From the Post:
Some business owners, residents fear disruptions
Could be repeat of St. Clair-like protests
Nicole Girardin and Ian Munroe, National Post
Published: Saturday, March 17, 2007
The centrepiece of the TTC's light rail plan announced yesterday is a $2.2-billion Eglinton Avenue line running 30.8 kilometres from Scarborough to Pearson International Airport, including a buried stretch through the busy city core.
Some businesses and residents yesterday raised the spectre of a St.-Clair-streetcar-like backlash, fearing construction disruptions and the permanent loss of two lanes of car traffic to light rail cars.
The TTC's Transit City plan neatly sidesteps those concerns by burying the Eglinton line from Laird Drive in Leaside all the way to Keele Street.
But that comes with a hefty price tag -- the cost to dig a tunnel underground is about three or four times more than each of the other six proposed lines, which are all above ground.
"It would take up too many lanes of traffic to build it above ground," TTC chief Adam Giambrone said yesterday. "That is a severely narrow corridor of the city."
"This [line] will be big enough to adjust later if at some point they decide to put in a subway. The tunnel wouldn't have to be rebuilt."
The proposal resurrects a once-popular notion: an Eglinton Avenue subway line. Approved in 1994 by Bob Rae's NDP government, it was cancelled when the Mike Harris Tories came to power.
Millions of dollars had been spent on the project, and construction was underway when it was cancelled. This has not been forgotten by local residents.
"All the work they did on the side streets, in the electrical system -- we were all affected by it,'' Sorrell Gwartzman, who has lived near Eglinton and Bathurst for 45 years, said of the 1995 construction work. "The businesses around here haven't been the same."
Nick Alampi, chairman of the York and Eglinton Business Improvement Association, remembered the public outcry, but believes that the Eglinton LRT plans won't elicit the same response.
"They've already done all of the underground infrastructure work," he said. "It's the first time the government recognizes that Eglinton could be the centre of the city."
The TTC predicts the rail line will transport 53 million passengers annually by 2021.
Lisa Xyrafa, who has worked at a Yonge and Eglinton optical shop for 10 years, said the area is becoming more densely populated and needs another major transit line. But she is skeptical about how much of the proposed rail line will actually be built, and anxious about how disruptive construction will be.
"In theory this is great, but we'll see if they stop halfway through," she said, noting the Sheppard subway line's western armnever got built.
Minnie Karras, who has owned a hair salon on Eglinton Avenue near Yonge Street for 26 years, is similarly skeptical. "I'll be dead by then, so I don't care. Did you ever know of anything that moves very quick in Toronto? I don't think so."
Sanjay Bala, who manages an Indian fabric store near Kennedy and Eglinton, said the road can't afford to sacrifice two lanes. He'd prefer an elevated line, like the nearby Scarborough RT: "That doesn't affect traffic, it's not on the road."
''During construction time,'' he added, ''it's going to be really tough to get in here.''
Several doors down, Priestnel Abdul, who has operated a Caribbean restaurant since 1984, said that existing transit along that stretch of Eglinton is adequate. "I don't think it will make a difference -- they already have buses on it," he said, adding: "The street is too busy for streetcars. It's bumper to-bumper for most of the day.''
© National Post 2007
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Doesn't take long for NIMBYism to surface. Interesting to note that they are talking about sizing it for a subway at this early age.
AoD
