The Toronto waterfront is going to grow, grow, grow in the next decade or two. Two hundred and eighty thousand new residents and 190,000 new jobs in the Port Lands, the western Don Valley, the South Core, the area around Habrourfront, the mouth of the Humber. This, on top of the tens of thousands of new residences and offices built south of Front St. in the past 20 years. All that growth is the reason the city is planning to build a new, expanded waterfront LRT line across the bottom of the city, at a cost expected to be measured in the billions of dollars.So why did the preliminary plans for that new transit line suggest, as a possibility, that it would connect with the subway line at Union by a pedestrian tunnel between Queens Quay and Front St.? Why is anyone thinking it’s a good idea to suggest people commuting should get off one vehicle and walk more than half a kilometre before getting on another vehicle to continue their trip? It’s silly. Expanding the existing streetcar tunnel between Queens Quay and Union to serve more vehicles would be expensive? Well, you don’t say. This is a city that has repeatedly, emphatically affirmed that it thinks it is worth spending $1.5 billion or more to ensure people in Scarborough do not have to get off an LRT and get onto a subway. That rejected transfer between vehicles — in plans, a one-flight-of-stairs affair like the ones at St. George and Bloor, a 30-second inconvenience — was thought to be so onerous it was worth spending virtually anything to avoid.But presumably the people who live and work on the Waterfront are expected to have greater reservoirs of energy and patience such that not only would they change vehicles, but would walk 600 metres — a lap and a half of an Olympic track — in between. Maybe someone at city hall thinks they’re all exercise buffs who welcome the workout. And the added 10 minutes to their trip time. This is a city which recently decided that i ...
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