Sheppard LRT work begins: The Honourable Peter Kent represents the Federal Government at Announcement

December 22, 2009

Groundbreaking; 14-km line to cost $1B, open by 2014

Megan O'Toole, The National Post 


As a construction crew dug up chunks of asphalt by the Agincourt GO station yesterday, officials cheered the launch of a "critical" transit extension through the busy Scarborough corridor.

The event served as a formal groundbreaking for the Sheppard East light rail project, a 14-kilometre line that will run along Sheppard Avenue between the Don Mills subway station and Meadowvale Road starting in 2013.

"Today we start the renaissance of public transit in the city of Toronto, and from my perspective it's been far too long in coming," Mayor David Miller told a small crowd, noting council's "rare" unanimous agreement to move ahead with the Sheppard project spoke to its importance.

"It should have been done 30 years ago, but all of us can look back and say we did it today."

The Sheppard East LRT is the first piece of the city's plan for a network of light rail transit lines throughout Toronto, but it has not come without controversy.

In March, hundreds of businesses lining the relevant stretch of road called on the province to stop the project, citing concerns about planning and funding -- and raising the spectre of the mess that has plagued St. Clair Avenue West for nearly five years as construction on dedicated streetcar lanes has met with delays and cost overruns.

Adam Giambrone, chairman of the Toronto Transit Commission, said the city "learned a lot" from the St. Clair affair, noting support for the Sheppard LRT has grown in recent months.

"People are concerned about construction as they are with road construction, but ... virtually everybody wants it to happen," Mr. Giambrone said. "The question they're asking is not why or if, but how fast can you get it into place?"

Officials from all three levels of government arrived at yesterday's announcement on a gleaming TTC bus and posed in hard hats near a working construction truck.
Construction of the Sheppard LRT, which will replace the Scarborough East bus line, will be funded jointly by the province and the federal government, with Ontario contributing two-thirds of the nearly $1-billion price tag and Ottawa picking up the rest.

Thornhill MP Peter Kent said the project would provide an economic boost for the region and help get "hundreds of thousands of vehicles" off the road.
It will also give commuters more choice, Ontario Transportation Minister Jim Bradley noted.

"This project is critical to improving public transit, and it will have significant long-term benefits to the surrounding communities," he said.
Metrolinx, the regional transportation authority, will own the new light rail line but the TTC will operate it. The Sheppard East project is part of Toronto's Transit City initiative, which will see eight new LRT lines built in neighbourhoods not currently served by rapid public transit. The 120-kilometre, $8-billion Transit City project will take 15 years to complete.

But with the TTC's budget already stretched thin -- the transit commission last month revealed it does not have sufficient funding to operate the system, enacting the largest fare hike in a decade to cope with a $106-million shortfall in 2010 -- some are questioning how the city will pay to operate the new projects.
"By 2013 we'll have sorted that out ... you have to build it first," Mayor Miller said.

Mr. Giambrone added that while the LRT line will be expensive to build, it has the capacity to move four times as many people as a bus, making it a more efficient transit model.