Why hasn’t Metrolinx conducted a benefit case analysis for the most expensive transit project in the country?

Here’s a bit of underreported news, courtesy of the folks over at Spacing: while Metrolinx usually conducts benefit case analyses on major projects, there’s been no such scrutiny of the Eglinton LRT, which is, um, a pretty major project (as in $8.2 billion major). John Lorinc writes that this means no comparison between the originally planned LRT and Ford’s wonky alternative has been completed; no study of what happens if ridership climbs faster than expected is underway; and no test of the mayor’s claim that a right-of-way on St. Clair Avenue saddled the area with crippling gridlock was conducted. Also, it turns out taxpayers from outside the 416 are actually the ones paying most of the fees to bury the LRT and keep the mayor happy—which is just the kind of disrespect for taxpayer dollars that we would expect to make Ford furious. But, hey, the mayor is building subways because, well, that’s what he says he was elected to do. Read the entire story [Spacing] »