City
Subway into York Region a (Pretty Much) Done Deal
What feels like a long long time ago, an announcement was made that the University-Spadina subway line would be extended up to York University and all the way into Vaughan. The expansion was then shelved because of a lack of commitment (and money) from the federal government. The Star is reporting that next week that funding will be in place, and work on the project can begin. With the city, the province, and the feds all kicking in their part of the $2 billion price tag (the feds with an announced $697 million), this seems just like what the city needs, right?
While this certainly is good news, one has to wonder if this is the best use of a half a billion dollars for transit in Toronto. Yes, it extends transit out to those living in the suburbs (something we've established as an important goal), but does it help improve transit overall in the city?
With funding for transit coming in short bursts, it makes it impossible for the TTC to respond to the city's growth and continue expansion in a way that makes sense. While this announcement is obviously a votes-buy with both provincial and federal elections coming up this year, it doesn't necessarily help the city. Since we usually can't trust "senior" levels of government to look out for Toronto's best interests, it's worth reading what the experts have to say on the subject. As it stands, this is a mixed-blessing for the city: yes, the TTC is expanding, but for the time and cost it will take to add these five subway stops, is it in the right way?
Image from the TTC.
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Subways don't get built the way they used to, and their costs are through the roof. I've read that the York subway will take 10 years to complete -- that means the frosh riding to to their first classes are right now in Grade 4. In those ten years, with half a billion dollars, we could blanket entire parts of the city with ROW streetcars and create an actual network, not just another stump on an already underused subway line.
I think it's a matter of practicality and utilitarianism; while it would be nice to have a subway running right up to Vaughan, there are better, and more spread out ways of spending that money.
I really recommend that anyone interested in this read Steve Munro's blog. I don't agree with everything he says, but he knows the TTC better than anyone in the city, and certainly better than the vote-hungry politicians.
www.stevemunro.ca
You mean their part of the $2 billion price tag. The $697 million is just what the federal government is putting forward.
Yes, there are certainly a significant number of other issues that the TTC needs to address immediately, but I have to say the last few months are the first time in a long time that I've felt like the organization is legitimately listening to the population in terms of what we need/want from them. It's nice to imagine that the TTC will actually be a competitive transit system by sometime in the next decade.
However, building a subway is a good thing, because once it is there, no one can take it away. It's there, and it will be useful, one day (decade) or another.
It would be also great to alleviate the Yonge line a bit :-).
In fact, ttc should get rid of all the buses and convert everything to subway just like nyc...given our weather condition, it just doesn't make sense to rely so much on surface public transit.
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