Toronto LRT Information Blog

It is nice to be able to travel to other cities to see some really inspiring transit development, but it is a reminder of how much we drag our collective asses here in the GTHA. When we finally get to a point where something is underway, a change of government can so easily cancel everything in the name of it being their ‘mandate’, despite being elected on a whole other issue while their ‘transit plan’ was essentially created on the back of a napkin (or was that toilet paper?) or late at night as a YouTube video.

For some inspiration, check out the new Expansion section of the Denver page.

Sometimes attraction for development is used as an argument for subways over LRT. The silly thing about this argument is that there are many other factors that come into play, and LRT can be just as effective as full subway construction at attracting new development.

While in Denver last week, I came across this sign at the side of a road near the Dayton LRT station…

In a previous posting, I quipped, “Perhaps if anything is not going to go ahead, Metrolinx could shift the funding to build VIVA Phase 3 (LRT lines) at this time in York Region!”

Well, it seems York Region is snoozing because the Toronto Star is reporting that Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion is saying that if Toronto Mayor Rob Ford doesn’t want the funding for Transit City, Mississauga will be only too happy to take the province’s money to build light rail transit.

One thing in the article that should be noted is this: “Above ground LRT costs about a third as much as subways — the TTC estimates about $100 million per kilometre compared to about $300 million for tunneling.” That is a bit of an overstatement of the costs of LRT construction that includes a fair bit of over-engineering in the Transit City plan, necessary or otherwise, including the underground part of the Eglinton line and the underground connection with the Sheppard subway on the Sheppard East line. Transit City’s own costs for median construction is only just over half that at about $50 million per kilometre, but Mississauga has the benefit of being able to use more side-of-the-road alignments that can use ballasted tie construction to bring that cost down to only $30-35 million per kilometre.

This video is funny, but it demonstrates how some people get certain thoughts and ideas stuck in their head…

This morning, the Bloor-Danforth subway line was shut down between Woodbine and Broadview because of a broken watermain near Greenwood station. Since water has a tendency to flow downhill, it made its way to the subway tunnels where its level quickly reached the height of the third rail.

That is sarcasm, in case it is not obvious, so please don’t add comments about why this is so wrong (LRT can be underground; subways can use overhead power, etc.), unless you are making a satirical point.

My intent was to throw out the sort of stupid argument that often comes from subway-or-nothing types when trying to shoot down LRT. That’s not to say there are no stupid arguments made in favour of LRT, just that one must consider that not all arguments should be taken at face value.