NEWSWIRE

Ontario budget targets
traffic gridlock and
a subway to York

The daily commute in the Toronto area should get easier thanks to a provincial budget that will provide funding for a Toronto subway to York University and Vaughan, reported the Toronto Star March 24. The gridlock-battling proposals got the green light as part of the $1.2 billion in new infrastructure spending outlined in the Ontario budget. While there are still some funding issues to work out – the province will pay one-third of costs but local governments and Ottawa will have to fund the rest – the early indicators are encouraging. The federal government has indicated it is prepared to discuss the various transit projects, and the province said it will help cities find ways to raise money to pay their share. The Greater Toronto Area was the biggest beneficiary with $838 million committed by the province for transit funds. And much of that money will go to the Spadina subway extension. Duncan said the province will place $670 million into a trust fund by next Friday to help Toronto and York Region expand the Spadina subway to Jane and Highway 7, where Vaughan hopes to build a "downtown".

Subway extension is a $2-billion project but the provincial commitment is irrevocable, the Star said. "We want the subway," Duncan told reporters. "We put our money in the trust. That money is not coming back to the province. It's there for public transit. This is the city of Toronto's top priority. This is the Region of York's top priority. We're clear. This money is for public transit." The Spadina subway extension, which could take up to seven years to build, will carry about 100,000 riders, eliminating 83,000 car trips a day, while taking some commuting pressure off the over-packed Yonge Street line, Duncan said. It could also help unite a region, which too often acts like a house divided. "That link is a critical transportation link in Toronto because it links downtown to the 905 and creates a new transportation hub in Vaughan," said Toronto Mayor David Miller. "We should be city building. These links should have been done years ago." It will also spur development, helping create a "downtown" Vaughan at a new terminus at Jane and Highway 7. That is now a hodgepodge of car shops, parking lots and big-box stores. "We're talking about jobs and businesses locating in those areas," said Bill Fisch, York Region chairman.

York University officials were also ecstatic about the prospects of improved service for 65,000 students and staff but pointed out it was just as significant that the subway crossed the 416-905 divide, the Star said. "It's one of the few projects that talk about knitting the region together," said Bud Purves, president of the York University Development Corporation. "There is a city of Toronto but there's really an Ontario growth strategy. That's what this is all about." The budget contemplates the creation this spring of the Greater Toronto Transportation Authority to plan and co-ordinate transit between Toronto and its neighbours, the Star also reported.

In other coverage of the budget and the subway:

  • In a story that noted the bulk of the provincial government’s budget was directed at Toronto, the Ottawa Citizen and the National Post reported March 24 that spending includes $670 million to extend a subway line to York University and beyond, a project that is at least 10 years from completion, according to officials. Toronto's transit commission will also receive an additional one-time bailout in the form of $200 million in operational funding.The transit spending is the single biggest investment of its kind since the mid-1970s, officials said.
  • In its budget coverage, the National Post reported comments by Toronto Mayor David Miller that funding contained in the provincial budget will allow Toronto to limit its 2006 residential property tax hike but will not head off a TTC fare increase. Miller said the city's budget woes are now over. However the budget is unlikely to avert a 10 cents hike in the price of TTC tickets and tokens planned for April 1. If approved, the $2-billion project will add six kilometres of track to the system and five stations, including one at York University. Miller said the city "would have to work" to find money to contribute towards the construction.
  • The Globe and Mail reported that the budget would improve transit service to the 65,000 people who commute to York University, which is the second-largest generator of single-person auto use in Greater Toronto after Pearson International Airport.
  • The Windsor Star reported that Finance Minister Dwight Duncan was immediately pounced upon by critics in the opposition parties and media for his generosity to the vote-rich GTA, which will receive a $1-billion transit bonanza by month's end, of which about $670 million will go toward a subway line to York University and beyond.
  • CFTO-TV (Toronto) took a detailed look at the provincially funded TTC subway extension to York on its evening news progam.
  • Noah Zatzman, a second-year student in York’s Faculty of Arts, and Bud Purves, president of York Development Corporation, were interviewed on CBC-TV (Toronto) after the subway extension was announced.
  • Sebastien Reinstien, first-year student in York’s Atkinson School of Administrative Studies, and Jaswant Bahra, first-year student in the Faculty of Science & Engineering, were interviewed about the expected announcement of the Spadina subway extension on Global TV March 23.

Subway seen as long overdue – or creating more sprawl
Commentators were quick to offer opinions March 24 on the Ontario budget’s funding of the subway project. Toronto Star provincial affairs columnist Ian Urquhart wrote that, boiled down to its basics, the provincial budget amounts to this: The government found itself with a $3-billion windfall in unexpectedly high revenues and low interest payments and pondered what to do with it. The government had several options, among which was make a one-time investment in major infrastructure projects, including the extension of the Spadina subway to York University in Toronto. It was the right choice economically. The investment is long overdue, given the growing gridlock problem in the Greater Toronto Area. The Toronto subway system, once the city's pride and joy, has fallen behind Montreal's Metro, which started a decade after the Yonge Street line first opened.

National Post columnist Terence Corcoran noted in a front page column that the biggest fiscal gambit of the budget takes $1.2-billion in windfall revenue this year, money that could have balanced the budget, and "invests" most of it in a "trust fund," the money to be spent at some far-off time to reduce the "transportation deficit." The bulk of the money will be allocated to a major expansion of Toronto's massively mismanaged subway system and to fund a new mega-agency, the Greater Toronto Transportation Authority (GTTA). Around the world, subsidized public transit expansion has been the biggest spur to urban territorial expansion, or sprawl. Build a subsidized transit system, and people will follow it. By adding another extension to Toronto's subway system out to York University and beyond, McGuinty, the Greenbelt activist, would increase the incentive for people to move to the suburbs.

New transit authority could help with buses to York
In a story about the anticipated creation of a Greater Toronto Transportation Authority in the provinicial budget speech, the Toronto Star March 23 reported that if properly conceived, the new body could resolve anomalies in transit routes, including those passing through York’s Keele campus. For example, on any given school day, thousands of York University-bound students line up for TTC buses at Downsview station. The buses are packed, the queues long and some students inevitably get left behind. At the station a few metres away, York Region's Viva buses collect a handful of commuters bound for Vaughan. Viva buses often pull out of Downsview empty, heading for their second stop at York University, where they pick up more Vaughan-bound passengers. Viva can pick up passengers in York Region and drop off in Toronto, or vice versa. But Viva is not allowed to pick up and drop off people within Toronto. So those York University students have to wait for a TTC bus, even though Viva is running a parallel route nearly empty.

It's one of those 416-905 jurisdictional turf-protection battles that put the financial interests of transit authorities ahead of the mobility of commuters, the Star said. Then there's the issue of double fares when buses cross municipal borders. "We have lots of TTC routes that come up and travel through York Region because it just makes sense," said Mary Frances Turner, who runs the Viva rapid bus system for York Region. "But when it crosses the Steeles Avenue boundary, they're paying a double fare...Integrated fares systems and smart cards can't happen fast enough. I welcome that day. If we can get to the moon," said Turner, "we can get a subway across Steeles Avenue."

  • For the first time in decades, Ontario's government appears to be serious about improving public transit in Toronto and its surrounding area, reported the National Post March 23. The extension of the Spadina line into Vaughan signifies a much-needed willingness to look beyond boundaries and start worrying about serving GTA residents as a whole. And more so than the connection to York University, the line should be of considerable assistance to the many low-income residents in its vicinity – ideally helping revitalize their neighbourhoods in the process.
  • Bud Purves, president of York University Development Corporation, and an unidentified student, were interviewed on CBC-TV (Toronto) March 22 about a possible announcement of an extension to the Spadina subway, which was also mentioned on numerous pre-budget news items on various broadcast outlets.