![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldThe Sheppard subway line that runs east from Yonge Street in suburban North York shouldn't be extended east to Scarborough, an expert panel has concluded. An above-ground light rail route makes much the most sense, Kelly Grant reports in the Globe and Mail today, with the limited amount of money available for construction and the relatively small number of likely passengers.
I suppose it's worth noting that going to a demonstration composed of people supporting a particular cause, finding out that they all support that cause, and then generalizing wildly from that unrepresentative sample isn't a good idea. But then, the report of this panel essentially shuts down Ford's desire for subways: this is the panel of experts that was convened after TTC chair Karen Stintz led a majority of city councillors in overriding Ford's ill-sourced (and inevitably ill-funded) plan for building subways across Toronto, a peace offering. Without this gesture to Ford likely to be supported as a viable option, I suppose that the fights over Toronto's transit future will heat up. What does Ford have to lose?
“With the exception of [subway advocate Gordon] Chong, a strong consensus exists among the panel members that the LRT option is superior to the subway option(s) across the range of evaluation options considered.”
After assessing three expansion possibilities, the panel awarded a score of 87.3 to a light-rail extension from Don Mills station to Morningside, according to a source familiar with the panel’s work.
That was a much higher score than the virtual tie it gave to the other two choices, a subway to Scarborough Town Centre and a hybrid of two subway stops and a light-rail extension. The former scored 59.3; the latter scored 59.5.
The report goes beyond endorsing light-rail on Sheppard Avenue East. According to a draft of the recommendations stamped confidential and obtained by The Globe and Mail, the panel also urges council to take a serious look at new revenue tools to pay for future transit expansion, in concert with the province’s transportation authority for the Greater Toronto Area.
The document asks the “deputy city manager and chief financial office to prepare a comprehensive review of revenue tools and report back to council with appropriate recommendations to Metrolinx on an investment strategy to finance the provincial Big Move transit plan.”
[. . .]
[Mayor Rob] Ford dismissed the panel's conclusion out-of-hand.
"The advisory panel is a biased panel. We all know that. We know what they're going to say," the mayor told reporters Thursday.
"I listen to the residents, the taxpayers, the people who pay our wages. They're the boss."
He said he took the bus out to a demonstration by Subways Are for Everyone (SAFE), in a parkette at Sheppard and Victoria Park, and "every single person" wanted subways.
I suppose it's worth noting that going to a demonstration composed of people supporting a particular cause, finding out that they all support that cause, and then generalizing wildly from that unrepresentative sample isn't a good idea. But then, the report of this panel essentially shuts down Ford's desire for subways: this is the panel of experts that was convened after TTC chair Karen Stintz led a majority of city councillors in overriding Ford's ill-sourced (and inevitably ill-funded) plan for building subways across Toronto, a peace offering. Without this gesture to Ford likely to be supported as a viable option, I suppose that the fights over Toronto's transit future will heat up. What does Ford have to lose?
