Shelley Carroll

Dear Residents,

yesterday, Council made a responsible choice about the next phase of transit development in our City.

For a long time now, politics in this City has been divisive. Perhaps no issue has been framed to drive us apart better than the transit debate; car driver vs. transit user; subway vs. LRT; suburbs vs. downtown; right vs. left; the list goes on. Who benefits when we are pitted against each other? Who benefits when we come together?

Yesterday, a majority of Councillors, from North York, Etobicoke, Scarborough, and Downtown, from across the political spectrum, who drive, take transit and bike to work came together to ensure that 14 million new riders will be able to get onto rapid transit in this City. Scarborough Councillors supporting 67% of the population of that legacy city strongly supported Council’s choice. We ensured that people who live in 5 of this City’s Priority Neighbourhoods will be connected to higher education and employment in this City. Again, who benefits when we come together?

Ward 33ers and residents further east in Scarborough are getting 13 km of rapid transit and $1 billion of investment in their neighbourhoods. It will enhance accessibility for people who have mobility challenges, support employment, mitigate automobile congestion and improve air quality. Throughout the month of March I have been riding the existing transit in our neighbourhood to talk to Don Valley East and Scarborough riders and explain the option adopted today. In the coming weeks, I will be in the community and holding meetings to continue to familiarize you with this exciting transit mode.

Today’s vote allows us to build rapid transit now that will be underground where it needs to be and above ground where it can be while maintaining two lanes of traffic in each direction. It also allows the City Manager to look for new revenue opportunities to fund future transit development.

Good transit does not a single subway make! Rather, good transit is a broad network of transit services that meet our transportation needs while attracting more ridership to the system. By Council deciding to invest in rapid transit development along Eglinton, Finch and Sheppard, we are building that transit grid. It is the suburban grid that will deliver us all a stronger City with broader prosperity so that we all share in a better future.

Sincerely,

Shelley

For the next few days, I will be writing about various city wide initiatives by way of an ‘end of Term Report’. After September 6^th, updates must go on hiatus until October 26^th. 

Transit City

Transit City is the most comprehensive undertaking ever to create new high-performance routes that will connect the suburbs with fast light rail transit (LRTs). The new lines proposed for Eglinton, Sheppard and Finch will connect Scarborough to Etobicoke without having to route through downtown. For the 50% of residents who rely on public transit, this upgrade will significantly reduce travel times.

The new LRTs will be fully accessible so that families with strollers and Torontonians with wheelchairs and walkers will have complete access. The new cars will be longer and carry more people reducing the rush hour crush of buses and cars.

The Sheppard East line is now under construction with funding from all three orders of government. Transit riders will change from the Sheppard subway to an LRT car all on one level and remain underground until Consumers Rd. avoiding the most dense rush hour traffic around the 404 interchange and Fairview Mall. As the construction moves into our area, this Blog will provide email updates on the traffic impacts of construction.

And so, the massive program of Transit construction begins. In an amazingly short amount of time, basically three years, the Toronto Transit system introduced a plan that would connect the downtown to the inner suburbs and on to the outer suburbs. Within that same amount of time the Province set up a regional Transit decision making body and funding for the system has now been secured, starting with an infusion of $9 billion.

Such grand scale thinking has historically taken far longer. When municipalities and other orders of government must intersect such planning has been known to take twenty years. But on April1st, the Premier announced that Metrolinx would oversee the construction of major components of the Transit City Light Rail Transit Network and now the hard work can begin.

As work begins on this new system, residents must keep their eye on the prize, namely connection to long disadvantaged communities and enhanced value of all surrounding areas. There will be long years of construction. The Eglinton Crosstown Line for instance stretches from Etobicoke to Scarborough crossing every legacy city in the new Toronto, including tunnelling from Keele to Leslie. The prize is revitalization of communities that badly need it and economic competitiveness for Toronto as a whole.

As Metrolinx takes the lead on the project, our role as local Toronto residents will be to speak up for properly designed systems, suitable traffic management and street enhancements for resident pedestrians. In short, the value of our properties must be enhanced, not detracted from by these transit improvements. Civic engagement in the final stages of the planning process must be upheld. Toronto City Council, while it has been removed from the newest configuration of the Metrolinx Board, will need to actively engage its local residents to ensure a truly great system and not one that is merely efficient.