In an unusual move, Toronto’s transit commission fired its chief executive, Gary Webster, because he didn’t think it was cost-effective to build an expensive subway. (Usually, transit chiefs are fired for building an expensive rail line.)
Actually, Webster thought that light rail was more cost-effective than subways. But Toronto Robert Ford wanted subways. He asked Webster for an objective evaluation of the two, and Webster presented a persuasive report favoring light rail. Apparently, Webster didn’t get the memo that he was supposed to skew the analysis in favor of the mayor’s preferences. The mayor tried to bury the report, but when the city council voted to support light rail instead of subways the mayor retaliated by convincing five members of the nine-member transit commission to fire Webster “without just cause.” That decision will cost the city $550,000, Webster’s severance pay.
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In Ottawa, which has one 5-mile-long Diesel-powered light-rail line but otherwise relies on buses, transit takes 18.5 percent of commuters to work, which puts it ahead of the second-highest in the U.S., San Francisco-Oakland, whose transit carries 17.4 percent of commuters to work. Next in Canada at 13.2 percent is Winnipeg, which is all buses, and is tied with Calgary, whose 30-mile modern light-rail system was the first in North America.
Vancouver, with its 43-mile SkyTrain, is 11.5 percent, but Halifax, Quebec, and Victoria, which have no trains, are all nearly 10 percent, more than all but six major urban areas in the United States. All of which suggests that steel wheels vs. rubber tires makes less of a difference to transit than urban history, specifically how dense the jobs are at the urban core.
I admire that they are so honest for why they fired the transit chief.
Eastern Canada has a big chip on its shoulder that it wants to be like Europe and different than the US. If they want to spend additional money to build a subway in order to do that, then I have nothing against it, especially if they are so overt in how they make the trade-offs.
Who else gets 550,000 dollars after being layed off? If Canada wants to bankrupt it’s transit departments and piss off the actual transit riders whose otherwise crucial bus service could operate but probably portions or it will end up cannibalized to compensate for the costs to order new fancy trains. I wonder does the Antiplanner have info regarding American cities that cite examples of significant construction of new rail coinciding with actual passenger declines after the rail was built.
After reading the article I looks like he wasn’t laid off, but fired for “no reason.” Had a reason be given, the severance package would have been much smaller. Regardless, It’s a nice parting gift.
Canada. Weird.
Yes Canada is weird……..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FEW5mh7iAI
The Antiplanner wrote:
Canada’s 2006 census found that 22.4 percent of commuters in the Toronto metro area take transit to work, which makes it second only to New York in the United States and Canada. But Montreal’s transit system, which is more heavily based on buses, takes 21.7 percent of that region’s commuters to work. (Both Montreal and Toronto have about 40 miles of subways, but Toronto also has 47 miles of streetcars.)
Don’t forget that Montreal has a heavy “rail” system, called Métro, like Paris and Washington, though its cars run on rubber tires.
Randall, normally you are very good with the numbers but when referencing Canada there seems to some errors.The numbers you quote for Canada do not seem to be in line with the census numbers.
The 11.5% number for Vancouver fits with the census 2001, in the 2006 census it was 16.5%.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=60e25f09-9625-499a-be2a-3ebe571c750d
Your figures for Toronto, Montreal and Quebec fit with the 2006 census but others do not.
In the case of Calgary from the 2006 it is 15.6% in 2006, but Winnipeg it is lower at 13%. Meanwhile in Ottawa it is either either 21.2% or 19.9%, depending on what you count as Ottawa. In Halifax it was 11.9%
The way transit use is measured in the US and Canada is likely an apples to oranges comparison. For all of Ontario, the 2006 census has 12.9% using transit. In BC it comes in at 10.3% province wide. As a whole nation the 2006 census has 11.0% of Canadians using transit to get to work.
In the case of Victoria where I live (the Capital Regional District), the transit use you quoted at 10% was right, though 15.9% walked or biked to work, a success no one seems to be talking about and a reason one would not expect to see any increase in Victoria. The other big trend in the Victoria area is the dramatic rise of people not commuting at all. Meanwhile the transit planers want Victoria to spend $1,000,000,000 on an LRT.
I should have added that I do not understand why anyone in Toronto thinks that street level LRT that is not at all grade separated makes any sense in any form over buses in Toronto.