Expansions to Toronto transit will likely focus on light rail, not more subways, officials say

[marmar]

from CBC News:




More Toronto subways unlikely: transit chiefs
LRT offers more bang for buck, says TTC manager




Top transit officials are throwing cold water on promises made by some of Toronto's leading mayoral candidates to rework the city's transit system by adding to the subway network.

Some mayoral candidates have criticized the city's long term transit plan, dubbed Transit City, in which Toronto would be criss-crossed with a number light rail transit lines. Transit City does not include plans for the construction of any new subway lines, which are generally far more expensive to build.

Four of the candidates — Rob Ford, Rocco Rossi, George Smitherman and Sarah Thomson — have pledged to either build new subway lines or extend and amend existing ones.

Only deputy mayor Joe Pantalone, a staunch ally of outgoing mayor David Miller, has said he wants to stick to completing the existing transit city plan.

The head of Metrolinx, the provincial agency responsible for transit in the GTA, says it's too early to give any of the proposals to enhance the city's subway network serious consideration. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/09/16/transit-city-subway-toronto456.html#ixzz0zz3h1a1a

[JackRiddler]

1. If only they'd thought of that for the Second Avenue subway in New York...

it might have been finished in 40 years, instead of 80!

Light rail is a political third rail. Cheapest, simplest solution, but not if it takes space away from the individual cars that are, as the space aliens observed, the actual species for which these cities are apparently meant (and which the little meat puppets serve).