And from The Star..
For new streetcars
Apr. 26, 2009
It took months longer than expected, but the process of buying new streetcars has arrived at a recommended design that's both on budget and seems to meet all of Toronto's needs.
And The Reality..
Red Rocket, nothing in the pocket
First, the good news.
On Friday, the TTC announced it has recommended the approval of a $1.3 billion contract to purchase a new generation of 204 streetcars from Montreal-based Bombardier Transportation, the largest contract of its kind in North American history.
The sleek, low-riding Flexity Outlook vehicles are bigger, longer, carry more passengers and will be air-conditioned and wheelchair accessible, all improvements on the aging streetcars they will replace.
They will usher Toronto into a new era of light rail transit, with an option to purchase 364 more cars in future, adapted to Toronto's multi-billion-dollar Transit City lines planned for the suburbs.
Finally, at least 25% of the work will be done in Canada, creating and preserving jobs, with the first vehicles to be delivered by 2012 and the existing fleet replaced by 2018.
Now, the bad news.
The TTC has no money to pay for any of this.
The city has set aside $400 million for the purchase, but there's no commitment from either Queen's Park or Ottawa that the remaining funds -- two-thirds of what's needed -- will be provided, although TTC Chairman Adam Giambrone said recently he's "optimistic" the province will come through.
Despite that, taxpayers have a right to ask whether the left hand knows what the right hand is doing when these types of announcements are made.
Both Ottawa and Queen's Park have been talking since the fall about the importance of investing quickly in public infrastructure to create jobs and help get the country out of recession.
Earlier this month, Premier Dalton McGuinty announced $7.2 billion in provincial spending to cover the capital costs of Toronto's new Transit City lines -- including streetcars.
So why, with all this federal and provincial agreement and largesse, can't these transit announcements be better co-ordinated among the three levels of government?
Why are the TTC and the city now going to have to scramble to get this deal -- which has been crawling towards reality with a number of false starts and controversies -- signed, sealed and delivered by June 27?
Rushing through complex, tax-funded deals of this size at the eleventh hour after months of delay isn't sound public policy. It's how mistakes -- big mistakes -- can happen.
Second, while the money for capital projects like building new transit lines comes from a different account than replacing old streetcars, at the end of the day there's only one taxpayer, and whether it's federal, provincial or municipal money, it all comes from the same pocket.
Which is why it would be nice if politicians at all levels of government could get their acts together in advance, so that when an announcement like this is made, it's a done deal, ready to go, with the money in the bank.
Rather than: "Hey folks, get a look at these great, new streetcars we ... uh ... haven't actually bought yet."
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