerds, but the media and general public
- Got the DRL through the EA process stage
- Got all 3 Parties Provinicially and the Federal gov't committed to funding the DRL
- Got the King Street Pilot adopted as a stop-gap measure until the DRL is built

All this within one term. To say he's done nothing is disingenuous and to throw him out now puts all of the above at risk.
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Very good points.

Athough I would not credit John Tory much for DRL. I think any progress on that file occurs independent of him, rather than due to his efforts. At most, he can be credited for not blocking that process in any way (as well as not blocking ECLRT construction and SSE design).

But he should certainly be credited for pushing better GO service within 416 (call it SmartTrack or not), adding more express bus routes, and supporting the King Street pilot. Plus, for his efforts to fund Eglinton West LRT.
 
I think it is time we have a City Planner for mayor too.

A lot of our city's issues are related to City Planning staff not having enough funds to hire enough people to deal with the workload.
 
TheTigerMaster said:
60% grade separated? When did this happen?
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Just my wild estimation assuming things like the bridge over Eglinton Flats and the Humber; grade separated Scarlett, Kipling and Martin Grove Stations; however they tackle Islington-Eglinton considering the differing topography grades that already exist at that intersection; the approach west of Martin Grove through the 427 lands and integration with the existing grade separated Mississauga Transitway; and new 401 crossing hold true.
 
It’s unclear that in a world of scarce resources, building a suburban LRT line that’s 60% grade-separated is the best use of our tax dollars. Apparently Ford haunts us still.
 
pman said:
It’s unclear that in a world of scarce resources, building a suburban LRT line that’s 60% grade-separated is the best use of our tax dollars. Apparently Ford haunts us still.
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Your right - either 100% or not at all.
 
Kristyn Wong-Tam tweeted Feb 1: Cancelling the Scarborough stubway and re-directing funds back to Transit City and accelerating the Downtown Relief Line should be the 2018 ballot box question. People are going to be hurt - overcrowding is so dangerous now. https://twitter.com/kristynwongtam/status/959189045447352320

I'm not a fan of Mr. Tory's past few years but I understand the difficulty of governing with Doug Ford looking over his shoulder. While Mr. Ford may still end up in the race regardless of his protestations, Mr. Tory now has a chance to do what's right and support the DRL properly. With the field more open it's likely he will face one or two more serious challengers. Regardless of who runs, I hope all of the candidates unequivocally support making the DRL our top transit priority.
 
mgl said:
Kristyn Wong-Tam tweeted Feb 1: Cancelling the Scarborough stubway and re-directing funds back to Transit City and accelerating the Downtown Relief Line should be the 2018 ballot box question. People are going to be hurt - overcrowding is so dangerous now. https://twitter.com/kristynwongtam/status/959189045447352320

I'm not a fan of Mr. Tory's past few years but I understand the difficulty of governing with Doug Ford looking over his shoulder. While Mr. Ford may still end up in the race regardless of his protestations, Mr. Tory now has a chance to do what's right and support the DRL properly. With the field more open it's likely he will face one or two more serious challengers. Regardless of who runs, I hope all of the candidates unequivocally support making the DRL our top transit priority.
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DRL could have been prioritized in 2013, if Council and the Liberals would have allowed it.
Ford was the most subway friendly Mayor we've ever had and his connected Eglinton/Scraborough LRT and Sheppard subway plan were just being defeated.

Imagine if someone would have proposed making Eglinton/Scarborough elevated (instead of buried) to save money. Then defer the Sheppard LRT and continue to defer the Finch LRT and make the DRL the priority. This could easily be done, and would have solved both immediate concerns (the aging SRT and the crowding at Y-B). Ford was not smart enough to come up with this, but his flexibility had been shown when he accepted the connected Eglinton/Scarborough LRT as LRT, and not subway. There was surely a compromise that could have been reached, but at the time, the only goal was to defeat Ford, and spending the money on good transit was an afterthought.

Instead, we opted to prioritize the FWLRT, and spend large sums of money on the SSE (B-D extension). And everyone will acknowledge that Rob Ford was shut out of the transit process at the start of 2013, so all what we have now is the result of Council and the Provincial Liberals.
 
BurlOak said:
DRL could have been prioritized in 2013, if Council and the Liberals would have allowed it.
Ford was the most subway friendly Mayor we've ever had and his connected Eglinton/Scraborough LRT and Sheppard subway plan were just being defeated.

Imagine if someone would have proposed making Eglinton/Scarborough elevated (instead of buried) to save money. Then defer the Sheppard LRT and continue to defer the Finch LRT and make the DRL the priority. This could easily be done, and would have solved both immediate concerns (the aging SRT and the crowding at Y-B). Ford was not smart enough to come up with this, but his flexibility had been shown when he accepted the connected Eglinton/Scarborough LRT as LRT, and not subway. There was surely a compromise that could have been reached, but at the time, the only goal was to defeat Ford, and spending the money on good transit was an afterthought.

Instead, we opted to prioritize the FWLRT, and spend large sums of money on the SSE (B-D extension). And everyone will acknowledge that Rob Ford was shut out of the transit process at the start of 2013, so all what we have now is the result of Council and the Provincial Liberals.
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He instigated this mess in the first place - we'd have functional transit running by now and our eyes would be on DRL already if he didn't went in and ripped everything up using his populist politics to hold hostage. That's his legacy - stop rewriting it.

AoD
 
Ford had the best transit solution in Scarborough when he proposed an interlined SLRT-ECLRT with a grade separated Eglinton in Scarborough.

But that was by complete accident. Ford did not give it any thought as to why that was the best plan, he could not support why that would be the best plan with evidence. It was just a matter of a broken clock being right twice a day.

It is a shame that plan never happened, but painting the picture as if Ford was flexible or had any clue what he was talking about is just rewriting what happened. Ford did not even know which corridor the SLRT was to operate in.
 
Apologies if someone has already posted this:

Toronto needs a downtown relief line — can the city get it built sooner than 2031?
A chaotic week on the TTC has people calling for the downtown relief line to be ready before 2031
By Nick Boisvert, CBC News Posted: Feb 03, 2018 6:00 AM ET Last Updated: Feb 03, 2018 6:00 AM ET
After a nightmare of a week that featured broken switches, a cracked rail and a near-evacuation of Bloor-Yonge station due to overcrowding, the calls to build a downtown relief line are ringing out louder than ever.

Indeed, everyone from the City of Toronto to the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) and its riders seem to agree — the relief line is a must.

The question now: how soon can the city get it built?

The city estimates the long-proposed line has to be up and running by 2031, when Line 1 is expected to reach its capacity of 31,000 riders per hour per direction.

But if this past week was any indication, a critical mass on the TTC may be closer than previously thought.

"This is sort of the chickens coming home to roost," said Jennifer Keesmaat, CBC Toronto's urban affairs specialist and the city's former chief planner.


A 'perfect storm'
On Tuesday, the TTC experienced a massive delay that saw commuters piled up inside Bloor-Yonge Station at the peak of rush hour.

"I was here for about an hour, I missed like five trains," said Vanessa Floros, who ended up late for class on Tuesday morning. "I've never seen the TTC like that before."

The transit agency's spokesperson Brad Ross spent the following days doing damage control. He chalked up the "abysmal" service to what he called a "perfect storm" of factors, including a frozen switch, a pulled emergency alarm and even a fire.

But to Keesmaat, the delay highlighted the main reason why the downtown relief line is so badly needed: to create an alternative route in a system that currently has none.

"Right now, we do not have any redundancy in the system," she said onMetro Morning. "For many, many years — you could argue decades — we've been identifying the relief line as the first step to build redundancy, to build choice, to build capacity."

Getting it built
While the city has determined the proposed subway's alignment — trains heading into the city would travel south from Pape Station, then turn west at Eastern Avenue to Queen Station — Keesmaat worries the planning stage of the project is dragging.

An environmental assessment that was scheduled to begin in the fall of 2017 has not even started yet, Keesmaat has learned from her former staffers. There is also no funding plan for the actual construction of the multi-billion dollar line.

"We're losing another year," she said of the delay.

one-proposed-route-of-downtown-relief-line.png

Toronto city council has approved the "Pape-Eastern-Queen Alignment" for the proposed relief line. (City of Toronto)

To make up that lost time, Keesmaat says the city could skip certain steps and fold others into a more compressed timeline.

Doing so would need a dedicated team working on the relief line full time, something that doesn't currently exist, she added.

"Given the growth that we see, the incredible pressure on transit, that we need to shorten that timeline and build the relief line sooner," she said.



'People are going to be hurt'
Others are proposing the city bump the relief line to the top of its priority list at the expense of other projects.

"Cancelling the Scarborough subway and redirecting funds back to Transit City and accelerating the Downtown Relief Line should be the 2018 ballot box question," Coun. Kristyn Wong-Tam Tweeted this Thursday.

"People are going to be hurt — overcrowding is so dangerous now," she added.

Keesmaat says that idea may be more difficult than it appears. A redesign of the Kennedy Station is already underway, along with work on SmartTrack and the Eglinton LRT which would connect to the extension. All that makes it "impossible" to simply cancel the Scarborough subway extension in favour of the relief line.

However, that doesn't preclude a creative solution to speed up the timeline, she said.



Kristyn Wong-Tam

✔@kristynwongtam

Cancelling the Scarborough stubway and re-directing funds back to Transit City and accelerating the Downtown Relief Line should be the 2018 ballot box question. People are going to be hurt - overcrowding is so dangerous now. https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2018/01/31/dangerous-over-crowding-on-toronto-subway-underlines-need-for-downtown-relief-line.html …

5:17 PM - Feb 1, 2018

Despite being trapped inside a jam-packed station for around an hour on Tuesday, commuters say they still have confidence in their transit system, so long as the TTC receives the financial support it needs.

"I think that they're trying, but I think they just need some more funding," said Amy Persaud.

"Building more lines is important," added Chris Ohlendorf. "That would be the ideal solution."
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http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/downtown-relief-line-construction-1.4516968
(Pics edited out for brevity)


 
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WislaHD said:
It is a shame that plan never happened, but painting the picture as if Ford was flexible or had any clue what he was talking about is just rewriting what happened. Ford did not even know which corridor the SLRT was to operate in.
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He didn't even know it was grade-separated. Also don't forget - he wanted to cancel Eglinton in the first place, the province didn't allow it in their tete-a-tete.

WislaHD said:
The more media attention it gets, the more it is one voters and politicians minds in 2018. I hope the articles don't stop, no matter how repetitive it gets.
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Not only did we not have redundancies - we are hell bent on extending the one U line at both ends to ensure that when it falls (and fall it will, just by increasing the overall probability of failure by adding more places for it to fail), it falls harder than ever. This is lunacy. You know what though, it won't be people living in downtown (who can walk) that gets affected by this - it is people trying to get to Finch, Scarborough, Vaughan, etc.

AoD
 
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Perhaps it's time to move transit planning back to the TTC...just like when it was before Ms. Keesmat took the reins of Toronto Planning. Personally I do think that the TTC has much more capacity and experience than Toronto Planning; it just seems that Toronto Planning is too focused on socio-economic change than actual transportation of the masses. If you take a look at the Eglinton West LRT project it's clear where Toronto Planning's interests lay.
 
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