Mayor Rob Ford: “Transit City is over”
Rob Ford’s first few hours as mayor sure have been busy. As the dailies are reporting, Ford met with TTC chief general manager Gary Webster at seven this morning to let him know that Transit City, and its attendant “war on the car,” were kaput. “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,” Ford said, according to the Sun. “And that’s pretty well it.”
Whether or not the mayor will be able to deliver on that promise is still up for debate. First, he has to get the support of council to scrap the light-rail plan. Then there’s the matter of the $1.3 billion already committed in Transit City–related contracts, the $137 million already spent, the construction already underway on the Sheppard LRT and the millions of dollars in cancellation fees for the various contracts already tendered.
As for how he’ll deal with a provincial government that was committed to the previous administration’s plan, Ford told the gaggle of assembled reporters: “I’m trying to set something up as soon as possible.”
• ‘The war on the car is over’: Ford [Toronto Star] • War on car over, Ford declares [Toronto Sun]
