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Karen Stintz breaks rank with Rob Ford over the Eglinton Crosstown plan

We all know Rob Ford loves him some rapid transit—he just doesn’t love it when it’s above ground, affordable or tied in any way to his predecessor. Case in point: the Eglinton Crosstown, which Ford insists should include an LRT line built entirely underground, even if that means burning through cash that could be used for other projects (namely, his beloved Sheppard subway extension). Now, even Ford ally and TTC chair Karen Stintz is adding her voice to the growing group of reasonable people who think that running the LRT above ground, particularly in the city’s less densely populated suburbs, makes more sense than burying it. It’s a bold move from Stintz and a major break with the mayor, who appointed her to her current post. Some have even speculated that it may just get her summarily reshuffled out of the transit chair. Read the entire story [Globe and Mail] »

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The Informer

Streetcar Named Disaster

January 12, 2012 | 1:27 pm

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Could a penny-pinching Queen’s Park force the Eglinton Crosstown above ground?

Last week, economist and former federal financial official Don Drummond delivered some unwelcome news for Ontario residents: a balanced budget is an impossibility (at least any time soon) without massive cuts across the province—up to 30 per cent in some government ministries. So with the province intent on reducing spending, what kinds of things might they target? Aside from big tickets like health and education, writes John Lorinc on Spacing Toronto, Toronto’s transit infrastructure might attract some attention. Indeed, it’s not hard to imagine provincial bean counters asking themselves why they should pay a premium to bury the entire Eglinton Crosstown line when there’s ample room to run it above ground without impacting traffic. Oh right, it’s because the mayor says so. We suspect that kind of reasoning is going to get a lot harder to support. Read the entire story [Spacing] »

The Informer

Streetcar Named Disaster

January 3, 2012 | 2:30 pm

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The latest in wholly unsurprising news: the Eglinton Crosstown is going to be insanely expensive

(Image: Christopher Drost)

The Eglinton Crosstown light rail line—the public transit project that’s proving Rob Ford can’t just bury things he doesn’t like—is Canada’s most expensive infrastructure project, according to the good folks at ReNew Canada (an infrastructure renewal magazine that, don’t worry, we’d never heard of either). The project climbed to the top spot this year thanks to Ford’s ideologically driven demand polite request that the line go completely underground. It’s no secret that the rising cost of the Eglinton project, coupled with Ford’s delusional Sheppard dreams, should give the mayor’s political opponents ample ammunition to use against him—and to try to revive Transit City (yeah right!). Take this choice talking point for example: “The cost for the Eglinton line represents about one third of the $25.4 billion spent on transit projects across the country.” Yikes. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »

The Informer

Streetcar Named Disaster

December 16, 2011 | 11:26 am

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Public transit users will officially pay a premium to be stuffed into TTC vehicles like sardines

The TTC has approved a fare hike for 2012, meaning commuters will have to shell out an extra dime for the privilege of being shoehorned into already overcrowded streetcars, subways and buses. Of course, reasonable observers—like transit advocate Steve Munro—offer that fare hikes are necessary in order to solidify the TTC’s financial base, and the news of the price increase follows the announcement that the TTC will save service on some of the city’s busiest bus routes. So really, the transit situation isn’t entirely dire. Just don’t think about the Transit City funeral fund, or that how a Metropass will now cost an extra five dollars a month, which works out to roughly an annual increase of one vehicle registration tax. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »

The Informer

From the Print Edition

December 15, 2011 | 2:55 pm

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Rob Granatstein: why the city should sell off its assets—slowly but surely

Selling For Dummies

To close the budget gap, Rob Ford wants to sell city assets. Good idea, bad timing. Even a novice real estate investor knows to fix up the house before putting it on the market
By Rob Granatstein | Illustration by Jack Fylan

Cities acquire assets for many reasons. Sometimes a wealthy citizen donates a property, as in the case of High Park; sometimes assets, such as Henry Pellatt’s Casa Loma, are seized when tax bills go unpaid. A city grows to meet the needs of its citizens, adding public housing and office buildings, a zoo (or three), convention centres, highways, police and fire stations, parks, arenas, garbage trucks, landfill sites and libraries.

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The Informer

Streetcar Named Disaster

December 14, 2011 | 4:45 pm

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Gordon Chong can’t deliver his Sheppard subway report on time (he’s also unsure about his future with the project)

Poor Gordon Chong. The man who Rob Ford shouldered with the impossible task of making his Sheppard dream a reality is behind on his homework: he says “a lack of resources” will prevent him from meeting his Christmas deadline for presenting a business case on the subway extension. Chong still insists the slowly dying (or perhaps already dead) Sheppard line can be kick-started through a public-private partnership—but we suspect he’s only saying that because that’s what Ford wants him to say. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »

The Informer

Sun Spots

December 13, 2011 | 4:30 pm

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Toronto media get very, very excited about an intoxicated couple making whoopee on the TTC

The Toronto Star dropped a cheeky “Ride the Rocket” joke; BlogTO played on the “mile-high club ;” Newstalk 1010 spoke of “bunnies” and “knickers ;” OpenFile succinctly stated “What? How? For the love God, why?” And the Toronto Sun did this—on its front page. Bless.

The Informer

Streetcar Named Disaster

December 13, 2011 | 12:15 pm

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Sheppard subway needs a quick, cool $10 million to kick-start a private-public partnership

Apparently, the city’s (read: Rob Ford’s) Sheppard subway dream could soon be a reality—just as long as the city is prepared to shell out another $10 million and suspend disbelief for another year. (Gordon Chong still believes the public-private partnership is “doable,” but with time and money he would know for sure.) Of course, the plan still needs to go before council, whose members are well aware that the province has zero confidence in the project and that the outlook has been bleak for some time now. We suspect even Ford himself would balk at the prospects if the project in question was any other than his beloved subway extension. Read the entire story [Globe and Mail] »

(Images: Rob Ford, Christopher Drost; Yonge-Sheppard subway, gloom)

The Informer

Streetcar Named Disaster

December 1, 2011 | 11:55 am

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Metrolinx versus TTC: a public-private partnership for the Eglinton Crosstown?

The Toronto Star reports that Metrolinx is considering snubbing the TTC on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, opting instead for a public-private model to build and operate the $8.2 billion project that wouldn’t involve the city’s transit authority. Apparently, if Metrolinx does go the private partnership route, it will create the biggest public transit project in the province, one that’s administered by Infrastructure Ontario (the government agency that handles alternative financing and procurements). And, according to the Star, the TTC isn’t interested in that approach. Transportation Minister Bob Chiarelli says the model would ensure that cash for Ford’s beloved Sheppard subway extension doesn’t disappear into the Eglinton line—so you can guess how the mayor feels about the idea. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »

The Informer

Streetcar Named Disaster

November 23, 2011 | 11:35 am

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Buses cannot hold an infinite number of people—neither can streetcars or subways (even the Sheppard one)

All the talk of increased wait times and more crowded vehicles isn’t deterring Torontonians from riding the TTC—at least for now. Municipal blogger Steve Munro writes the TTC is on track for just short of half a billion rides in 2011, with overall ridership up 5.1 per cent from 2010. So why not cut a bunch of stuff? For one, those riders generate revenue for the TTC, and there’s a critical mass at which no more money can be saved by packing more people into the same vehicles (this isn’t Harry Potter, folks—the things eventually fill up). And although Rob Ford’s approach to government is based on straightforward don’t-spend-more-than-you-make fiscal conservatism, the issues afflicting the TTC aren’t quite so simple. In fact, Munro notes, it’s pretty much impossible to determine an individual rider’s financial impact on the system. There are short rides, long rides, people who transfer, people who don’t and those jerks who hop the turnstile (okay, Munro doesn’t mention them). The gist: maintaining adequate service on public transit is far more complex than the folks at city hall might have you believe. Read the entire article [Steve Munro] »

The Informer

Streetcar Named Disaster

November 18, 2011 | 12:35 pm

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Rob Ford’s transit strategy is costing, not saving, the city a lot of money

Seizing on the opportunity to run a photo of Rob Ford in a goofy hard hat, the Globe and Mail takes the mayor to task for his transit strategy—specifically his decision to extend the Sheppard subway and bury the Eglinton LRT. But apparently all is not lost. The Globe argues Ford still has a way out: reverting to the original Eglinton plan and using the surplus cash as “seed money” for a public-private partnership that would finally see Sheppard built. Of course, as John Michael McGrath at OpenFile points out, the same money could be used to build a Finch LRT line “almost twice.” And although the Globe cites Vancouver’s Canada Line as an example of a working public-private transit partnership, we’re still skeptical—not only about the feasibility of the same approach, but also of how essential the Sheppard line is in the first place. Read the entire story [Globe and Mail] »

The Informer

Streetcar Named Disaster

November 11, 2011 | 3:00 pm

2 Comments

Rob Ford won’t get an advance on surplus transit funds, but clings to his Sheppard subway fantasy anyway

Mayor Rob Ford’s dreams of a privately financed Sheppard subway extension have been on life support for some time now, and news that the extension could open one station at a time—nothing like Ford’s original promise—suggests the project isn’t exactly proceeding according to plan (if there is a plan at all). To make matters worse, the province’s new transportation minister, Bob Chiarelli, says the province won’t pony up an advance on the leftover Eglinton crosstown cash that the Sheppard project desperately needs.

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The Informer

Streetcar Named Disaster

November 10, 2011 | 5:30 pm

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Quoted: Joe Mihevc is very, very sure the Sheppard subway is doomed

(Image: joemihevc.com)

“All signs point to Sheppard being dead—D-E-A-D, dead—and I think the only thing that hasn’t happened is the news becoming public.”

That’s city councillor and former TTC vice-chair Joe Mihevc on the Sheppard subway extension, which is allegedly sunk now that the province says Rob Ford won’t be getting a cash advance on the project. Queen Park’s promised the city any leftover funds (up to $650 million) in the event the Eglinton LRT comes in under budget —something that’s looking less likely by the day—meaning Ford was asking for an advance on an amount that has yet to be decided and could easily end up being zero. We’ve said it before: the man is not great at math. What’s more, according to Mihevc, the lack of early government funding will scare away much-needed private investors. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »

The Informer

Streetcar Named Disaster

November 8, 2011 | 5:05 pm

3 Comments

Apparently, the Sheppard subway extension is now going to open one station at a time

(Image: Christopher Drost)

Turns out financing a subway extension is tough. Like, really, really tough. The Toronto Star reports that Gordon Chong, who Rob Ford assigned to hit up the private sector for funds to build the Sheppard subway extension, says shovels will be in the ground before 2014. But things aren’t panning out as Ford planned.

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The Informer

In Transit

October 13, 2011 | 11:30 am

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Urban planner advocates for a new Toronto transit system—i.e. gondolas

Here’s a novel, if not totally insane, idea: urban planner and founder of Creative Urban Projects Steven Dale thinks Toronto could improve its public transportation with a network of gondola cable lines ferrying people around the city (we already have visions of our own Roosevelt Island Tram). Dale says gondola lines can serve as a “complement” to light-rail transit, while costing roughly one to two thirds the price. Of course, what gondolas may have in cost efficiency they lack in being-a-Sheppard-subway, so don’t look for them any time soon. But who knows, maybe Dale could appeal to idea man Doug Ford. We already know he loves the other kind of gondola. Read the entire story [CBC] »

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