“It’s a necessary evil”: Scarborough commuters on the real cost of the subway extension

11 thoughts on ““It’s a necessary evil”: Scarborough commuters on the real cost of the subway extension”

1. It goes to show from these 8 people just how clueless people are about the complexities of a metropolis, how for them a few million and a few billion is exactly the same thing, and still that they recognize that it is necessary for a growing metropolis. Federal and provincial government: time to step up.

2. 1. Subways are not a compensation or a reward. They are transit infrastructure, and they need to be intelligently planned, and realistically designed. Deciding to build a subway as “compensation” is called pandering. 2. Scarborough is giving up a network of transit, that would reach more neighbourhoods, and connect more people to the system so they don’t have to change trains? What? C’mon. The people in Malvern need transit now. They have been left out in the cold, along with the college students, so that more vocal, more spoiled citizens can feel like they are getting what they want. 3. Spending billions of dollars on a stubby little subway means that we will not have the money for anything else. Enjoy your three stops people, because that is all you are getting, if that even gets built.

3. This survey should have taken place days after the municipal election after Scarborough overwhelmingly supported Doug Ford. I know the rest of the city was asking, “what were the people of Scarborough thinking”. Anyone who thinks that building a subway station, let alone multiple stations and track, would cost less than the price of the average home in the city shouldn’t be allowed to vote.

   The others weren’t much better, they should publish what that guy does at the bank. If it’s anything other than making sure the pens are sill properly chained down then he should be fired.

4. Come on, Toronto Life Editors. You could have made this survey somewhat useful if you had asked “Would you rather have 3 subway stops, or a comprehensive light rail network with 30 stops that would cover Scarborough?” – because that’s what $3.5B would buy in surface rail, and I would hope that most people would realize what’s better for them.

   Even better, you could have asked them if they would be happy to subsidize their own transit, rather than spreading the cost out across the rest of the city. “Would you rather increase your property taxes by 20% to fund three subway stops, or an LRT network?”

5. This is depressing.

6. Can I just say that as a Canadian living in London England you guys are missing out so much on what decent public transport is. Where do you start?

7. And this is why politicians must leave transit planning to the planners and not make decisions based on voter opinion. People have no clue about transit other than subways and buses. I wonder what their response would be if they were told the LRT the subway replaced would be built sooner, and they wouldn’t have to pay for it, and the money spent on the subway could’ve gone towards better bus service in Scarborough?

8. There’s a lot of misconception about how LRT service would improve Scarbough. The lines proposed were Sheppard East LRT connect to Sheppard Subway to connect to overcrowded Yong Line; Malvern/Morningside RT connecting to Kennedy Station replacing 116 Morningside bus, replace current SRT line with new tech LRT and ride a shuttle bus for 5 years while it’s under construciton. The question is really, would you like to spend billions of dollars to ride an LRT to the existing subway lines or have the subway line extended and a shorter bus ride.

   Most people using transit are going to school and work. None of the proposed lines service UofT Scarborough, Centennial College (revised out of the plan in later versions), any of the hospitals, or remove the awkward transfer at Don MIlls station to connect to employment centre at Consumers Road. Transit City was a politicians’ plan to replace bus service to the subway not improve transit within Scarborough.

9. I think this survey was useful in explaining that people, voters overall, don’t have a realistic idea of the issues. Many politicians, not just Rob Ford, have spread lies or used misleading statements, but the bigger problem is a distracted electorate/ public.

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11. And the 3 stop subway extension is better how, exactly, especially given the far far greater cost & narrower service range? It’s fine to say that the LRT wasn’t perfect but I have yet to hear how this “stubway”, that we’ve been told is what Scarborough “deserves” (whatever that means) is better? I mean, it’s WAY more expensive (especially since new taxes have to be raised to pay for it, which wasn’t the case with the LRT), it will take longer to build, will cover a far smaller portion of Scarborough than the LRT proposal, and will likely need to be heavily subsidized as the projected ridership will come nowhere close to paying for it, which will further suck dollars from the system.
    I’m no urban planner but I’m struggling to see how this is “better” for Scarborough.

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