Mayor John Tory has backed a political push to keep the hope of tunnelling or elevating an LRT along Eglinton Ave. West alive despite city staff recommending against it.A city staff report before executive committee on Tuesday found the additional cost of tunnelling or elevating six key intersections of the light-rail line would be between $881.9 million and $1.32 billion. That estimate only covers the additional costs to construct each of those 800-metre sections above or below ground, including additional operating and maintenance costs. It does not include any other costs required to build the 9-kilometre LRT at grade.The entire line, running from Mount Dennis to Mississauga was earlier estimated to cost $1.5 to $2.1 billion. At the time eight to 12 stops and three grade separations were considered.Read more: Malvern residents left without rapid transit options despite promised improvementsStaff have now recommended ruling out any further consideration of the studied elevated or tunnelled sections, concluding in their report: “In all cases the estimated costs of a grade separation is greater than the estimated benefits of the asset over the 60-year lifecycle.”Despite that recommendation, on Tuesday, Tory pushed for further study.“The feedback we got from residents, from business, from local representatives had me convinced and we’ll be taking steps today to direct the staff to take a harder look at grade separations,” Tory told reporters before the meeting.At executive, the mayor successfully moved to create a working group to further investigate the possibility for elevated or tunnelled sections.Council has the final say next week.On Tuesday, Tory was under pressure from members of the public and local councillors Stephen Holyday, whom he recently named deputy mayor of Etobicoke, and John Campbell, along with the local Liberal MPP Yvan Baker.A community update sent from Baker’s office to his constituents last week said he ...
|
