Rob Ford Attempts To Keep Toronto From Having Input On Transit Funding

Rob Ford and his council lackeys want to differ discussing transit funding until AFTER Metrolinx' deadline to agree on what they will present to the province - in other words, until after it is too late to have their input considered by Metrolinx in their recommendations to the province.

Typical Rob Ford/Ford Nation idiocy.

The mayor should be doing all he can to encourage ideas and debate on this issue in order to come up with some input for Metrolinx BEFORE this deadline. Instead, he is burying his head in the sand and trying to stifle progress, as usual.

Transit Fees: Ford, Councillors Headed For A Showdown

Nail In The Coffin For Rob Ford On The Transit File

Rob Ford lost a another key vote today in Toronto City Council. Weeks ago, the councillors called a meeting to bring back Transit City (essentially), voted on it, and Transit City is back. Also at that time they formed a special panel to look into the options for Sheppard East. The panel came back and highly endorsed LRT for Sheppard East. Yesterday and today council met to discuss and vote on what Sheppard East would get - subway, LRT, or some combination. Today, council voted 24-19 for LRT on Sheppard East. 

Council has completed shut out the mayor and has taken over the transit file for Toronto. Now we can get back to building Transit City for all the city.

The mayor had control for his first year in office. He bullied people into wasting time and money and racked up his own brand of Gravy Train. But, council has finally said enough (or the Mushy Middle has decided to). They stopped his madness in the Portlands, and now they have put things back on track for transit evolution in Toronto after a year hiatus. Councillors now see that they can get things done if they work together, to hell with Rob Ford and his mad schemes and bully tactics.

I think the quote of the day that nails it on the head is from councillor Kristyn Wong-tam:
from Torontoist:
11:13 AM: Now up: Kristyn Wong-Tam. She calls Rob Ford’s cancellation of Transit City on his first day in office “flippant,” tells him “Mayor Ford, your time has run out.” Calm though—mood in the room now quite subdued. And then: “We cannot continue to follow a man with no plan… Mayor Ford had the ball in his hand and he fumbled.” She says that it is clear now councillors will be leading, not the mayor. “Toronto’s democratic deficit ends today.”

Rob Ford's Lackey, Gordon Chong, Rips Off Consultants for $80,000

Gordon Chong mismanaged his funds and ripped off consultants to the tune of  $80,000 (hired them knowing there was no money to pay them).
Now the city will be on the hook to bail out his mismanagement. Guess who picked Chong to do this? Yep, Rob Ford, mathematician extraordinaire.
THANKS ROB FORD!

The Toronto Star paints up the title all nice-like, but knowingly ripping someone off is still ripping someone off. And doing it while in a position of trust (Chong was trusted with the funds on behalf of the City of Toronto) is worse.
TTC Subway study ran out of money, Gordon Chong and consultants still owed more than $100,000

Rob Ford's Gravy Train total on this one: $260,000
(Amount over the original amount reported April 7, 2012: $60,000 + $100,000 = $160,000)

UPDATE
Ironically, the big picture here is that the agency set up with Chong heading it to figure out a way to fund a Sheppard subway line went broke. If they can't figure out how to find funding to figure this out, how do they expect to find funding for the subway ?! LOL (thanks Nick, in the comments on this story at All Fired Up In The Big Smoke)

Troubled TTC Still The Better Way

The TTC has been getting a lot of media coverage lately - complaints, the fare hike, management, unions, etc.
And this has brought out opinion pieces, some useful, and some written by trolls who do little research and just try to stir up anger.
But, if you compare the service and the fare cost with other systems, our TTC stands out as still a good service for the fare.
From my own experience and from the experiences of friends across Canada, the TTC seems to provide more frequent and reliable service than those of other transit systems in Canada.
And, the cost of our fare is at least comparable to systems around the world.

Here are some examples:
Toronto - $3.00 cash fare. Very little government subsidy (local city subsidy only)

Ottawa - $3.25 cash fare. A significant portion of government subsidy. Service overall is not as good as Toronto's

Stockholm, Sweden - $2.85. Largely subsidized (and taxes are much higher there too). Apparently great service. Publicly managed and privately operated.

New York City - $2.25. Largely subsidized.

London, England - $6.25. Largely subsidized. Public-Private operation. Frequent delays and overcrowding.

These are just a few examples. But, as you can see, the fare to take the TTC is comparable to the others - it comes out about average. And, considering our current funding problems, our fare is very reasonable, especially when you take into consideration that the majority of the TTC operating money comes solely from fares.

I ride my bike most of the time. I used to ride the TTC regularly (throughout the '80s) and now I ride it on occasion. For the most part, when I ride the TTC, service is frequent and there have been few delays. And $3 is far far cheaper than paying for cab fare.

Could it be managed better? Yes.
Could the operators be more civil to the public? Yes.
But these are minor issues compared to the funding issues. The TTC needs better regular funding - it needs the Ontario government funding back. And, to get this, it is not an issue of courage by our current politicians. We know that the Conservatives and Liberals will not return the regular funding of the TTC. What it will take to return the regular provincial funding is electing MPPs in Toronto from a party that DOES support returning the funding - the NDP.
But, where will they get the money? Simple. They will roll back the huge tax cuts to corporations that the Mike Harris government put in place and the Dalton McGuinty government left in place.
Oh, but then the corporations will pull out of Ontario! No, even if we roll back those tax cuts, the corporate taxes will still be about the lowest in the industrialized world.

Maybe if we put enough pressure on the Liberal MPPs in Toronto they will return the funding. Maybe.

Toronto transit - The TTC - to privatize or not.

Here are two opinion pieces regarding the TTC and whether it should be privatized or not.

OPINION: TTC Privatization is Not the Best Answer - CityNews

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/crime/article/774686--in-socialist-stockholm-an-outsourced-transit-service

I don't believe that privatizing is the answer for the TTC.
The number one problem for the TTC is funding. It is the most underfunded (by upper levels of government/tax dollars) of all the transit systems in North America. This is mainly due to Mike Harris, who totally stopped the regular provincial funding of the TTC. And now, thanks to the McGuinty government, this sorry trend continues.
You will notice in the article about the transit system in Stockholm, that the government funds that system far more than the government here funds the TTC.
Without proper funding, the TTC cannot function properly. And, without proper funding, the system in Stockholm, privatized or not, would not be able to offer the good service it does. When you have to stretch your resources so thin, it is difficult to manage and give good service. That is why service has gone downhill in Toronto.
 
From article one: Talk about
privatization will do nothing to solve this. There is no way
privatization will cover the $220 million funding gap. Indeed, it could
make it worse, as busy, profitable routes are sold off and less revenue
flows to the TTC. Moreover, privatization isn’t going to magically
produce the billions of dollars needed to build Transit City. Focusing
on privatization distracts us from the real issue of how to get the
province to meet its historic funding commitment.

We need to pressure the mayoral candidates, as well as the Toronto MPPs regarding the return of the provincial funding for the TTC.  Regaining regular provincial government funding is the key to fixing the TTC.