[OT] Public Transit

[Evan Leibovitch]

Toronto has always had bits of brilliant transit planning squished between
large mounds of mediocrity.

Brilliance: Building capacity for trains under the Bloor Viaduct ages before
the trains were designed.

Mediocrity: Putting the northwest line in the ditch made by the Spadina
Expressway cock-up.

Brilliance: maintaining streetcars in the face of political pressure and a
continental shift away from them

Mediocrity: The Scarborough LRT

Brilliance: GO Transit, easily one of the best suburban commuter rail
systems on the continent

Mediocrity: Inter-system squabbling prevents logical and deeper integration
of regional and local transit.

Too much of Toronto's transit grid is designed to go through Union Station.
This mentality has prevented consideration of valuable *existing* resources
(such as the east-west train lines parallel to Dupont and Steeles that could
serve transit well but are untouched by GO.) The downtown-centric mentality
that encourages this "vision" will hopefully be shaken away by finally being
forced to listen to the suburban voices.

 - Evan
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