On Monday morning, Toronto—and especially Torontonians who have been following the saga of transit planning at City Hall—woke up to some dramatic news. Karen Stintz (Ward 16, Eglinton-Lawrence) had filed a petition with the city clerk, requesting a special, unplanned meeting of city council. The purpose of the meeting: to circumvent Mayor Rob Ford and [...]

In a legal opinion made public this morning, a prominent Toronto lawyer argues that Rob Ford did not have the power to unilaterally cancel Transit City without receiving authorization to do so from city council. The opinion was solicited by Councillor Joe Mihevc (Ward 21, St. Paul’s), a former vice-chair of the TTC, in an [...]

“You will never, ever be able to get away from either government-direct funding or government backstop—ever.” —Gordon Chong, brought on by Mayor Rob Ford to help chart a development path for the Sheppard subway line. Ford has been arguing that the subway will be built with private money rather than requiring substantial government funds, however [...]

Undoubtedly, the first phase of the West Toronto Railpath has been a success. And the two councillors whose wards the linear park runs between will tell you as much. Councillor Gord Perks (Ward 14, Parkdale-High Park) praises the space as “beautiful and accessible,” and Councillor Ana Bailão (Ward 18, Davenport) says the project has connected [...]

Photo by sa-ra-ha from the Torontoist Flickr Pool They didn’t really look like much. The four Google Earth images projected up onto the screen showed low-density, sprawling suburbanism in all its horizontal glory. But they also represented four locations out of 51 that Metrolinx has designated to become “mobility hubs” in The Big Move, the [...]

In which we highlight key items from the month’s city council meeting—which you can also watch live. Photo by Michael Chrisman/Torontoist. City council is meeting today (March and tomorrow (March 9). Here are a few of the items on this month’s agenda that have been making news, or are likely to in the near future. [...]

A sign announcing the Clean Train Coalition’s protests at today’s Metrolinx board meeting, spotted last week in Trinity Bellwoods Park. Photo by Amanda Happé/Torontoist. At a meeting this morning convened especially for the purpose, the Metrolinx board of directors approved a plan to electrify the Georgetown and Lakeshore GO corridors, as well as the Union-Pearson [...]

Photo by ||adam||, from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. Staff at Metronlinx, Toronto’s regional transportation agency, are recommending that the Lakeshore and Georgetown GO lines, the system’s busiest, be outfitted for electric trains—a move they say would bring down rail commute times and save operating dollars in the long term. If the Metrolinx board of directors [...]

It’s been causing Torontonians headaches since 1884. Its removal was first tabled in 1966 [PDF]. And now after more than a century, its reign, defined by traffic snarls and bus delays, has come to an end. Yes, on Thursday, at 3 p.m. sharp, we can all finally say goodbye to the Dufferin Jog—the street’s detour [...]

Photo by phirleh, from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. For about a year, Metrolinx, the Toronto and Hamilton area’s regional transit authority, has been studying the possibility of electrifying GO train tracks, all of which currently support only diesel-burning locomotives. Preliminary results from that study, detailed for the media this morning at Metrolinx headquarters, suggest that [...]

Design by Laurence Lui/Torontoist. Click here to view it bigger. During this year’s election campaign, there was a lot of talk of new subways in the suburbs, but very little discussion of how we could improve transit for the part of Toronto that depends on it most: the downtown. With dust now settling, and a [...]