Mayor John Tory’s SmartTrack plan loses another two stations
By Ben SpurrTransportation Reporter
Wed., Jan. 20, 2021
Mayor John Tory’s signature transit plan shrunk again on Wednesday, when a new city report revealed two stations have to be dropped from his SmartTrack program because they conflict with provincial subway projects.
The development means the latest iteration of the mayor’s plan will proceed with just five new stops on existing GO corridors, one of which will have no direct connection to the others. According to the report, the stops will be operational by 2026.
That’s a far cry from Tory’s original proposal during his successful 2014 mayoral campaign, when he said SmartTrack would be a “surface subway” with 15 new stations that would open this year.
At a news conference at city hall, Tory acknowledged the plan had changed but said it would still provide much needed new transit to Toronto, and would be done years before other major projects that won’t be finished until at least a decade from now.
“Yes it’s different, yes it’s happening at a different time, but it’s happening and I’m going to make sure it does happen,” he said.
The two SmartTrack stations being deleted are Lawrence-Kennedy and Gerrard-Carlaw. According to the report, which will be debated at Tory’s executive committee on Jan. 27, the stops have been made redundant by the province’s plans to build new stations near the same locations for the three-stop Scarborough subway extension and the Ontario Line, respectively.
Despite the two stations being removed, the city’s capital costs for SmartTrack would remain unchanged at $1.46 billion. That’s in part because a planned new GO station at Lansdowne-Bloor would be added to the program and its construction paid for by the city. The province had previously planned to pay for the Lansdowne stop.
The Lansdowne station would be located on the Barrie GO corridor and wouldn’t have a direct link to the other five SmartTrack stops, which would be on GO’s Kitchener and Lakeshore East/Stouffville corridors. That means that unlike previous versions of the plan, it would be impossible for one train to service all SmartTrack stops in a single trip.
SmartTrack is being built under a wider expansion of GO Transit being led by Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency. SmartTrack stations would be served by GO trains, which would also stop at existing and new GO stations within Toronto that haven’t been given the “SmartTrack” label. While SmartTrack stations would be paid for by the city, they would be owned and operated by the province.
As the plan has been whittled down from the version that helped Tory clinch the mayoralty seven years ago, critics say SmartTrack has been revealed to be little more than a political marketing exercise that will allow the mayor to say he kept his promise, but has put the city on the hook for funding provincial GO stations that have been renamed as “SmartTrack” stops.
SmartTrack is “now a brand without a product,” charged Councillor Gord Perks (Ward 4, Parkdale-High Park). He said the new stations would be more useful to GO riders coming from outside Toronto than to local transit users, and the budget for SmartTrack would be better spent improving the city-owned TTC.
“I don’t understand why we’re calling parts of the provincial transit system ‘SmartTrack.’ But it sure isn’t what John Tory promised, and it sure isn’t what the city of Toronto needs,” Perks said.
In addition to Lansdowne, the other stations being pursued under the latest version of SmartTrack are Finch-Kennedy, King-Liberty, St. Clair-Old Weston, and East Harbour.
By Ben SpurrTransportation Reporter
Wed., Jan. 20, 2021
Mayor John Tory’s signature transit plan shrunk again on Wednesday, when a new city report revealed two stations have to be dropped from his SmartTrack program because they conflict with provincial subway projects.
The development means the latest iteration of the mayor’s plan will proceed with just five new stops on existing GO corridors, one of which will have no direct connection to the others. According to the report, the stops will be operational by 2026.
That’s a far cry from Tory’s original proposal during his successful 2014 mayoral campaign, when he said SmartTrack would be a “surface subway” with 15 new stations that would open this year.
At a news conference at city hall, Tory acknowledged the plan had changed but said it would still provide much needed new transit to Toronto, and would be done years before other major projects that won’t be finished until at least a decade from now.
“Yes it’s different, yes it’s happening at a different time, but it’s happening and I’m going to make sure it does happen,” he said.
The two SmartTrack stations being deleted are Lawrence-Kennedy and Gerrard-Carlaw. According to the report, which will be debated at Tory’s executive committee on Jan. 27, the stops have been made redundant by the province’s plans to build new stations near the same locations for the three-stop Scarborough subway extension and the Ontario Line, respectively.
Despite the two stations being removed, the city’s capital costs for SmartTrack would remain unchanged at $1.46 billion. That’s in part because a planned new GO station at Lansdowne-Bloor would be added to the program and its construction paid for by the city. The province had previously planned to pay for the Lansdowne stop.
The Lansdowne station would be located on the Barrie GO corridor and wouldn’t have a direct link to the other five SmartTrack stops, which would be on GO’s Kitchener and Lakeshore East/Stouffville corridors. That means that unlike previous versions of the plan, it would be impossible for one train to service all SmartTrack stops in a single trip.
SmartTrack is being built under a wider expansion of GO Transit being led by Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency. SmartTrack stations would be served by GO trains, which would also stop at existing and new GO stations within Toronto that haven’t been given the “SmartTrack” label. While SmartTrack stations would be paid for by the city, they would be owned and operated by the province.
As the plan has been whittled down from the version that helped Tory clinch the mayoralty seven years ago, critics say SmartTrack has been revealed to be little more than a political marketing exercise that will allow the mayor to say he kept his promise, but has put the city on the hook for funding provincial GO stations that have been renamed as “SmartTrack” stops.
SmartTrack is “now a brand without a product,” charged Councillor Gord Perks (Ward 4, Parkdale-High Park). He said the new stations would be more useful to GO riders coming from outside Toronto than to local transit users, and the budget for SmartTrack would be better spent improving the city-owned TTC.
“I don’t understand why we’re calling parts of the provincial transit system ‘SmartTrack.’ But it sure isn’t what John Tory promised, and it sure isn’t what the city of Toronto needs,” Perks said.
In addition to Lansdowne, the other stations being pursued under the latest version of SmartTrack are Finch-Kennedy, King-Liberty, St. Clair-Old Weston, and East Harbour.
