It’s been on the table for a long time and has finally come to fruition: Toronto will receive almost $1B in funding for transit. In major cities around the world, federal transit funding is common place. Toronto has been a major city for a long time and this funding has been necessary for growth, but up until now the federal leaders have been reluctant.
So what does Toronto plan to do with that money?
They are planning to extend the Spadina subway line north to the York University campus and further all the way to Vaughn.
I may not know everything about city planning and politics, but I do know that extending the line all the way to Vaughn is a complete waste. The money should be spent on averting the impending grid-lock caused by the over-development of condos in the downtown core. In a previous post, I wrote about waiting for almost 30 minutes to go approximately one kilometer it takes me to get to and from work — and that’s not the ride itself, but the wait time just to get on a streetcar. Unfortunately, that wasn’t a unique incident and is a common occurance downtown during the peak times. Extending the subway line all the way to Vaughn, if anything, may only increase the stress on the downtown transportation infrastructure.