5/15/2023 0 Comments Off the railsThree of the stations outside the downtown core were viewed as likely having little demand, in a Metrolinx study, but staff recommended proceeding with all six stops that would essentially function as GO stations. The number of new “SmartTrack” stations had decreased from 13 to six by early 2016. The heavy-rail spur out to the Mississauga Airport Corporate Centre, which Tory insisted was workable, was scaled down into a west extension of the cursed, long-delayed Eglinton Crosstown LRT. Stops conflicted with the Scarborough subway plan and the Union Station changes were impossible. Tory maintained SmartTrack brought more to the table for Torontonians, including faster service and fare integration, so that you wouldn’t have to pay both GO and TTC fares, and it would reduce crowding on Line 1 of the subway.īut sections of the project failed to survive planning scrutiny. “An independent and parallel service would be unaffordable and unworkable,” he wrote. The SmartTrack line is essentially the same as the GO regional express plan to provide electrified, two-way, all-day service running as often as every 15 minutes, then Metrolinx CEO Bruce McCuaig wrote to city manager Peter Wallace in a letter dated Oct. Rather, it seemed to be doing something the province was already working on. It wasn’t just because of the bold timeline, the risky plan to finance it by borrowing against future development, and the unrealistic station locations. The others involved existing GO stations and changes to Union Station.įrom the start, SmartTrack raised red flags. Of the 22 stations promised by Tory, only 13 were brand new stations. Tory’s simple plan was to use the Stouffville and Kitchener GO lines (which the province was adapting to electrified service) to run electric, multi-car trains faster than every 15 minutes - a “separate and parallel” service to the GO lines. But as the original promise dwindled, so has the prominence of the slogan. SmartTrack is tied to Tory, as the Scarborough subway was to Rob Ford. “This was his personal pledge and personal branding,” said Matti Siemiatycki, a professor of geography and planning at the University of Toronto. With Tory out of office and a new mayor on the horizon, will anyone be willing to fight to keep SmartTrack alive? (The city has already committed nearly $900 million to the project.) In the meantime, the city could be on the hook for millions in penalties per month should it blow past a contractor commitment date of April 5 to start work on Bloor-Lansdowne station and fail to urgently secure $234 million from the province to cover the new costs. Toronto’s city council is now facing some tough choices due to massive cost overruns that could lead to cutting a station, or even re-evaluating the whole thing in light of a much-changed transit landscape. Nearly a decade after it was first promised, not one new station has been built (the earliest one could be completed is August 2027, and all the stations have now been delayed from their 2026 opening dates). Only five stations remain of Tory’s grand plan, sliced and diced over the years with one key section deemed impossible to build, another subsumed by the Scarborough subway saga, and others made redundant due to the province’s transit plans, already in motion. In 2023, you wouldn’t even know SmartTrack is still happening. It would cost $8 billion to build, be ready in just seven years - and, as it turned out, was enough to help win an election. A 53-kilometre above-ground “London-style” rail line from Mississauga to Markham with 22 stations and frequent two-way service. It’s 2014 and would-be mayor John Tory is planting lawn signs across Toronto emblazoned with his signature transit plan: SmartTrack.
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