John Tory re-announces a transit line that was supposed to have been built by now

At a joint press conference this morning with Ontario transportation minister Steven Del Duca, competent person and Toronto mayor John Tory made what was billed as a major transit announcement: Finch Street West will be getting its own light-rail line in 2021, with construction to begin in 2016. “Today we are here to talk about moving forward, finally,” Tory told reporters. “What this transit line will do is provide an additional 11 kilometres of badly needed transit.” It’s a bit of progress, but it’s also déjà vu for anyone with a long memory for Toronto’s many thwarted transit schemes. The Finch LRT was originally endorsed by the TTC in 2007, and was scheduled for completion in 2015, before an onslaught of political problems (including the rise of Rob Ford) caused the project to be shelved indefinitely.