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.
Comments (17)
What you suggest as another way to spend the money? One of the big problems with the TTC is getting more riders to use it, period. Since this is a fare-supported system, having more stops in high intake or outlet areas will increase revenue. York University alone will amortize the cost of its station. And further north, what do we see but acre after acre of development. Transit is needed up there!
Great that the subway is getting to York U, but we need more Subway or Streetcard lines in the city of Toronto proper. What about Eglington West? What about finishing the Sheppherd Subway? What about Etobicoke? Also when this Subway is finished what will happen to those who live south of the 401 on the Spadina line. In rush hour by the time the train arrives it will be full. The TTC should not be used to fix the horrible development mistakes that have been made in the 905 region. Toronto needs to focus on Toronto for once.
Great that the subway is getting to York U, but we need more Subway or Streetcard lines in the city of Toronto proper. What about Eglington West? What about finishing the Sheppherd Subway? What about Etobicoke. Also when this Subway is finished what will happen to those who live south of the 401 on the Spadina line. In rush hour by the time the train arrives it will be full. The TTC should not be used to fix the horrible development mistakes that have been made in the 905 region. Toronto needs to focus on Toronto for once.
Hamish: I agree, transit is needed up there. But I don't think the kind of high-density transit that is a subway is needed.
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
"With the city, the province, and the feds all kicking in their part of the $697 million price tag"
You mean their part of the $2 billion price tag. The $697 million is just what the federal government is putting forward.
I think the Toronto government is leaning towards privatizing Bus routes and leaving the Subway to be run by the TTC. A subway is definelty needed up there, have you see that area! Rush hour is horrendous. York lost many investment opportunties (CFL & FIFA) because of tranist issues. These investors could have easily built that area up. Lets be realistic as well, running a bus with a york route to downsview costs hella of a lot then running a subway.
This is definitely a step in the right direction, even if it comes a clean decade too late for this former Yorkie. :)
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.
What Toronto/The GTA/Ontario really needs is an efficient transit system to the airport. This could be a LRT line (light rapid transit) from Kipling and should be funded by all three levels of government.
I agree that there are other arguably higher priorities for the TTC, and that stable funding is essential.
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 :-).
Allison: Search for Blue22 (wikipedia has an article). Its a dedicated line from Union Station to Pearson that would take only 22 minutes.
York Universsity should be the end of the line. Sending it out to the sparsley populated suburbs is ridiculous - an idea so stupid that only politicians could conceive it. When its all done it will cost 5 billion, lose money and then be sold to the private sector for pennies on the dollar - just like the 407!!!
Jason: To say that Vaughan or 905 north of Steeles is sparsely populated is just plain ignorant. You obviously don't get north of bloor much. The subway up to York and Vaughan combined with VIVA is going to take tons of cars off the road. Finally we're getting moving again after the lost Harris decade.
I think they should expand the Yonge line up to highway 7, connecting the Go train station at Langstaff.. and further up...
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.
Why doesn't Toronto have its Go Trains serve the city as well as long distance?
http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/20/why-dont-torontos-go-trains-stop-inside-the-city/
How about Yonge Subway, it should go to HW7 asap. Building such a small subway line would take 10 years? Then we should plan it ealier, we know GTA's population will go up very soon in the next 10 years.
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