Scarborough ……… Or Should We Say Broadway Subway ai???Not A Worthwhile Use Of Moneyai??i??
No real surprise here.
What is very odious is that the Mayor of Toronto wants a subway, purely for political purposes and the taxpayer be damned!
The same is true about the proposed Broadway SkyTrain subway, where the traffic flows just do not warrant a now almost $4 billion subway, yet the Mayor of Vancouver demands a subway!
The results for both cities will be the same with a subway, higher fares, higher taxes to pay higher subway subsidies and the politicians see absolutely nothing wrong with this.
Internal Metrolinx report found Scarborough subway ai???not a worthwhile use of money.
Council to consider push for auditor general to conduct value-for-money comparison of the costs and benefits of transit options in Scarborough.
ByAi??JENNIFER PAGLIAROCity Hall reporterTues., Nov. 7, 2017Is the Scarborough subway a waste of money?
That essential question will again be raised at council this week after audit committee denied a motion from Councillor Josh Matlow last month to have a city watchdog provide the answer.
In 2013, council scrapped a fully-funded, seven-stop light rail transit (LRT) line to replace the aging Scarborough RT and voted instead to build a three-stop subway that at the time would cost at least $2 billion more, there has never been a comprehensive comparison of the costs and benefits between the two options.
But a secret report obtained by the Star through a freedom of information request provides a glimpse of what that kind of analysis might find: That a subway is ai???not a worthwhile use of money.ai???
Ahead of this weekai??i??s council meeting, Mayor John Tory remains firm that the subway project should move forward without a cost-comparison study ai??i?? something that has never been requested or provided by staff.
ai???This is the most voted upon project, I think, thatai??i??s probably ever gone through the city council,ai??? Tory told the Star on Friday. He said if councillors believed requesting that kind of analysis was in the public interest theyai??i??d vote for it.
ai???In the meantime my objective has been what itai??i??s always been: Get on with this project.ai???
After the plan for a subway was revised last year to just a single-stop extension at $3.35 billion, Matlow continued to challenge his colleagues to request such a study.
ai???If you would prefer the one-stop subway and if the information comes back to support that argument, in fact, if you always believed it would, then what do you have to be afraid of?ai??? he asked last month.
TheAi??switchAi??from an LRT to a subway took place over three separate council meetings, culminating in an October 2013 vote.
Behind-the-scenes at that time, emails show senior Metrolinx officials were trying to make sense of the political machinations since the city had already signed a master agreement with the province to build an LRT with provincial money, then estimated at $1.8 billion.
In the midst of that confusion, Metrolinx analysts drafted an internal report assessing whether the subway or the LRT provided the best value for money. The report obtained by the Star, dated September 2013, is clearly marked ai???draft.ai??? It was never published.
The Star received the report in 2015 as part of a broad request to Metrolinx for records dating back to 2013. Years after the 2013 debate and before a new subway proposal was pitched under Toryai??i??s administration, the significance of the Metrolinx analysis was overlooked.
Today, it remains relevant.
