A Toronto Transit Commission report prepared Oct. 10, scheduled to be released Wednesday during a TTC meeting, says the TTC’s Toronto-York Spadina subway extension will be completed about one year behind schedule, moving the opening date back to roughly autumn, 2016.
Toronto Transit Commission officials and others Wednesday announced that TTC, not a private company, will operate the four new light rail transit additions planned for Canada’s largest city, though a private-sector company will maintain the infrastructure once it is in place.
The Toronto Transit Commission Wednesday said it is comfortable with letting Metrolinx take the lead in building additional light rail transit in Canada’s largest city, including the Eglinton Crosstown LRT.
A second day of debate by the Toronto City Council Thursday resulted in the council’s affirming more light rail transit (LRT) for Canada’s largest city, rejecting Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s preference for subways-only construction.
The Toronto City Council Wednesday, in defiance of Mayor Rob Ford, readied a vote to advance light rail transit above ground along Sheppard Ave. and not a subway option.
In a remarkable and continuing visible display of modal political strife, Toronto’s City Council Monday removed five allies of Mayor Rob Ford from the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), replacing them with new members likely to vote to reinstate a rail capital program largely driven by light rail transit.
By accident or, more likely, by design, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has undercut Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, and affirmed his support for the City Council, by saying the province will heed the council’s wish to reinstate light rail transit as the major mode for rail expansion.
In a dramatic move, the Toronto City Council on Wednesday voted 26-17 in favor of maintaining (or reinstating) an earlier plan for extensive surface rail transit expansion in Canada’s largest city, going against the design of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who favors more subway construction and has declared an end to a supposed “war on cars.” Adding to the drama, Mayor Ford has dismissed the Council’s vote as an irritant not worth consideration.
As Daffy Duck might plead: Who’s in charge here?
Metrolinx and the Toronto Transit Commission are reaching out to the private sector for possible design-build-finance approaches to advance three rail projects. TTC would operate and maintain the new lines, eschewing half of the “DBOM” (design-build-operate-maintain) approach, but the agency duo still seeks to employ a private-public partnership to expedite construction.
