I’m sure some political groupies are going enjoy the upcoming scrap between the TTC and Waterfront Toronto about replacing the streetcar tracks along Queens Quay next year. I’m not one of them, though. I think watching two public agencies spat in public is sad, not to mention that the issues they’re fighting for are too important to garner any sense of joy from the dispute.
TTC staff surprised everyone – including, apparently, Waterfront Toronto – when they released a report about the tracks to this week. The report recommended that the TTC start rebuilding the right-of-way as soon as possible, rather than wait for Waterfront Toronto to finalize its plans for revitalizing the entire central waterfront area.
Rebuilding the tracks is a key component of the area’s award-winning redesign by West 8 and DTAH. That plan, which the two design firms created in response to an international design competition, would see a signature waterfront boulevard with a generous, tree-lined public promenade for pedestrians and cyclists and a continuous water’s edge boardwalk, among many other worthy amenities.
The plan requires the TTC to shift the tracks slightly to the south of their present location.
According to Torontoist, the waterfront folks are almost ready to get going with the plan, except they still have to rearrange the funds they have available — much the same way, you might, for example, transfer money from your savings to your chequing account. Unfortunately, the city still has to approve the transfer.
From the TTC’s point of view, the tracks are in such rough shape that they need immediate attention. The TTC built them with the less-than-robust track-laying techniques they used back in the 1990s and they’re now ready for scrapping. In fact, a streetcar derailed there as recently as this April. (The TTC now uses a much more solid design for tracks that increases the life of the right-of-way to as long as 25 years or more.)
Transit blogger Steve Munro points out that, even if the TTC proceeds with its plans to upgrade the tracks in their current location, that action alone may not kill the waterfront design. Nevertheless, keeping the tracks where they are now may require the city to turn Queens Quay into a one-way street to maintain the integrity of the design – an unlikely outcome, when the mayor is apparently against any measure that removes space for cars.
Launching the central waterfront plan is essential for reassuring Torontonians that Waterfront Toronto is making progress with its mandate and isn’t, as the mayor’s brother, councillor Doug Ford, recently claimed, a “boondoggle”. However, since Mayor Ford is not fond of either streetcars or the waterfront, in this dispute between two city agencies, nobody wins and everybody loses.
