Skip to main content

When John Tory ran for mayor of Toronto in 2014, his biggest, shiniest promise was something called SmartTrack, a 22-stop London-style “surface subway” that would “bring transit and congestion relief to the whole city.” Four years later, running for re-election, he has some explaining to do.

As his main rival in the election campaign, former chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat, keeps pointing out, SmartTrack has proved to be an expensive mirage. The 22-stop congestion-busting transit miracle has turned into a handful of new stops on the provincial GO Train system, paid for by Toronto. The opening date of 2021 has been pushed back to 2024 or 2025. The whiz-bang financing system that Mr. Tory touted – tax-increment financing – will pay for only a fraction of the cost, leaving taxpayers on the hook for much of the rest.

The SmartTrack fiasco is a reminder to voters everywhere to beware of candidates who come knocking with promises of great benefit for little cost. But there is another, more important lesson. Politicians should stay out of transit planning.

Open this photo in gallery:

Toronto mayoral candidates John Tory and Jennifer Keesmaat square off for a debate on Oct. 9, 2018.J.P. MOCZULSKI/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

Mr. Tory and his team concocted the SmartTrack notion in the midst of an election campaign. At the time, most experts were saying that the city’s priority should be building a relief subway line to take pressure off the crowded Yonge Street subway. Mr. Tory knew better. He blasted his rival on the left, Olivia Chow, for saying she would focus on the relief line (which, by the way, he now ardently supports).

Sadly, he is far from the only Toronto politician who pretends to be a transit planner. You can tell it’s election time in Toronto when the Sharpies come out. Candidates use their coloured markers to draw lines on a map showing all the lovely new transit lines they would build. Rob Ford produced a map showing subways, subways, subways as far as the eye could see. Mr. Tory put out glossy pictures of “John Tory’s SmartTrack.”

What makes them think they have the skill to decide where transit lines should go and in what order they should be built? Those questions are best left to the experts. They have the knowledge and the data to determine where the demand from commuters is highest and which mode of transit – bus, light rail, subway, heavy rail – is best suited to meet that demand.

Yet, know-it-all politicians routinely overrule them. The result is a hot mess. Toronto’s transit plans change so often that the ordinary straphanger can barely keep track. Former mayor David Miller got approval for a whole network of light-rail lines, Transit City. Rob Ford killed it and pushed for more subways. City council revolted and went back to something like Transit City.

The notorious Scarborough subway has gone through endless permutations. It was to have three stops to begin with, then it was scaled back to one. Now Premier Doug Ford wants three again. Politicians have been sparring for years about whether it should be a subway at all or whether light-rail would make more sense.

The solution is obvious. Give the job of planning Toronto’s future transit network to professional planners. Let elected leaders decide how to raise money for transit building, a serious challenge that is more than enough to keep them busy.

The province already has a giant agency that is supposed to oversee transit planning: Metrolinx. But politicians meddle with its deliberations so often that is has been reduced to a rubber stamp. A cabinet minister in the previous Liberal government even pressed the agency to approve a GO Train station in his riding.

War may be too serious to be left to the generals, but transit planning is too serious to be left to the politicians. Billions of dollars worth of projects are at stake. The future health of the city depends on an efficient, rational public transit system. When politicians trolling for votes can upend years of planning on a whim, something has gone badly wrong.

To avoid nonsense like the SmartTrack saga, empower Metrolinx and leave the politicians to figure out how to pay the bills.

Follow related authors and topics

Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.

Interact with The Globe