It's a Remarkk-able life

If councillors are honest with constituents about the choice they face in the next phase of Toronto's transit debate (meeting on March 21st), they will need to make clear what specific options are available to them.

This route map from the old Sheppard East LRT plans (shelved under Mayor Rob Ford) is overlayed with the respective councillors from each ward along its route.

1. LRT tunneled to meet the Sheppard stubway at Don Mills, surfacing at Consumers Road and continuing all the way to Morningside with connections to the GO at Agincourt and the Scarborough RT
2. A small Sheppard Subway extension which would probably end at Victoria Park with the funding available now
3. Sourcing additional revenue (taxes, fees, tolls) to build out the Subway beyond Victoria Park

The Ford brothers have bumbled along on the revenue question, first opening up some ideas after the Gordon Chong report, then closing them just as quickly with a pledge to never raise a tax ever. Casinos and lotteries were put out as fundraising options, but nothing serious has emerged from their desperate scrambling.

Norm Kelly, Chin Lee and Raymond Cho will have the most to answer for depending on how they vote. The lie being told is that for all the Fords' talk about people in Scarborough wanting subways, they are heading towards option #2 above, which will only barely reach the Scarborough border! Sheppard East councillors will have nothing to show their constituents for the foreseeable future if they go along with this plan.

The Fords will never support serious revenue tools, and if council were to adopt those tools they will want them to support transit expansion throughout the city, not just along one corridor.

For readers who live in these wards along Sheppard East, which of these options do you prefer? The city needs to hear from you!

Look how horrible life will be with those "trolleys" going down Eglinton East Sheppard East. These images are excerpted from a presentation at the recent Josh Matlow/Karen Stintz transit townhall held February 28th, 2012. Read Matlow's full post and/or download the full presentation in PDF format here.

So this is the big political fight in Toronto right now - whether people in Scarborough driving down Eglinton East Sheppard East can deal with the sight of this hideous rickety "trolley" going down the centre of the street, totally separated from car traffic. The same number of lanes are left for cars. Bike lanes are added, and the public realm is improved for pedestrians.

And to avoid this unsightly future, the price to be paid is forgoing an additional 25km of rapid transit across a City in desperate need of higher order transit. Check out this table:

Share this post and let every person in Toronto look at the facts and do the paper napkin cost/benefit analysis and see what the result is.

Facts will win in the end. Know hope.

UPDATE: While the above images were taken from a presentation about the Eglinton Crosstown, it was pointed by @EtTuSheds that the original photo is actually from Sheppard, so I've made the changes above. Check out the neighbourhood on Google Streetview and imagine a widened avenue with dedicated LRT lanes for yourself.