At a press conference on Friday afternoon to address the federal budget
unveiled in Ottawa the day before, Mayor Ford reaffirmed his support
for extending the Sheppard Ave. subway and putting the Finch West LRT
underground.
He suggested the city could use some of the Conservative budget’s $47
billion in municipal infrastructure spending to pay for the projects.
“The priority for transit expansion, first and foremost, is finishing the Sheppard subway,” Ford said.
“You finish what you started. The people in Scarborough need, and want, and will get a subway,” he added.
A short subway line was built on Sheppard between Yonge and Don Mills
in 2002. Ford campaigned on extending it to the Scarborough Town Centre,
but in March 2012 council voted to build an LRT instead.
As for the Finch LRT, which council voted last February to build above ground, Ford had this to say:
“Finch Ave. is currently over capacity, and our plans to install a
light rail down the middle of Finch will do nothing to help reduce
commuting times. It will just cause more chaos, as it has done on St.
Clair. People do not want that. We should adjust our plans now, to make
this a faster solution, and that means burying the line.”
His comments flew in the face of statements made yesterday by TTC chair
Karen Stintz, who announced her intention to tap into the federal
infrastructure money to build a Downtown Relief Line subway. Last
October the TTC board voted to make the DRL a priority, and both TTC
staff and provincial transit agency Metrolinx have identified it as
Toronto’s next subway project.
On Thursday Stintz noted that the $47-billion Building Canada fund is
to be spread out between municipalities across the country, and Toronto
will have to fight to get its “fair share.” Securing the funds could be
difficult if Ford and his TTC chair are advocating different projects,
however.
Stintz did not immediately return a request for comment Friday
afternoon. But in a statement posted to her website she said that
studies by the TTC and city staff have repeatedly rejected the idea of
extending the Sheppard subway.
“A Sheppard Avenue East Subway has now been judged twice by experts… as
a waste of taxpayer money,” the statement reads. “The continued lack of
private interest supports this.”
The statement also argues that the DRL would help improve transit times
for the Scarborough residents Ford says he is fighting for.
“The commute to and from Scarborough will only get worse without a Relief Line. There is no doubt about this.”
Reached Friday afternoon, TTC spokesperson Brad Ross confirmed that
despite the mayor’s comments, the DRL remains the commission’s first
concern.
“The CEO of the TTC has affirmed that as a priority,” said Ross. “That hasn’t changed.”
The DRL would connect the eastern arm of the Bloor-Danforth subway line
to the southern end of the Yonge line. It’s seen as crucial to
alleviating the brutal congestion on the Yonge subway, which the TTC
predicts will reach capacity by 2031.
On Friday, Ford suggested that extending the Sheppard subway to the
Scarborough Town Centre in the east and to Downsview in the west would
also significantly relieve crowding on the Yonge line. That position is
not backed up by the most recent TTC study on downtown transit.
Source: NOW
Author: Ben Spurr
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