Blue 22 Has All the Makings of a Bad Idea

by John Laforet
posted on January 5th, 2009 at 16:23:45 pm

I am going to start by saying I am generally not a fan of projects where the proponent does not know what the cost will be prior to construction. That is a concern that causes me to look deeper at the merits of the plan. The Blue 22 folks also don’t know how long it will take to build. Metrolinx took the project over from Go Transit, after the six year process that so far has only led to community outrage in the Weston area. Metrolinx also isn’t sure if they will make any changes to the plan that Go Transit proposed. Metrolinx are the same guys who came up with a comprehensive $50 billion dollar regional transit plan for the next 25 years. The single largest problem with their vision for the GTA’s transit plan? They were able to rule out sources of financing (road tolls in particular) but unable to explain where or how they would source the $50 billion.

Residents of the Weston area in Toronto have gotten together over concerns with the Blue 22 project which would bring diesel trains through their community every fifteen minutes while providing no actual benefit to the community itself. Lack of host community benefit is also something I generally take issue with as it relates to infrastructure projects. Check out the Weston Community Coalition website for both comprehensive information on the project and the groups activities.

One aspect of planning I absolute cannot abide is anything that circumvents Ontario’s Environmental Assessment process. Ontario’s EA process is designed to protect our environment through researching the impacts projects will have on the local area. I would suspect running diesel burning trains through a residential neighbourhood four times an hour, most hours of the day, seven days a week, is bound to have an environmental impact that is worth knowing before the project is completed. Sadly, it appears the Province of Ontario will not force the proponents of Blue 22 to go through the rigourous process that would demonstrate some of the weaknesses in their plan. Suggesting Blue 22’s people could do in six months what everyone else would have to do in three years is nonsensical. Especially when they don’t have a price tag, a time line or an appreciation of any possible changes they may make to a project they’re still getting to know.

Can you imagine that in 2009 there are still proponents for diesel intra-city transit trains? I would hate to imagine a meeting of a bunch of guys from Metrolinx and SNC Lavlin sitting around a board room wondering what that “third rail” was for on the TTC’s Subway and RT tracks. If these guys want to build a project that is both unnecessary and unpopular, they should at least be environmentally friendly and use technology that the TTC has been using successfully for it’s subway trains since 1954. An electric train system is nothing new, and should be the only type of train being considered for future intra city train projects. Further, Bombardier – a Canadian company with a solid train building facility in Thunder Bay is capable fo building such trains. In a time of economic recession – would it not make sense to build new trains as a form of stimulus as opposed to refurbishing trains that are not environmentally friendly?

This project seems like a public policy mess to me and a plan built on faulty logic. I am a big fan of Spacing – the magazine of the Toronto Public Space Committee, and while I don’t necessarily agree with TPSC all the time, the commentary on Blue 22 in August was certainly insightful. They pointed out that just 17% of folks landing at Pearson are heading for downtown Toronto. Take a look at their article Shoo, Blue 22 for some of the alternatives they suggest.

Finally – as someone who has found themselves at Pearson on at least thirty occasions this in 2008 (I only flew myself once) the vast majority of my travels to and from Pearson were done by either taking the 192 Airport Rocket to Kipling Station and then the subway to wherever I was going, or the 58 Malton to Lawrence West Station and the subway to where ever I was going. Either of these will take just over an hour to get to Union station at a bargain rate of $2.75 for adults or by showing your metro pass and a smile to the Bus Driver. Both run every ten to fifteen minutes. If you need to arrive at the airport before or after the Subway stops for the night, then the 300A will take you there. It usually runs every half hour along the Bloor/Danforth subway line every half hour. If the TTC isn’t your style you can spend $18.50 and take the Airport Express bus to a number of Toronto Hotels in the downtown core. U of T’s Chestnut Residence (behind City Hall), the Royal York, the Westin (at Harbourfront) and the Delta Cheslea at Yonge and Gerrard are among the pick up and drop off options. And if the Airport Express doesn’t strike your fancy, then there are always a number of Taxi’s or Airport Limos who will gladly take sixty five bucks off of you for a thirty to forty minute drive to the downtown core.

The TTC service to the airport is amazing. I’ve always enjoyed it, always had a seat and found it time competitive with the other options. Between the TTC, private bus lines, Airport Limos and Taxi’s, Blue 22 is going to be joining an already crowded field that vies for the 17% of Pearson flyers who are seeking to get to the core. It is a project without merit, and one that is going to operate using trains that are not even the ideal technology for the job.

In closing, Blue 22 in my opinion is a project without merit. There are already a multitude of options to get to and from the airport and two that currently cost less and have less of a negative environmental impact than a mostly empty train spewing diesel smoke in residential neighbourhoods would have. The 17% of travellers heading into the downtown core, to my knowledge are not stranded at the airport waiting for a magic train to take them downtown. They’ve found other ways that presumably work and will continue to after this project is either abandonned or built. Projects without merit are bad enough, but when one starts messing around with the law to make it easier for their bad project to go through I get worried. When it is public money I get even more worried. It is my hope that Metrolinx will realize there are far better transit projects and if they are of the opinion a train needs to go to the airport, use the Transit City plan of the TTC to make it happen as part of the light rail transit plan.

Tags: Blue 22, Environmental Assessement Ontario, Go Transit, Metrolinx, Toronto Airport Travel, Transit City, TTC, Weston Community Coalition