TTC approves city-spanning Eglinton transit line

InsideToronto.com

$4.6-billion line would tentatively open 2016

The city-spanning Eglinton rail line is heading to Toronto Council at the end of the month, after commissioners on the Toronto Transit Commission voted to send the proposed environmental assessment for the massive transit project forward.

Once it’s in place in 2016, the $4.6-billion line will be carrying light rail vehicles along 30 kilometers between Pearson Airport and Kennedy Station. The middle third of it will travel underground like a subway – and the 43 proposed stops will be spaced between 400 and 500 metres apart.

While commissioners sent the project forward to council, the scope of the plan and some of the solutions it’s taken to deal with traffic issues made some nervous.

In particular, the project will drastically reduce the number of left turns that cars and trucks can make along Eglinton.

Subway line back in action as Toronto weathers transit chaos

Julianna Cummins and Matthew Coutts

Click to enlarge

TORONTO – Full service resumed Wednesday night on Toronto’s main subway line, following an afternoon of rush-hour traffic akin to chaos Wednesday that forced over a quarter-million people to wonder how they were going to get home.

The key stretch of the Yonge subway line was shut down after a construction mishap at a roadway bridge over the north-south route. A “third-party contractor” apparently dislodged a piece of concrete as he cut a trench to lay a cable, and transit operators feared it would plummet to the tracks.

Private partner may design, build and finance new TTC projects

By Allison Hanes, National Post

Metrolinx and the Toronto Transit Commission are in talks to bring in private partners to design, build and most notably finance the new Finch Avenue light rail line, the overhaul of the Scarborough rapid transit line and possibly the 33-kilometre partially buried Eglinton Crosstown line.

While the TTC often contracts out design and construction work, it would be the first time a major infrastructure project in the city is bankrolled by the private sector and paid for with public dollars on delivery, said John Howe, the vice-president of investment strategies for Metrolinx.

Cash-strapped TTC jacks fares

Toronto Sun

By JONATHAN JENKINS, QUEEN’S PARK BUREAU

The TTC is done with nickel-and-diming riders — it’s going for quarters now.

“No one wants to raise fares for transit, but we’ve heard very clearly from other levels of government that they’re constrained, that there’s likely not to be large increases to the commission’s budget,” TTC chairman Adam Giambrone said, moments after the commission approved a 25 cents fare hike, effective in January.

“Obviously there are going to be a lot of people who are going to have trouble coming up with transit fare,” Giambrone said. “No one wants to raise fares at all and we know that for many people in the city it’s very difficult.”

The fare hike will raise the cost of an adult fare to $3 from $2.75, with the price of tokens rising to $2.50 from $2.25.

Ottawans have transit on the brain: survey

Ottawa Business Journal

Seventy-five per cent of those in Ottawa say transportation issues such as traffic and public transportation are the biggest facing the city, according to a new Angus Reid survey released Tuesday.

That was the highest percentage among large cities within the survey, commissioned by IBM, that polled more than 2,000 Canadians across the country on important issues facing cities such as public services, livability, economic development and education.

– TTC proposes fare hike

ED. TTC is so successful it has consistently enjoyed over 70% usage rates among the population – as compared to Vancouver’s 13%. The reason: better management and a provincial government not predisposed to catering to the auto industry.

Globe and Mail – Toronto

Jennifer Lewington, Toronto City Hall bureau chief

TTC considers a $126 monthly pass, $3 one-time fare

Toronto transit riders will have to dig a little deeper as of Jan. 3, under a proposed fare hike that includes an extra 25 cents for a token.

The proposal, unveiled yesterday, is the first across-the-board increase since the early 1990s and comes as the Toronto Transit Commission strains to close a yawning shortfall of $100-million in its operating budget next year.

If adopted Nov. 17 by the TTC, which needs six weeks lead time to raise fares, the increase will generate $62-million in new revenue to offset rising labour and fuel costs.

– A ‘world-class’ transit system in Toronto?

Toronto Star

Royson James

The TTC plans to spend up to $30 billion through the next decade, fixing up, remaking and expanding the largest transit system in Canada.

The city cannot afford it. A staff report in September shows the TTC starts running out of approved funds in 2011. By 2012, the basic maintenance budget will be short $312 million. Over the 10 years, the total base shortfall is $1.3 billion. And when you add unfunded projects, the shortfall hits a whopping $13 billion.