Mayor John Tory’s executive endorses next steps in building transit network
Questions from councillors remain ahead of a real fight ahead this summer over where to build, how to build it, and how much it will cost

thestar.com
March 9, 2016
By Jennifer Pagliaro

Mayor John Tory’s executive committee has endorsed a new direction for major transit projects as part of the multi-billion dollar plan for a network of lines amid questions over cost and calls for more data.

Executive unanimously accepted a narrowed focus for three major projects, including Tory’s heavy rail SmartTrack vision, a downtown relief line subway and transit in Scarborough, with promises of more information on what those lines will cost to build, where stations will be located and the future price to ride those lines to come this summer.

Council must first confirm that decision ahead of the real debate to come in June and July over what to build first, where to build it and at what cost.

“I think we’re doing this much better,” Tory said of the transit planning process which has long been criticized for being hampered by political meddling.

“It isn’t about one project. It wasn’t about SmartTrack or anything else. It was about a series of projects...Let’s keep doing the work. There’s lots to be done between now and June.”

The revised network plan for the next 15 years represents an amalgamation of lines first proposed as part of former mayor David Miller’s Transit City light rail plan, provincially-backed plans from the past decade, and Tory’s own recent contribution of SmartTrack.

The recommendations proposed by staff to further revise that plan by eliminating some alignments and configurations are significant, depending on who you ask.

The SmartTrack plan first proposed by Tory during the campaign as a separate and parallel line using GO Transit rails with 22 stations and a new heavy rail section out to Mississauga has been discarded because of the “prohibitive” cost and timelines.

In its place are plans to integrate “SmartTrack” - increased service within the City of Toronto and four to eight additional stations - into the province’s ongoing plans for electrification and more frequent service along the Stouffville and Kitchener lines.

Councillor Gord Perks, who has been openly critical of Tory’s original plan said staff made an important recommendation to not pursue that option because it is “fatally flawed.”

“It’s worth remembering that the map you draw, the number of lines on the map, the colour of the lines on the map, the original author of the lines on the map, the political popularity of the lines on the map are all irrelevant,” Perks said. “The only thing that is relevant is whether or not people are going to have affordable transit operating frequently that is near where they want to get on and near where they want to get off.”

At a press conference that prefaced the actual debate at committee, Tory maintained that the city is “on track” to deliver SmartTrack.

“If I stood behind it too enthusiastically, then I’ll plead guilty to that,” Tory told reporters. “If I had indicated, ‘Well there may be parts of this that don’t work very well, and I’m certainly willing to reconsider those,’ you’d have been nailing me for that during the election campaign.”

He said the total number of local stops - 11 existing or planned GO stations plus some additional stops proposed as part of SmartTrack - will come close to what he had promised and that service may even improve from his 15 minutes or better promise.

City staff, in their initial studies, found that the number of future riders for SmartTrack and the impact on the rest of the network is highly dependent on trains coming every five minutes - what senior staff say is technically challenging, but not impossible.

“I’m proud of it and I’m going to fight for it and it’s going to happen,” Tory said.

The mayor also said he is open to staff providing more information about other lines in the network discussed Wednesday, including in Scarborough where staff are now looking at a one-stop subway from Kennedy station to the Scarborough’s city centre and a 17-stop LRT along Eglinton Ave. East to the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus.

Tory said he is working with Councillor Josh Matlow, who opposed an original subway plan that included three new stops, to look at asking staff to study whether taking the subway above ground from Kennedy could save money. Tory’s support, he said, is conditional on it not delaying the planning process.

On Wednesday, many non-executive councillors joined their colleagues in a crowded second-floor committee room to pose questions to staff about the things that still aren’t known.

On cost, Councillor Paula Fletcher walked away without being told how much capital it will take to build a downtown relief line from a new station at Nathan Phillips Square to the existing Pape station on the Bloor-Danforth line, or for the revised SmartTrack plan that was originally estimated by Tory’s campaign at $8 billion.

Matlow questioned the bundle of reports now before council which largely contained studies of configurations that have since been changed.

“What I’m concerned about and what I’m frustrated by is that we are making decisions in a way now that we don’t have information in front of us that I think the majority of us understand, never mind the average member of the public,” he said.

“We don’t have real, honest funding plans before us to be able to know that we are once again, not going to support major capital projects - as the mayor has said over and over again - without any clear idea of how to fund them.”

Staff said a detailed business case including costing and a conversation about funding are on deck for this summer.

Those questions and a renewed debate are expected to resurface at council at a meeting that begins March 30.