politics
Duly Quoted: Gord Perks
“This could be the issue that forces Transit City in front of this council for the first time.”
—Councillor Gord Perks (Ward 14, Parkdale-High Park) to the Globe and Mail, commenting on the problems posed by trying to bury the proposed Eglinton LRT, and specifically on the fact that if the line is completely buried or otherwise kept off of the street itself—as Mayor Ford insists it must be—nobody knows how to get it over the Don River. Any plan to tunnel under the Don or build a new bridge over it will require a new environmental assessment, which could delay the project, and is almost certain to drive the cost of the Eglinton line up further. (The estimated cost for the Eglinton LRT under the original Transit City plan was $4.6-billion; the cost of a buried version of the line is estimated to be $8.2-billion.)