Mayoral candidate Ari Goldkind, whom we profiled this week, released his transit plan this morning. “More Than a Map” details an ambitious 15 year plan to reshape Toronto’s transit future.
It’s a long, 21-page document, so it’s a bit of a read, but there is a lot of interesting stuff inside.
The essentials, however, are this: if elected, Goldkind plans to build a combination of 12 new subway, LRT and streetcar lines that will expand Toronto’s existing transit system by 207.47 km. Moreover, the plan calls for 125 new stations to be built. It also doesn’t favour one part of Toronto over another: the plan proposes 56 km of track to be built in Scarborough, 44 km in North York and 42 km in Etobicoke.
To fund “More Than a Map,” Goldkind says he will create a new $183 per year tax that will generate $1-billion for expanding transit. All told, the suggested price tag for increasing the scope of Toronto’s transit system by 207 km is $56.65-billion.
Will Toronto implement Goldkind’s plan? Probably not, but it might get some smart discourse on Toronto’s transit future started.
Check out the video below and the plan itself to get a better sense of the proposal. [via Toronto Star].
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Igor Bonifacic is the managing editor of Toronto Standard. Follow him on Twitter.
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