Pantalone: only candidate with practical transit plan

The Toronto Star:

Many issues remain to be addressed in Toronto’s mayoral race but at least one has received a thorough airing — the future of public transit in Canada’s largest city. All five leading candidates have presented their visions. Each has pledged faster and better service for the more than 470 million riders now using the TTC each year. Some plans are bold, even to the point of rashness. Only one is realistic.

Joe Pantalone is promising to carry on with Mayor David Miller’s “Transit City” expansion plan, including light-rail lines on Eglinton, Sheppard and Finch Aves. and replacement of the Scarborough LRT. Funding for these lines has already been pledged by the province. Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency, is solidly behind the plan.

Pantalone’s endorsement of the status quo may lack the drama of his rival candidates’ visions of new subway routes criss-crossing the city. But it has the advantage of being practical.

Meanwhile, front-runner Rob Ford promises to “stop the Transit City disaster” and use its $3 billion in provincial funding (plus almost $800 million more dedicated to transit in York Region) to build subways, which cost five times as much as light-rail lines. He would also rip up downtown streetcar lines and replace them with buses. This makes no sense.

But other candidates’ proposals are also flawed. George Smitherman has an elaborate transit plan calling for more subways, expansion of some light-rail routes and deletion of others. But it would require at least another $5 billion in funding, and it isn’t clear where that money would be found.

Funding is also questionable for transit plans advanced by Rocco Rossi and Sarah Thomson. Each puts heavy focus on new subway construction. Rossi would cover the cost by selling Toronto Hydro and other municipal assets, but it is far from certain that the proceeds would even come close to providing what is needed. Thomson would slap a rush hour toll on the city’s major expressways. She deserves credit for taking a brave position on tolls, but her proposal would likely generate only a fraction of the funding needed for her plan.

Transit City is already on the move. And the province is unlikely to approve any diversion of the almost $3 billion it has allocated to this long-planned project. It is by no means perfect. But trying to switch tracks now, from a light rail system to one heavy on subways, risks disrupting and delaying a worthwhile expansion that’s desperately needed by Toronto commuters.