I want subways, not streetcars

Yes, of course. Everyone wants subways. Unfortunately, building subways is very expensive—about three times the price of LRT—and it takes a lot longer. The original Sheppard East line would have opened in 2014. Now the delayed vote and attempted cancellation mean that residents of Sheppard and Finch will have to wait even longer.

Above-ground rapid transit is also smart because it costs less to run. The population of most of the Transit City routes isn’t high enough to justify running an expensive subway even though buses aren’t enough. LRT provides a great middle ground.

It’s also important to realize that LRT isn’t the same as a streetcar. Instead of single cars that run in the same space as cars, Transit City’s light rail is made up of short trains that hold about 250 people and run on their own right of way. LRT provides most of the service of a subway at a fraction of the cost.

Learn more about the differences between streetcars and LRT at humantransit.org.

Putting streetcars on major roads would be a disaster

LRT is not the same as streetcars. Unlike the downtown routes where streetcars run in “mixed traffic” along with cars and trucks, the LRT being built with Transit City would have its own dedicated right of way in the centre or on the side of the road. Traffic wouldn’t be affected at all.

In places where there isn’t room for dedicated rights of way, like Eglinton from Black Creek to Laird in the centre of the city, plans were to tunnel the line. Mayor Ford’s plan was to unnecessarily extend that tunneling into Scarborough, wasting money that was originally budgeted to give rapid transit to hundreds of thousands of people.

Most importantly, LRT provides the service of a subway. Because it’s on a dedicated right-of-way, an LRT system bypasses traffic. And because Transit City will be underground some places, like Eglinton in the centre of the city, where there isn’t room for that dedicated right-of-way, other traffic wouldn’t have been impacted.

LRT would take space from cars

This simply isn’t true; see the above two points for more information on why. Transit City lines were always designed to go in the space on either side of (or in the centre of) suburban roads, leaving car traffic untouched. Check out this comparison of a typical suburban street, like Finch Avenue West. For most of the roadway, car space is preserved entirely, plus no more buses!

Every LRT vehicle holds about 250 people. Imagine how much worse gridlock would be if each of those people was driving another car!

Here is a photo at the intersection of Eglinton and Victoria Park – called by its councillor “the gateway to Scarborough.” At this point, Eglinton is six lanes wide plus two turning lanes and a median. On either side are large grass areas, sidewalks, and parking lots. Plenty of space to modify without impacting car traffic.

Bus Rapid Transit

The one inescapable fact about buses is that buses hold fewer people than vehicles on rails. To have the same level of service on a bus (that holds about 55 people) as LRT (that holds about 250 per vehicle, or over 750 when linked in the planned Eglinton LRT trains) you need 5-10 buses per LRT vehicle, which means 5 drivers. Since the most expensive part of the TTC’s budget is salary for workers, BRT can be significantly more expensive than rail.

Rail won’t be able to deal with winter

Calgary already operates a successful Light Rail Transit network, and Calgary’s winters are much worse than Toronto’s. Same with Edmonton, Minneapolis, and Zurich, Switzerland, along with many others. In fact, hundreds of cities worldwide, including dozens in very cold northern Europe, have had great success with LRT lines as part of their transit networks.

$135 million is a lot of gravy

Transit City’s “Phase 1″ LRT lines on Finch, Sheppard, and Eglinton (including the Scarborough RT replacement) are fully funded. Toronto didn’t have to pay anything extra to build this new rapid transit, as provincial infrastructure funds have been allocated to cover three LRT lines. Mayor Ford’s attempted backroom cancellation deal would have cost Toronto at least $65 million, possibly much more. In addition, the lack of rapid transit would have meant the TTC needing to order new buses to transport new riders, at a cost of $73-$93 million.

Torontonians can’t accept a $135 million in charges for less transit service, especially not from a mayor preaching financial austerity. Tell your Councillor what you want to see in modern rapid transit for Toronto! Email them at TTCriders.ca, or call them directly – phone calls are always more important than one-click emails to busy politicians! Find their office phone number.