‘War on the car is over’: Ford moves transit underground - subways are the answer

[alexmst]

Paul Moloney
Urban Affairs Reporter
Toronto Star

The $8 billion Transit City light rail plan championed by the former mayor David Miller — years in the making and with construction underway — is “over”, Mayor Rob Ford declared on his first morning on the job.

Ford made the remarks while being mobbed by reporters Wednesday morning as he emerged from his new office to go downstairs to the cafeteria.

Ford said he met at around 7 a.m. with Toronto Transit Commission chief general manager Gary Webster to emphasize that subways are preferable to the 120-kilometres of streetcar routes laid out by Miller.

“We just had a meeting about subways,” Ford said regarding his chat with Webster.

“I just wanted to make it quite clear that he understood that Transit City’s over and the war on the car is over, and all new subway expansion is going underground. And that’s pretty well it,” Ford said.

“I just told him that everything moving forward is underground. And he accepted that. And I look forward to working with him.”

 

[hinz]

Paul Moloney
Urban Affairs Reporter
Toronto Star

The $8 billion Transit City light rail plan championed by the former mayor David Miller — years in the making and with construction underway — is “over”, Mayor Rob Ford declared on his first morning on the job.

Ford made the remarks while being mobbed by reporters Wednesday morning as he emerged from his new office to go downstairs to the cafeteria.

Ford said he met at around 7 a.m. with Toronto Transit Commission chief general manager Gary Webster to emphasize that subways are preferable to the 120-kilometres of streetcar routes laid out by Miller.

“We just had a meeting about subways,” Ford said regarding his chat with Webster.

“I just wanted to make it quite clear that he understood that Transit City’s over and the war on the car is over, and all new subway expansion is going underground. And that’s pretty well it,” Ford said.

“I just told him that everything moving forward is underground. And he accepted that. And I look forward to working with him.”

Good luck with that. It's the loonie left turn to take the city hostage again and torpedo any thing to do with the word "subway", maybe except the so-called "healthy" sub (high sodium nonsense) from the "subway" franchise.

 

[GameBoy27]

Since the war on the car is "over", I'd like to see some effort put into synchronizing traffic lights. It only makes sense that if you help get traffic moving more efficiently, you help get surface transit moving more efficiently. I've never understood the concept of impeding traffic in an effort to force people out of their cars. It doesn't work that way. Gridlock effects cars, streetcars and busses alike, they all share the same roads.

Get rid of those stupid scramble crossings at Yonge & Dundas at the same time. I've lived in this city all my life and never had a problem crossing that intersection the way it was. Now it causes cars to idle for long periods of time unnecessarily adding to air pollution in the downtown core. Streetcars are also subject to long delays, all for what?

Get the city moving, it helps everyone!

 

[OddSox]

Get rid of those stupid scramble crossings at Yonge & Dundas at the same time.

It could be worse...

 

[Eric Blair]

He will soon be known as "Gridlock Ford" Subways are massively inefficient and expensive as opposed to the Transit City Plan. Dumb as a bag of hammers.

 

[chiller_boy]

Since the war on the car is "over", I'd like to see some effort put into synchronizing traffic lights. It only makes sense that if you help get traffic moving more efficiently, you help get surface transit moving more efficiently. I've never understood the concept of impeding traffic in an effort to force people out of their cars. It doesn't work that way. Gridlock effects cars, streetcars and busses alike, they all share the same roads.

Get rid of those stupid scramble crossings at Yonge & Dundas at the same time. I've lived in this city all my life and never had a problem crossing that intersection the way it was. Now it causes cars to idle for long periods of time unnecessarily adding to air pollution in the downtown core. Streetcars are also subject to long delays, all for what?

Get the city moving, it helps everyone!

I agree 100 per cent. Who asked for these scrambles? I counted about six people making use of the diagnal crossing at Yonge and Dundas whilst about 500 were held up(two streetcars and numerous cars) Makes no sense whatsoever.

 

[landscaper]

He will soon be known as "Gridlock Ford" Subways are massively inefficient and expensive as opposed to the Transit City Plan. Dumb as a bag of hammers.

subways are ineffeicient, by what measure?

 

[5hummer]

If Ford's plan does go through, he'll be kicked out of office by the time they start boring holes and the city will be paying hundreds of millions in penalty fines.

 

[doggee_01]

He will soon be known as "Gridlock Ford" Subways are massively inefficient and expensive as opposed to the Transit City Plan. Dumb as a bag of hammers.

funny they seem to work well in most major cities in europe london,paris,moscow etc etc etc
subways are the best wat to go!!!!

 

[Eric Blair]

funny they seem to work well in most major cities in europe london,paris,moscow etc etc etc
subways are the best wat to go!!!!

They are the most inefficient way to move more people more miles. Think of it this way. Hold the money fixed say $1 billion or $2 billion. Under this fixed price, more people move more miles under the TC plan than the Ford plan. I have seen the sleek multicar, streetcar systems in Orleans and Bordeaux in France. This is the way to go on a cost/benefit basis.

 

[e3boy]

Yes like the St. Clair rail is very efficient!
Now it's 2 car lanes for both directions and 4 lanes of space for the rail.

Talk about a dumb bag of hammers!

 

[james t kirk]

Since the war on the car is "over", I'd like to see some effort put into synchronizing traffic lights. It only makes sense that if you help get traffic moving more efficiently, you help get surface transit moving more efficiently. I've never understood the concept of impeding traffic in an effort to force people out of their cars. It doesn't work that way. Gridlock effects cars, streetcars and busses alike, they all share the same roads.

Get rid of those stupid scramble crossings at Yonge & Dundas at the same time. I've lived in this city all my life and never had a problem crossing that intersection the way it was. Now it causes cars to idle for long periods of time unnecessarily adding to air pollution in the downtown core. Streetcars are also subject to long delays, all for what?

Get the city moving, it helps everyone!

You do realize that it is not possible to synchronize 2 way streets.

 

[james t kirk]

Yes like the St. Clair rail is very efficient!
Now it's 2 car lanes for both directions and 4 lanes of space for the rail.

Talk about a dumb bag of hammers!

I like St. Claire actually. I've driven it may times as I live in the west end and they did a great job.

 

[james t kirk]

Building subways are great, but where Ford is talking about building them is dumb. (He is proposing replacing the Scarborough LRT with subway, and extend the Sheppard line to Scarborough Town Centre.

Dumb.

I could see building an Eglinton subway line, or a Queen Street subway line, but I can't see the need for what the hell Ford is talking about. He doens't know what the fuck he is talking about.

The best solution is probably a combination of LRT and subway.

But Mayor Tommy Boy just has a hate on for Street Cars period cause they get in his way in his big honking SUV.

Here's the hell of it people.

You can't just switch to subways without it taking a decade. They've been planning and designing the LRT (Transit City) for at least 6 or 7 years and NOTHING has been built. They aren't even close to letting any Tenders as far as I am aware.

To design subway lines is going to take 10 years, by which time, so many roadblocks will get thrown in front of the project that NOTHING will get done and it will be worse than ever.

 

[e3boy]

I like St. Claire actually. I've driven it may times as I live in the west end and they did a great job.

really?
what time?
been on it a couple saturday afternoons and took 45 minutes to travel 4 km.
avoid it ever since.
great job?
making cars move less efficiently on the road or avoid it all together, to that effect it's worked.


what i'd like to see is some idea to make people car pool in and out of downtown.
i can't stand the stream of cars in and out of downtown with 1 person per car.

 

[fmahovalich]

The first subway needs to go west along Eglinton to the Airport...

Then we can forget about the 'Blue 22' express planned for the Union to Airport run....NOW THAT WAS STUPID!!!!

Once at the Airport..swing it north and make a stop near some open land...heck even run it up to Woodbine to that new Entertainment complex that is going in.

You could design a 'park and ride' and much of Brampton and northeast Mississauga would have access...


THEN

continue it east along Eglinton.

Once it is built...like in New York..the developers would come....and we would see a huge growth in people, highrises and subway use along Eglinton!!!!

New York has 610 miles of SUbway....

we need it to help concentrate the people better and STOP THIS URBAN SPRAWL!!!!

Of which I might add..is brought about because of POOR transit into the inner city areas!!!

 

[hinz]

funny they seem to work well in most major cities in europe london,paris,moscow etc etc etc
subways are the best wat to go!!!!

It makes "no sense" for Eric since he sounds like a small town leftie.

 

[nottyboi]

Yes like the St. Clair rail is very efficient!
Now it's 2 car lanes for both directions and 4 lanes of space for the rail.

Talk about a dumb bag of hammers!

I don't drive St. Clair very often, but people I know who do, think it is a MESS. I am sure it's great if you are on the street car though.

 

[nottyboi]

What about more elevated rail, many cities, including Chicago (and who doesn't love Chicago) have them and every single one I have seen works FANTASTIC. They also create commerce corridors under the platforms. Much cheaper then subways.

 

[nottyboi]

They are the most inefficient way to move more people more miles. Think of it this way. Hold the money fixed say $1 billion or $2 billion. Under this fixed price, more people move more miles under the TC plan than the Ford plan. I have seen the sleek multicar, streetcar systems in Orleans and Bordeaux in France. This is the way to go on a cost/benefit basis.

Ahh such nice non-freeezing climates... good for them, they won't need to rebuild their rails every 5 years like toronto.