Posts Tagged ‘Transit City’
There Has to be a Better Way Than Closing the Scarborough RT for Three Years
Expanding the Scarborough Rapid Transit line is a great idea. For many Scarborough residents the SRT serves as a link between the Scarborough Town Centre and Kennedy Station – Scarborough’s Eastern most subway station. While the good people of Scarborough were sold this experimental technology as being subway compatible in the future, we found out in 2006 this just wasn’t the case. Enter the LRT concept, an idea that in this case preceded plans for Transit City and was born when nine of the ten Scarborough Councillors sold residents out on the Scarborough Subway concept all ten had supported before they had a closed door meeting with the TTC.
Now that the subway idea is dead and there is a more comprehensive light rail transit strategy for all neighbourhoods, I do support having light rail line linking Kennedy Station to Sheppard Avenue where the first Transit City line is already under construction. I can’t believe the existing link from Kennedy to McCowan can or should be closed for three years to make that happen. The old City of Scarborough and current City of Toronto has placed an emphasis on building high density condo towers around the Scarborough Town Centre – an area with three large commercial towers, a federal government building and the Scarborough Civic Centre.
This represents Scarborough’s best chance at building a mixed neighbourhood that mirrors a modern mid sized city’s downtown. It’s also been tremendously successful so far. It’s my strong belief that the Scarborough Rapid Transit is a large part of the sales pitch for making this development both make sense and attract buyers.
It is my hope that the TTC will recognize closing the Scarborough Rapid Transit line for three years will drive these condo owners, and commercial office workers to the roads, not so-called express busses and will also impact the accessibility of the mall by transit users. Anyone who has ever had to take a shuttle bus when the subway was down knows how awful the experience is, and for the TTC to see this permanent crisis mode as a solution for Scarborough residents is unthinkable and something that needs more thought before it happens.
It seems to me like a more reasonable solution would be to run portions of the SRT by having the LRT built from Sheppard to McCowen and transition from SRT to LRT technology one stop at a time working towards Kennedy, so the SRT can run from stations not currently under construction as long as possible. This would mean shuttles would run from no more than the distance between the closest two stations. As stations are also hubs for local bus routes, this makes perfect sense.
For those who live in Ward 43, the impact can be easily mitigated by taking an alternate route. I have to say growing up in Guildwood my friends and I would take the 116 Morningside bus to Kennedy and ride the SRT to Scarborough Town Centre. It wasn’t until I was in my early 20′s that I realized it’s faster and less crowded to ride the 116 Morningside to Ellesmere and take the 38 Highland Creek west along Ellesmere to the Scarborough Town Centre SRT stop.
Let’s all hope the TTC agrees there is a better way to operate when it comes to transitioning the SRT into an LRT.
No Comments »Groundbreaking on Sheppard East LRT a Good Day for Scarborough
I have to say – I really like the Transit City proposal. I am hopeful the City, Province and Federal Government will come up with a way to fund it because it will have a profoundly positive impact on my community – and especially a number of low income communities that will be serviced with fast and frequent public transit.
The Scarborough Malvern and Sheppard East lines present a real opportunity to revitalize hurting communities that will see better transit service and easier access to Toronto employment zones. As someone who lives just west of Morningside and is currently working along Sheppard Avenue East I can tell you this morning during my one hour commute – taking the 116 Morningside to Sheppard, and the 85 Sheppard to Don Mills Subway and then the Sheppard Subway to my stop – having the Scarborough Malvern Line running up Morningside to Sheppard and the Sheppard Line to Don Mills would significantly cut this trip down.
Many lower income communities rely on service from the bus lines that will be replaced by these two LRTs and the ability to access employment in a more timely manner is someone no one should forget when determining the value of these projects. What’s more – public transit infrastructure encourages intensification along the new lines. This serves two purposes which are in the interest of everyone. 1) Higher density developments near transit lines encourage public transit use, which takes cars off the road. That leads to less congestion which is good for the environment and the economy. With how close Sheppard is to the 401 and considering they run mostly parallel – this is particularly good news considering the LRT will make connecting to downtown from the North and East parts of Scarborough easier.
I am happy to see the Sheppard East LRT is set to open in 2013 and look forward to the Scarborough Malvern line opening in 2015. My support for the Scarborough Malvern Line may be the only reason I bite my tongue on the total waste that is the 2015 Pan Am Games as my community will see an immense benefit from this infrastructure announcement, over the opposition of our local Councillor, who thankfully is being ignored by his colleagues in his bizarre opposition to this project.
While I strongly advocated for a Scarborough Subway as did many residents in 2006 when the idea had the support of all City Councillors in Scarborough and our five MPPs – seeing the proposed routes of the LRT lines I am confident that while a Subway would be a form of symbolic equity with the rest of the City, Scarborough will be best served by LRTs which meet the anticipated capacity requirements for Scarborough’s population better. It also has a price tag that may actually prove affordable.
I look forward to the day I can transfer trains at Kennedy Station to come home, instead of hopping on the 116 Morningside bus. Today that came closer to reality with a shovel going into the ground, committing the TTC to building Transit City – something all residents and politicians in Toronto need to get behind. Our next Council, to be elected this coming October will need to continue to find funding for these lines – something I sincerely hope they do and residents across Toronto pressure them to.
No Comments »Toronto's New LRT Vehicles An Example of Smart Decision Making
Toronto’s investment in transit is certainly valuable for Toronto but also has the potential to be economically valuable to other areas of the province that have been hurting over the last number of years. It is no secret that even before the widespread, much discussed ‘economic crisis’ Ontario’s manufacturers were hurting and workers had lost 300 000 jobs. Many in the labour movement, and on the political left have been calling for ‘buy in Ontario’ policies to better leverage government spending to aid our economy.
The Bombardier LTR deal is a perfect example of how we can and should use an unofficial buy in Ontario policy, that will give us to benefits of buying local without the political or economic risks that a formal policy has. Bombardier’s selection will mean jobs in Thunder Bay and around the province for parts manufacturing and depending on where Bombardier opts to source it’s materials from, it could also mean a local demand for local supplies.
This is $1.2 billion well spent and what’s more it’s about $500 million cheaper than the next bid, meaning even without the local benefit one could make the financial case for the purchase. I am hopeful the City of Toronto, Ontario and Canadian governments will recognize the importance of finding opportunities like these to encourage production of Canadian resources and manufacturing where possible and continue to award contracts not just on narrow merit of that individual project, but also on the spin off effects it can be seen to have on our economy. What’s more when Toronto relies on the Provincial and Federal governments to pick up 2/3rds of a large infrastructure bill, it is politically wise to ensure there is a broader benefit to be felt by the Province and the Country.
It is important that this be done sensitively, without the appearance of local favouritism or specific requirements being built into the request for proposal that would contravene existing trade agreements. In the Bombardier contract award, I think the City of Toronto found an ideal way of dodging the politically messy and economically dangerous issues of ‘buy local’ policies. They were still able to extract the benefit of such a policy, and for that, I’m sure many thousands of non-Torontonians are happy, especially the folks in Thunder Bay, who probably love Toronto’s rail transit system better than even many Torontonians do, simply because the strong economic benefit their community has seen from our investments.
As someone who relies on public transit and my feet to get around, I know I too am looking forward to the big investment in LRT’s and while Transit City may still leave Scarborough inadequately covered with subway stops, the LRT systems going East will make rapid transit more accessible for hundreds of thousands, and especially those in some low income communities.
2 Comments »
