politics
The Uncertain Future of the Finch LRT
The light-rail route will face renewed opposition when council reconvenes.
Mockup of an LRT vehicle, 2012. Photo by dtstuff9 from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.
The Finch West LRT will, if and when it is constructed, run between the Finch West subway station and Humber College—a distance of 11 km. An environmental assessment wrapped up in 2010, public consultations have been ongoing, millions of dollars have already been spent, and the project is scheduled for completion in 2020.
But the provincially funded, $1-billion project will soon be facing renewed political opposition: Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti (Ward 7, York West) recently told the Toronto Sun that at council’s first meeting next month, he intends to ask it to nix the plan. He claims that shelving the Finch LRT would provide Tory with roughly $1 billion that could be devoted to SmartTrack.
“I guess it is Christmas time so I have a little gift for the newly-elected mayor,” Mammoliti said. “I have $1 billion for him for his transportation plan.”
Tory himself has conceded that LRTs aren’t his primary focus. “Transit decisions in this city will be made, of course, by the city council working with the province and the federal government, and I’ve indicated my top two work priorities, which are the Scarborough subway and SmartTrack,” he said yesterday.
CodeRedTO, a transit advocacy group, warns that Finch LRT is “at risk” and encourages those supportive of the project to “help raise the alarm” by contacting councillors or MPPs. “Cancelling previously-approved, already-funded, already-delayed rapid transit,” it writes, “is not acceptable.”
Metrolinx has indicated that it continues to support the Finch West LRT, and spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins said public consultations related to the construction of a maintenance and storage facility will resume in early 2015.