Mayor Miller notably absent as Metrolinx announces its purchase of 182 LRT vehicles

If David Miller is the increasingly disinclined father of Transit City, he essentially missed his child’s first steps earlier this week when he didn’t bother showing up at Monday’s announcement at Kennedy station that Metrolinx has ordered 182 light rail vehicles from Bombardier. The cost: $770 million. The delivery: between 2013 and 2020.

A spokesperson for the mayor told the Star that Miller was not given enough notice of the announcement, but we can’t help but notice that he hasn’t shown much enthusiasm for his newly revised brainchild ever since the province delayed $4 billion in funding. We can’t blame him, really, as nobody wants to see their offspring wallowing in mediocrity.

The good news is that with the purchase, the whole Transit City plan might actually happen. “If we weren’t planning to build all four projects, we sure wouldn’t be ordering 182 cars,” Metrolinx CEO Rob Prichard said Monday.

All of this has us wondering whether the money could have been more easily blown on something G20 related—perhaps a fully interactive recreation of Muskoka, complete with cottages, canoeing and moose hunting. It could also provide a handy distraction for commuters who will be waiting anywhere from three to 10 years for their new vehicles.

• Metrolinx spends $770-million to order 182 LRT vehicles from Bombardier [Globe and Mail]
• Metrolinx buys 182 streetcars for Transit City [Toronto Star]