06-22-2018, 08:22 AM
(06-21-2018, 10:49 PM)danbrotherston Wrote:(06-21-2018, 10:39 PM)Pheidippides Wrote: This CBC article hints that LRT will not be well funded in the next government and does not bode well for phase 2:
Doug Ford:
"We've been preaching for 10 years in Toronto … we love subways. Rapid underground transit," Ford told reporters. He then attacked light rail, a less expensive form of transit being built in municipalities across Ontario. "They rip up two lanes of road traffic and they clunk along the street — antiquated system," he said.”
"We're going to focus on being the most modern transit system in the world. We're going to build rapid underground transit that's going to extend, not only in Toronto, but we're the first government that's going to run a regional transportation system. So folks in Pickering eventually will be able to hop on a subway and get to downtown Toronto. People of Markham and the outlying areas, over time, will be on a subway, to make sure that we get traffic moving."
And this is supposed to be the fiscally responsible party?
So a subway to Markham wouldn't be too expensive (~2km from Finch up to the other side of Steeles would technically qualify) - but the TTC's long term plan has been to extend to the Richmond Hill centre north of the 401 (~7km) would be much more expensive.
A subway to Pickering would be unbelievably expensive and such overkill given the current and future state of GO trains and express busses out of that community. At least 16km just to get to the SRT.
I've said it many times. Any PC supporter who thinks they're a fiscal conservative is choosing not to pay attention.
In any case, this is blindingly stupid, given the existing GO Transit, and the sparse, frankly, empty space this would traverse. Is Doug really this stupid, or is it simply a ploy to distract from or oppose transit, while still pretending to support it?
But yeah, bad news for our Phase 2.
The reality is he will learn quickly that he has to listen to other municipalities too. You cant just address GTA and forget about the rest of the province. No point in trying to guess what will happen when the region hasn't even gone knocking on doors yet looking for financing.