Toronto: Public transit

[jesseps]

This is a proposed plan for Toronto for the next 15 years.

 

 

 

What Toronto's rapid transit network could look like in 15 years, according to recommendations from the city of Toronto and the TTC. The Crosstown LRT would be extended west to the airport jobs hub and northeast to the Scarborough campus of U of T. The subway would reach the Scarborough City Centre. Emerging neighbourhoods along the eastern waterfront would be connected via LRT. The first phase of the relief line would carry riders south from Pape Station along Queen St. at Nathan Phillips Square. More Torontonians would hop on the Stouffville and Kitchener GO lines via SmartTrack.

 

(Courtesy Toronto Star)

[vivreenrégion]

could......

[rufus96]

A nice little dream network. The Downtown Relief line has been the stuff of discussion for a long time now, long before the Eglinton LRT was drawn up and under construction. We all joke that Montreal's yellow line extension further into the South Shore and the Orange line loop will be completed in time for 2167, this Toronto map is much the same.

 

With Ontario's debt levels and Toronto's municipal structure (inner city vs. inner suburbs since the 90s merger) good luck getting a small fraction of these extensions built in the next 15 years, even with Toronto's meteoric rise to Alpha Global City status. The Eglinton Crosstown will be a nice addition, but it doesn't go far enough to address that city's transit woes. I speak from first hand experience of having spent most of 2015 living and working in central Toronto.

[Né entre les rapides]

A nice little dream network. The Downtown Relief line has been the stuff of discussion for a long time now

 

Right. I believe this is one more case aptly described by the motto As you grow so shall you weepby professor E J Mishan in his 1969 booklet entitled The Costs of Economic Growth

 

The problem here is not so much growth per se, but growth which was/is too fast. During the late 1800s and early 1900s in some European and American cities, the pain was felt most acutely in terms of inadequate housing and sanitation. Today in Toronto, transportation is the main (but not unique) issue. In a way, it sounds as if the problem erupted suddenly, but in retrospect, signs of strains had been visible for some time, and it should have been obvious that, especially given the continuing strong growth (economic and demographic), DRASTIC actions were urgently needed: 1) invest heavily immediately to increase transportation capacity ; and 2) geographically redirect/balance growth (through zoning and fiscal measures). A third approach, i.e. stop growth altogether, was brought forward by a few, but failed to gain credibility (in any event, this might have been neither legally/politically feasible nor socially/economically desirable). So what happened in reality: too many discussions, too little action for too many years.

 

Ironically, Montrealers might be grateful that their city was not growing so fast!