TTC eyes Ottawa’s infrastructure fund to build downtown subway extension

National Post
February 14, 2014
By Abigale Subdhan

TTC CEO Andy Byford is hoping to tap into the federal government’s $14-billion infrastructure fund to support the proposed Downtown Relief Line, he said at the unveiling of the 2014 TTC customer charter on Friday.

Mr. Byford said he discussed the relief line with Prime Minister Stephen Harper during a tour of the Toronto-York Spadina subway extension site Thursday.

“[Harper] accepted what I was saying. We had a long discussion about the line and he gets the point around funding,” Mr. Byford said of their 20-minute meeting. “I intend to get some of that money for Toronto.”

The New Building Canada fund, announced on Thursday, offers two elements: $4-billion allotted for projects of national importance and $10-billion for projects of regional importance.

Mayor Rob Ford said on Thursday that he intended to pursue the same fund. “You know I want to build the Sheppard line, the Finch line, the DRL. You know we have a huge housing backlog. You know we need money for bridges, roads, infrastructure. That’s the money I’ll be asking for.”

Mr. Byford said last September that the Downtown Relief Line is a “priority” over the controversial Scarborough subway. But there are still no solid proposals on how to fund the line.

Metrolinx, the province’s transit agency, says the relief line is only one in a long list of future projects. Others include longer trains, a Don Mills Rapid Transit and a Waterfront East streetcar. After two public consultations to shorten the list, recommendations on which will be Metrolinx’s next priorities will be presented to the board in June.

In the meantime, Mr. Byford was promoting the second TTC customer charter, which vows cleaner subway stations, better ways to pay fares and more transparency by the end of 2014.

The charter, announced alongside TTC Chair Karen Stintz, offers a list of 39 time-bound commitments that will “improve service reliability, better customer communications … and modern equipment and services.”

“The plan is to modernize our processes, modernize the equipment that we use so that these things become more automated and less reliant on people,” Mr. Byford said at Yonge-Bloor Station.

Under the new charter, TTC collectors will begin accepting debit and credit cards for in-station payment of all fare options — including tokens, tickets and metro passes — before the second half of the year. The charter also calls for 20 more bus route supervisors to patrol  punctuality and aims to have all streetcars equipped with the PRESTO payment system by the end of the year. They also plan to operate the Yonge-Spadina line exclusively with the new Toronto Rocket trains — which hold 8% more passengers than the older models.

According to Ms. Stintz, there is a larger focus on transparency and tidying up the stations this year after customer complaints about unclean washrooms and trains.

“[We heard] that even if someone’s journey was uninterrupted and without a delay, if they had to get off at Yonge and Bloor to use the washroom, that clouded their entire experience of the system,” she said.

Workers will conduct fall and spring cleaning in every subway station by pressure cleaning the walls and floors, all bus bays, passenger pick-up locations and train platforms. The charter also states that the floors in every station will be repolished and they will continue to remove graffiti, gum and trash from all vehicles.

The charter unveiling comes after the release of an auditor’s report that says the TTC is losing close to $5-million dollars a year in unclaimed warranty reimbursements on bus repairs. The report reveals that 70% of the TTC’s warranty claims are not being processed, getting back only $1.9-million a year.

“That’s received my personal attention,” Mr. Byford said. “I’m making sure on acting on the recommendations that [the auditor general] made,” Mr. Byford said. “Things like not filing for warranty claims is not acceptable.”

The mayor called the report’s findings atrocious, and Councillor Doug Ford blamed the TTC chair. “Where was Karen Stintz? Was she sleeping at the switch?”