Markham mayor ready for Yonge subway expansion north

Torontosun.com
June 18, 2016
By Christina Blizzard

I ruffled some feathers in a column June 2, when I suggested plans to expand the Yonge subway north into York Region without first building the Downtown Relief Line will pour thousands more commuters onto an already overburdened subway system.

I suggested Toronto taxpayers need a firm funding commitment from York Region before building anything.

That didn’t sit too well with Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti, chair of the York Region Rapid Transit Corporation. He defended the plan to move forward with the Yonge St. extension in a recent interview.

“It’s long overdue and our time has come for a subway extension,” he said.

“This is the most justifiable subway construction in recent history.”

There are 20,000 people jammed into buses going down Yonge St. every day - and another 10,000 are left behind due to gridlock, in one of the fastest growing regions in the country.

The Yonge subway extension has been on the books for decades.

“This is now finally getting the project to move forward and getting it designed,” Scarpitti said.

Automated signals and the new six car trains, that allow people to move from car to car internally are all helping ease overcrowding, he said. New regional transit and the Spadina subway expansion are also helping.

How will we pay for all of this, I asked? Will Toronto taxpayers be on the hook for an expansion beyond their boundaries?

“In York Region we’ve never quibbled that there doesn’t need to be investment in Toronto for rapid transit, but it needs to happen in other parts of the GTA as well,” he said.

“It’s going to be paid for the same way transit investments are paid for in the city of Toronto,” he said.

Scarpitti said there’ll be “different mechanisms” for paying for the expansion.

He used the dreaded T word. Yes, tools. As in revenue tools. That means new taxes - hidden or otherwise

“There’s going to a lot of growth happening. We need to be able to include a portion of our contribution through development charges and new growth that’s happening to fund these projects.

“We’ve done a (funding) split on the Spadina subway and we’ve always said there are ways we can contribute,” he said. The feds and the province have all contributed.

“Governments of all stripes have ignored investment in rapid transit across the whole of the GTA and it’s finally happening.”

He said 100,000 to 150,000 people will be coming into the GTA each year for the next 20 years.

What about fares, I asked. Right now it’s one-fare-fits-all. Shouldn’t commuters coming downtown from Richmond Hill and Markham pay a higher fare?

“My quick answer is a definite no, because the people of Toronto don’t pay higher for TTC services,” he said.

But long term, there’ll be changes.

“I think ultimately with the Presto card, that’s going to make it easier for people to travel,” he said.

“Ultimately, where we’re going is a fare by distance, but that’s something that Metrolinx will determine at some point,” he said.

“At the end of the day it’s built on fairness and certainly charging the people of York Region more to take a subway system that’s been funded by all taxpayers, as projects in Toronto have, would be extremely unfair.”

The estimated cost of the Yonge St. expansion is $4 billion.

Then again, most TTC and Metrolinx projects go over cost by anything from $400 million to $1 billion. The Scarborough subway is $900 million over budget.

Wouldn’t it just be cheaper to take Uber?