NEWSWIRE

Subway story prompts extensive media reaction

The March 7 Toronto Star story speculating that funding for an extension of the Spadina subway line to York University would be announced in the next provincial budget generated considerable media reaction in the days that followed. Everyone from Mayor David Miller to York students had an opinion. See below for a summary of the story.

The news that the Spadina line could be extended to York drew cheers from transit users and local politicians, reported CBC News in an online story March 9. "Oh for the love of God. Please, please, please, please, please," said one enthusiastic transit user, Paulina Bale, when told of the news. She said she couldn't wait for the expansion to be built after having to stand in inclement weather to catch the bus to York University. "If you go inside you might miss the bus but, if you stay outside and actually wait for it, you freeze."

"They can’t build it fast enough," York University transit users told the Star. Most students noted they won’t be there by the time the line opens, but still greeted the news with enthusiasm. "It’s a great idea," said student Melissa Walker. "A subway line from Downsview will be much more direct than the buses. York is one of the biggest universities in Ontario and needs the subway." The third-year student in York's Faculty of Arts will be going to teachers college and possibly taking her master’s degree at York, so the subway could be built in time to help her get to school, she said.

First-year languages student in the Faculty of Arts Alexandra Misan hoped the subway will be built in time to benefit her, as she waited patiently in a long line for a bus. "I always take public transit. I really think it will help with the traffic congestion on campus – people will find it much faster getting here by subway than by car," Misam said. Brunetta Jessop, who relies on public transit to get to York, said the subway line will be especially welcome during the winter, when she freezes at bus stops. Daniel Laviola, a second-year accounting student in York's Atkinson Faculty of Liberal & Professional Studies, has access to a car but doesn’t always use it "because the traffic here can be a hassle at peak times," and a parking permit costs almost $1,000 a year. "The subway line is on the route from my house so it would be a benefit for me."

A subway line to York would relieve severe traffic congestion in northwest Toronto, help regional commuters get downtown and take pressure off the jammed Yonge subway, Miller told the Star March 8. "There’s no question it’s an extremely critical link in the Greater Toronto Area," the mayor told reporters. "It just connects everything together." But he cautioned that unless some of the city’s budget issues are addressed, such as the downloading of costs by the province, it "won’t be in a position to expand the system."

The Toronto Sun noted that Bud Purves, president of the York University Development Corp., estimated that as many as 40,000 students would use the subway daily. "There currently are 1,500 buses a day coming to the York campus," he said. "That would be reduced substantially in the future. The bus traffic would be off the roads. The car traffic would be off the roads." It would take construction crews until 2013 to complete the project, TTC officials said.

Sean Hamilton, a spokesman for Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, told The Globe and Mail there is no need for an investigation into the Star story as a possible budget leak. "Nothing has been finalized," he said. "All of this is rumour and speculation." Miller said he had no knowledge of a possible subway announcement in the provincial budget. "The speculation in [the Star] is a little premature," he said. "All I can say is that we have been continuing the discussions we have had with the province for a couple of years."

Money remained an issue, though. TTC General Manager Rich Ducharme said on CTV News that he has told the province he has other priorities. TTC Commissioner Howard Moscoe put it in harsher terms in the National Post. Ontario can take funding to build a subway to York University and place it "where the sun doesn’t shine" unless the province also provides money to operate the new line, Moscoe said. "If the premier [Dalton McGuinty] wants to build a subway and also offers sustainable funding for the TTC, then I will give him a big hug, break out the shovels and we can start digging together," Moscoe said.

Toronto’s CFTO-TV took a poll of viewers opinions March 8 on whether the York University TTC subway line is a priority and found 73 per cent of respondents said "yes".

In editorials, the National Post and the Star both praised the extension, but said more was required. Unless the province's capital commitment is matched by operating funds, said the Post, it would aggravate the TTC's existing shortfall. What is needed is something much more ambitious than the province's gesture: a comprehensive capital plan that will also link the Sheppard line from Don Mills station to Scarborough Centre station, push the Yonge line north to Richmond Hill and link the Spadina and Yonge lines in the city's north end. If this sounds impossibly utopian, concluded the Post, consider that Madrid, between 1999 and 2003, built a 41 km underground circular line with 28 stations connecting the major suburban towns south of that city. If the Spaniards can do it, why can't we?

The story that prompted all the reaction ran in the Toronto Star early last week. Here is a summary:

Funding for the much-anticipated York University subway line is expected in the March 23 provincial budget, the Toronto Star reported March 7. The front-page story quoted unnamed sources who said Finance Minister Dwight Duncan will use his first budget to announce the $1.5 billion, 6.2-kilometre extension of the Toronto Transit Commission's Spadina line from Downsview station to York's campus. It would be the first TTC rail line into Greater Toronto, crossing the city limits to Vaughan on the north side of Steeles Ave. "Traffic gridlock is a major issue in the 905 and people there want to see that we are doing something tangible to alleviate that," said a government source. It's not clear how much of the price tag Queen's Park will cover, the Star said, but city hall has been asking the province and Ottawa to each kick in $500 million toward the project. Nor is it known how soon construction could begin.

The York subway extension would be a GTA public transit hub that would include GO Transit buses, York Region Viva bus rapid transit, as well as TTC bus service. Environmental assessments have already been done on much of the land needed for the extended line, the Star noted. York Region has long pressed for the Yonge subway line to come north from Finch station to Richmond Hill. But the TTC wants the under-utilized Spadina line to be the one that is expanded, taking passenger pressure off a Yonge line already packed to capacity. Starting at Downsview station on Dufferin Street, the extension would travel west along Sheppard Avenue to stop at Downsview Park, north on Keele Street to Finch, continuing along Keele before veering northwest onto York University's campus and then ending at Steeles. While the York extension has long been promised but never delivered, it is not a major surprise that the Liberals are set to move forward with it. Former finance minister Greg Sorbara, MPP for Vaughan-King-Aurora, has long been a champion of the line. "The question is when we're going to start," Sorbara said last September, before he stepped down as treasurer.