Doug Ford to launch public plan to save subways: reports
Posted February 14, 2012 7:54 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Coun. Doug Ford will launch a public campaign to ‘save’ subways in Toronto, according to multiple news reports.
Ford hopes the Save our Subways campaign, or S.O.S., will persuade Premier Dalton McGuinty to go against the will of council and instead support subway construction, and the mayor.
Ford’s brother, Mayor Rob Ford, campaigned on promise to build more subways in Toronto. One of his first acts in office was to kill Transit City, a light rail transit (LRT) plan that had been approved by both city council and the province of Ontario.
Mayor Ford and McGuinty then signed a $8.4 billion deal to bury the Eglinton Crosstown line.
In a special meeting last week, city council voted 25-18 in favour of light rail tranit (LRT) lines on Eglinton and Finch, effectively resurrecting Transit City and cancelling the deal between Ford and McGuinty.
It was a stunning upset for the mayor, who later called the Feb. 8 vote “irrelevant.”
The motion to save the LRT plan was introduced by former Ford ally and TTC chair Karen Stintz. During the same meeting, Stintz’s motion to further study possible extensions to the Sheppard subway line was also approved, by a margin of 28-15.
Coun. Adam Vaughan said Ford’s plan for Sheppard subway extension is $1 billion short in financing and, according to a report by consultant KPMG, it would significantly drive up both residential and commercial development costs.
There is already a group called Save our Subways that was created to promote subways in Toronto. It has no affiliation with Ford’s plan.
