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feature — Comments Off on Selections from the TTC Capital Budget Report 2011
12
Jan 11

Selections from the TTC Capital Budget Report 2011

A few interesting bits from this document, which — unlike its operating cousin — does not have notes made in blue ink, and thus has selectable text. Emphasis has been added. I was going to include page numbers but then I forgot. Apologies.

On Transit City:

The Official Plan was designed to ensure that no resident of the City of Toronto would be disadvantaged from a mobility perspective from not owning a car. That required higher order transit along those arterials. The TTC undertook an analysis of how best to serve that population growth and those arterials and the result was the Transit City Plan. This was a series of surface rail expansions within separated rights-of-way with sufficient capacity to handle the projected ridership demand for the next few decades.

On the Downtown Relief Line (yay!):

There really are limited options for dealing with the increasing ridership demands on the Yonge subway. Making maximum use of this critical asset, while expensive in absolute dollars, is a cost-effective step before considering the construction of a new multi-billion dollar Downtown Relief subway Line (DRL) to handle some of the ridership burden the Yonge line faces.

On the Downtown Relief Line (boo!):

Overall, it is expected that a 30%-40% plus (perhaps as high as 50%) increase in carrying capacity [due to Platform Edge Doors, Automatic Train Operation and the new Toronto Rocket Subway Cars] in the peak hours of operation will ultimately result from this work, pushing out the need for the DRL by many years.

Spending a ton in capital dollars to forestall the need to spend a ton in capital dollars is, I’d argue, kind of dumb.

On PRESTO Smart Card Payments:

($192 million not currently budgeted): This project reflects the costs (above and beyond the CSIF included funds of $140 million) estimateted [sic] a total of $332 million to implement the Provincially backed PRESTO fare collection system at the TTC. Staff is currently assessing the business case for an open payments system as directed by the Commission in May 2010 and pending this decision, funding from senior levels of government may be impacted.

Open Payments are still in the budget – it will be interesting to see if they continue on this track or revert to the PRESTO plan.

On Proof-of-Payment for the new Streetcars:

($87 million): The new LRV cars will require ticket vending equipment on board the vehicle and off-board at select TTC streetcar stops. In addition, infrastructure work is required for concrete pads and power to support the installation of off-board equipment at 150 street level stops.

A well-implemented Proof of Payment system should dramatically improve loading times (and thus reliability) on streetcar routes.

On involvement from other levels of government:

[W]hile the plans are practical and achievable, they are dependent upon funding from all three orders of government – funding that is predictable and long term.

In other words: You need to restore the goddamn subsidies, provincial and federal governments.

link — Comments Off on Couldn’t find the original Word document?
12
Jan 11

Couldn’t find the original Word document?

The above is from the TTC 2011 operating budget, released just now. Apparently instead of just finding the original document, editing the numbers, and exporting to a new PDF, they decided to scratch in their edits with blue pen, scan the document and upload it all as a 4.1 MB PDF.

link — Comments Off on Shocker of the year: No TTC fare increase coming
11
Jan 11

Shocker of the year: No TTC fare increase coming

Via Natalie Alcoba’s twitter feed.

I am so surprised! What an out-of-nowhere shift! It looks like the combined hard work of Mayor Ford and TTC chair Karen Stintz has heroically prevented a fare increase.

Honestly, it’s like something from a fairy tale.

link — Comments Off on Capital Ideas For the TTC
11
Jan 11

Capital Ideas For the TTC

Rob Granatstein for The Sun:

The TTC is facing a huge problem as it seeks $7.6 billion over the next 10 years to maintain and improve the transit system.

City staff have told the TTC to look elsewhere for $2.3 billion of that money. That it can’t afford to keep borrowing for the TTC as the city hits its debt ceiling in 2014-2016.

What won’t happen, TTC Chief General Manager Gary Webster said Monday, is a return to the pre-subway-crash days, where maintenance was deferred and the system was not kept in a state of good repair.

What will happen is anyone’s guess.

via Why Rob Ford can’t save TTC: Granatstein | Rob Granatstein | Columnists | Comment | Toronto Sun.

This is scary stuff, and it goes beyond the reaches of the Ford administration. You would think Metrolinx and the provincial government would be the obvious source for funds necessary funds for a transit system used by the whole of the GTA. A transit system that is, by all accounts, a vital component of the provincial — and national — economy.

Unfortunately, the current provincial government hasn’t been overly forthcoming. The potential provincial government is not going to be any better, and will likely be much much worse.

The only upside is that necessary capital spending will evaporate if service deteriorates and ridership goes down. But to think any kind of government would actually seek to decrease ridership to offset costs is veering into conspiracy theory territory, isn’t it?

…Isn’t it?

feature — Comments Off on Respect for a certain kind of taxpayer
11
Jan 11

Respect for a certain kind of taxpayer

Chris Selley for the National Post, who I gather enjoys being a contrarian above all else, tries to put a positive spin on many of today’s budget-related announcements. Here he explains that the $60 per year cut to the personal vehicle tax is entirely unrelated to the $60 per year increase in transit costs for Metropass users:

Of course there are financial consequences to cutting the Personal Vehicle Tax, but the fare hike is no more a direct result of it than any other budgetary measure: cutting the tenant defence fund or the environment office in London, or closing the Toronto Public Libraries’ urban affairs branch at Metro Hall.

Selley is right, of course. That the vehicle registration tax numbers line up with the Metropass fare hike numbers is coincidental, a weird quirk in the budgetary process. The fare hike — which is still, I caution, unlikely to really happen — is instead a direct result of a 17 million dollar cut to the TTC’s annual operating subsidy. Which is a direct result of the need to constrain costs even further than would be necessary if not for the mayor’s pledge to freeze property taxes and, yes, cut the vehicle registration tax.

Everything is connected. What the fare hike and the VRT cut represent, taken together, is a statement of priorities. This is more important than that. Vehicles over transit. Respect for a certain kind of taxpayer.

Service cuts and fare increases are often necessary, especially in times of fiscal shortfall. What’s so frustrating about today’s budget is that Ford was presented with a fantastic starting point. Surpluses and provincial transfers, plus a modest property tax increase — something the mayor campaigned on — and, sure, some efficiencies, could have easily held the line. That would have given city departments, managers and council a year to discuss the mayor’s goal of budget reductions for 2012.

But that’s not what we got today. Too bad.

link — Comments Off on Hardly Fare
10
Jan 11

Hardly Fare

Tess Kalinowski, Transportation Reporter with The Star:

The increase would bring the TTC about $24 million in revenue at a time when record ridership continues to grow with 483 million rides forecast this year.

Although cash fares would remain unchanged, token prices would increase 10 cents to $2.60 and a regular Metropass would cost $126, $5 more per month.

via TTC fare hike: Riders lose what motorists gained – thestar.com.

That the Metropass increase equals exactly $60 a year is, I think, some kind of demented joke. There’s no way they can be serious about this.

link — Comments Off on Going round and round on bus service
10
Jan 11

Going round and round on bus service

Laurence Lui brings us a spiffy map and this comment:

What is more worrying, however, is that TTC is planning on cutting back service on many routes. While it is true that many of these routes carry ridership below TTC’s financial standards, these services have been provided to achieve a basic service standard: bus routes will run when the subway is running.

via 299 bloor call control — Today, Rob Ford announced that TTC staff have….

The proposed bus route cuts are being spun as adjustments and efficiencies, but dismantling the basic service standard that exists across all routes could have disastrous long-term impacts.

link — Comments Off on The only surprise this morning
10
Jan 11

The only surprise this morning

David Rider, with the Star:

Just before unveiling his full 2011 spending plan today, Mayor Rob Ford announced a 10-cent TTC fare hike — effective Feb. 1 if approved — though he promised to try and avoid it.

He also said he was meeting today with police Chief Bill Blair to seek cuts to the police budget – and would not say if Blair’s job is on the line.

Of the proposed fare hike, Ford said: “I did not want to agree to this. I am not happy about this.”

via Ford hints at TTC fare hike; budget cuts revealed – thestar.com.

A TTC fare hike was not something I anticipated, and it represents a failure on the part of the mayor to consider the consequences before making promises. A modest property tax increase to increase the TTC’s subsidy from the city would be far more preferable to yet another fare increase. (And, for the record, I say this as a property owner.)

That said, there’s some political gamesmanship going on here. The fare hike will be the lead story for the week, allowing other budgetary information to fly under the radar. If they’re able to make changes that reverse the need for a fare hike, Ford could very well end up looking like a hero.

feature — Comments Off on Big Words, Small Plan
06
Jan 11

Big Words, Small Plan

And with Councillor Karen Stintz now ensconced as the new chair of the TTC, she is adroitly managing the issue in a mature manner.

via How to bring Rob Ford’s transit plan into reality – thestar.com.

Gordon Chong, former GO Chair and a member of the Rob Ford transition team, got a thesaurus for Christmas and isn’t afraid to use it. His editorial in today’s Star is a pretty weak defence of a ‘transit plan’ that everyone knows isn’t very well thought out.

Transit-dependent riders from Scarborough are yearning for a convenient, fast, one-seat ride to relieve them of their current, slow, multi-transfer, multi-modal daily ride to and from work. And a subway is the most likely way to attract the discretionary rider out of the car.

Metrolinx says the ridership doesn’t justify an extension of the Sheppard subway, but more than 60 years ago the Yonge subway was started long before there were the requisite ridership levels to technically justify it.

Okay, well, first of all, whenever there’s a transit plan under discussion some loudmouth comes into the conversation saying “That won’t get me out of my car.” Like it matters.

Toronto is lucky enough to have a well-used transit system. We don’t need to sell transit as a great choice for commuters – commuters already use it every day. Our responsibility isn’t to dangle expensive carrots in front of the guy who loves the hell out of his car commute. We want to improve transit for existing users and create avenues for the continued ridership growth we’ve seen since for the last number of years.

Second, Yonge Street had a streetcar on it prior to the subway construction. They ran multi-car trains down the road with great frequency, as these were the days when the TTC knew how to operate surface transit like few else in the world. When capacity became a concern on the street, they moved to build the subway.

The economics of the day were different, but Sheppard is not a young Yonge Street, especially east of Don Mills.

The rest of Chong’s article is a standard mish-mash of talking points.

  • Ford has a mandate! He also promised to paint all the curbs in the city different colours so drivers would know where they were allowed to park – does he have a mandate to do that?
  • Planning for the future! The less-referenced side to this subways debate is the huge amount they add to the operating budget. Is it worth building a Sheppard Subway to Scarborough that might attract subway-level ridership in 75 years if it means, in the near-term, fares go up or bus routes are cut to covering an increasing operating shortfall?
  • The Private Sector Will Build And Operate Eglinton! For whatever reason, the private sector tends to shy away from necessarily money-losing operations like public transit. But keep reaching for those stars.
  • Money grows on trees! I thought this administration was supposed to be conservative.

The most telling sentence in this whole thing? This line:

Mayor Rob Ford does indeed have a significant mandate to move ahead on his promise to take as much public transit off the roads as possible

I ask: is the priority building effective transit or just getting it out of the way of your car?

link — Comments Off on More on Transit
06
Jan 11

More on Transit

It’s a transit-heavy news day.

Steve Munro has a good overview of the sorry state of transit in the GTA with his article A Grand Plan: 2011 Edition. It’s very critical that transit planning in the GTA become about long-term planning and not short-term politics. Easier said than done.

Munro is also quoted in this Marcus Gee column, which should be titled “Shut The Hell Up About St. Clair Already.”

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