Bold transit vision based on $5 road tolls

Would you pay $5 per auto trip on the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner Expressway to deliver a spectacular subway network in Toronto?

Before you rain down curses on your morning paper, spilling into your brew, think of a subway line along Eglinton Ave. from Kingston Rd. to the airport. Add a downtown relief line linking Pape Ave, to Dundas St. W., via Queen St. And while you’re at it, finish the Sheppard subway line out to Scarborough Town Centre and link it to the Bloor-Danforth line, via the current route occupied by the Scarborough RT. And expand the Yonge and University lines up to Steeles.

It takes your breath away — and only for a minor fee.

On a glorious March morning, mayoral candidate Sarah Thomson unveiled this bold vision of transit nirvana for the price of a $5 road toll — a tease whose allure is surpassed only by its trenchant impossibility.

In all, 58 kilometres of subways at a cost of $14 billion, Thomson estimates. It will cost a lot more, no doubt. But unlike many other transit proposals, this one has a funding line attached to it — one that does not run directly up to Queen’s Park.

That alone makes it worthy of serious consideration, a coup for a tiny campaign that seemed doomed to irrelevancy.

The transit proposal is courageous and maybe politically suicidal all at once — an idea anathema to the political right that spawned Thomson. But it puts the issue squarely on the agenda for the mayoral campaign heading into the October election to replace Mayor David Miller.

History suggests it is doomed to the trash bin. Tolls are a lightning rod for public anger. Drivers universally oppose them, though road pricing produces enormous cash amounts that can fund transit. More transit means fewer cars on the road, relieving traffic, leaving more room on the road for drivers who must use their cars.

The only thing better for a subway lover would have been a similar announcement from front-running mayoral hopeful George Smitherman and an endorsement from Rocco Rossi, Smitherman’s closest rival.

Candidate Joe Pantalone, Miller’s deputy on city council, is expected to continue with Miller’s preference: a light rail network called Transit City.

Few would argue with the idea that subways are preferred to streetcars. They run underground, leaving the surface routes for cars. They are faster. They are more winter-friendly.

The city is now in the midst of building streetcar lines because Mayor Miller and his allies have determined Toronto can’t afford subways. Toronto can’t because no one is prepared to impose road tolls. And yet everyone knows we cannot have a good transit system without some kind of money machine akin to road pricing.

Thomson is also prepared to look at public-private proposals to build subways. And she’ll continue to require that the kind of money the province has pledged towards the streetcars be diverted to subways.

“Great cities build great subways; great subways build great cities,” Thomson says. Toronto has fallen short because of “budgetary impotence and political trepidation.”

In announcing the bold transit plan, Thomson made some declarations that opponents might challenge. But they resonate among many who prefer subways to streetcars. She said:

“While surface networks appear cheaper to build, they only have a 30-year lifespan and must be completely rebuilt three times in order to match the 90-year life of a subway system.” The offsetting benefits make subways a good investment.

She’d end the tolls as soon as the subways are built and guarantee the money goes to transit only.

It’s a tough sell. Credit the only woman in the contest for having the gonads to put it on the agenda.

Royson James usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Email: rjames@thestar.ca

Re:Bold transit vision based on $5 road tolls, Column, March 18

It's about time. As a Toronto citizen who lives downtown, I have a front-row seat to the spectacular show that is the city's ever-crumbling infrastructure. Toronto just doesn't work anymore. Congested streets, exorbitant parking fees and road rage – from motorists and cyclists – are but a few symptoms that plague our sick city. For decades, Toronto has been the economic engine that drives this country and commuters have been taking advantage of its wealth without paying a cent in taxes for its upkeep. What better way to fund The Better Way than with tolls?

New York City has tolls. London has tolls. Most major cities have tolls. They have tolls because their governments know that people want to make the money in major urban centres that will support their suburban lifestyles.

This 1950s notion that drivers should get a free ride has become detrimental – not only to the infrastructure of this city but to the environment as well. Tolls would bring in desperately needed funding, cut down on our laughably congested system and drastically cut carbon emissions.

It's preposterous that candidate Sarah Thomson's platform is considered political suicide when it's the only progressive idea that, so far, has been introduced in this mayoral race.

Debra Felstead, Toronto