Getting The Big Move moving?

Posted on March 30, 2009 at 2:54 pm by Andrae Griffith

3175806387_8d11b7f0b4_oWhen the budget dropped last week I began to wonder why the province hadn’t been very specific on which transit projects were going to be funded. Usually they are very specific and it made me wonder if something big was coming down the pipe…

Today the Province introduced The Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area Transit Implementation Act, which makes very important changes to Metrolinx, GO Transit, and potentially transit across the region. This proposed law, which has passed first reading in the legislature, has (according to the press release), a few key elements:

  • GO Transit and Metrolinx merge into a single transit agency to build more transit faster.
    • A few weeks ago a friend asked me why GO’s fare increase was met with fairly little public opposition compared to previous years. After thinking about it for a while, I figured that it was because people can see GO improving services every day. While every transit agency is buying new buses and putting them on the road, you can see GO buying new locomotives and new rail-cars, and you can see construction at stations and along the line building new platforms and tracks. You can see where they are building grade separations and can even ride across some of the new ones. Compared to other transit agencies, people see GO as working hard to improve service – and there is a lot of truth to it. Metrolinx isn’t a builder or an operator, so to me it makes sense to have GO be the muscle and Metrolinx be the brains. I just hope that the very strong GO brand remains in some form.
  • Ontario taxpayers, through Metrolinx, to own selected new regional transit infrastructure. Ontario would have greater control of valuable transit assets funded largely through the provincial government.
    • My interpretation of this is that the province will own the lines that it, through Metrolinx, builds. In this industry, however, owning a piece of infrastructure doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be the one operating it.
  • Up to 15 members on board of directors for new organization draw on professional and corporate experience to implement a regional transit network.
    • One of the major changes to the governance model, this new board would be filled with industry experts instead of politicians. It’s currently unclear how these experts will be appointed, but this follows the recent changes to the board of TransLink in Metro Vancouver. On the one hand, an expert board gives formal recognition to the expertise that transportation planners, communication experts, civil engineers, public administration gurus and financiers have. On the other hand, these individuals are not politicians and are not directly responsible to the taxpayers. They might not be sensitive to the particular needs of a particular community, but they will be less likely to be biased towards or against certain communities. Ultimately, how one feels about this move will depend on how they feel about the current governance model. Was it too political? Was it biased for or against Scarborough (as an example, of course…)? Not in my view, but I concede that not many share my opinion.
  • Transition advisor and Transition Advisory Board support merger and help bring two organizations together.
    • Among this group is Rob MacIsaac, Peter Smith and Paul Bedford, all current board members, as well as industry experts. I get the sense that this is a glimpse into the future makeup of the Metrolinx board.
  • Minister of Transportation issues transportation planning policy statements based on Regional Transportation Plan and municipalities to align transportation plans accordingly.
    • This is the part that interests me the most, but ironically, I have very little to say about it. We know that certain transit agencies have been very keen to work with Metrolinx, GO and others on service and fare integration, while certain other agencies have not been enthusiastic. It will be interesting to see what direction the province will take with these policy statements. Will they mandate fare integration between the TTC and YRT? Will they order local transit to be introduced in areas where none currently exists (looking at you Caledon…)? Will they upload all transit services to GO? Should they? It’s clear to me that Queens Park wants to reserve the right to do so.
  • Metrolinx consults with all municipalities in the GTHA on any changes to the plan.
    • We have decided to organize ourself into a region of independent cities and towns, so it is critical to consider that layer when we need our plan to evolve to respond to changing times and conditions. But, we have to stop thinking of ourselves in this way. The GTHA is an interconnected region and the economy, environment and quality of life doesn’t drastically change when we reach a municipal boundary. It’s critical that the province consult with the municipalities – because they are going to be affected – but we have to keep our eyes on the prize of an interconnected regional transit network and work through any differences of opinion at the municipal level.

Time will tell if this betters the ability of Metrolinx and GO to deliver well planned, well built and well operated transit infrastructure to the residents and visitors of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area, but I’m very optimistic. I see this act as the province recognizing the leadership role that Metrolinx should play in regional transportation planning and the effectiveness of GO Transit in delivering high quality services. Having served as a citizen advisor to Metrolinx on the Regional Transportation Plan, it’s no surprise that I have an interest in seeing the  plan being implemented. Hopefully, this move is the first in many steps to get The Big Move moving.

Image source: Flickr user “itchycam”

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14 Comments

  1. Since I started typing this post some details have been confirmed. Look for updates in comments.

    GravatarComment by Andrae Griffith — March 30, 2009 @ 2:58 pm

  2. I think this is an important step forward in strengthening the ability of Metrolinx to implement its plans. Particularly interesting is the implications for the ‘Mobility Hubs’ integrated land-use-and-transit hub concept.  Since many of the hubs are intimately connected to GO rail infrastructure, direct control of this land will make it easier to see the concept become reality.

    A couple of questions/concerns I have about the new body:
       – How will the new governance affect public oversight of Metrolinx’s affairs? When they converted Vancouver’s Translink board from politicians to professionals, the new board ceased to hold public meetings. While there is such a thing as too much public involvement, planning is inherently political and thus planning bodies (like Metrolinx) should strive to balance speed-of-implementation with public accountability.
      – How does this impact plans to expand GO parking lots – and furthermore GO’s longer-term planning which has been somewhat at odds with Metrolinx’s?

    Great post, Andrae! I look forward with great interest in how this will play out.

    GravatarComment by Peter Kucirek — March 30, 2009 @ 3:16 pm

  3. I’m feeling nervous about the change to Metrolinx board. We need some critics there to stop some things — like the Scarborough RT across Eglinton idea that was once floated — from seeing the light of day.

    GravatarComment by Triceratops — March 30, 2009 @ 3:31 pm

  4. @ Triceratops:

    For the sake of argument, lets say that Bombardier ART was the right choice despite it being politically unpopular. Conceptually, this new board would be more likely to implement it because they won’t need to worry about winning political brownie points. 

    Not for a minute am I suggesting that politicians can’t make these decisions. But, it’s foolish to think that people aren’t cynical about how our decisions are made – at least to some degree.

    GravatarComment by Andrae Griffith — March 30, 2009 @ 5:32 pm

  5. Politicians aren’t perfect, either. They’re entirely capable of bad ideas and poor implementation. 

    I wouldn’t wish for a board entirely of politicians. There needs to be a balance of both.

    GravatarComment by Triceratops — March 30, 2009 @ 6:19 pm

  6. Valuable post and follow-up, Andrae!  Extremely useful details and exploration of implications.  I agree – time will tell.  And, Andrae, you have demonstrated how valuable this Metronauts site is in getting the word out on an up-to-the-minute topic with a high level of content.

    GravatarComment by Ellen Michelson — March 30, 2009 @ 6:48 pm

  7. Interesting post Andrae.  But I thought the reason why people didn’t get so angry about the GO fare increase was because it was rushed through with less than 24 hours on a Friday before March Break, so it gave passengers no time to digest it. There’s a lot wrong with the way the fare hike was implemented as well (a disproportionate increase for short trips, for example), but that’s not the debate today.

    Any words on GO improvements for the end of the April board period? There’s a few little things GO can do now (like inbound afternoon/evening service on Georgetown).

    GravatarComment by Sean Marshall — March 30, 2009 @ 7:12 pm

  8. Here is how I found out about the merger:

    @24_hours: Ontario plans to merge GO Transit with regional transit agency Metrolinx .. no link yet. more later.
    @Adam_Giambrone: Metrolinx and GO Transit are being merged into one private-sector board.
    @Spacing: @Adam_Giambrone what does “private-sector board” mean? No political appointees? Is GO getting sold off?
    @Adam_Giambrone: Metrolinx and GO Transit are being merged into one board with private appointees.
    @Adam_Giambrone: @Spacing Private appointees, no elected officials.

    Look at the last two (technically the same): NO ELECTED OFFICIALS. We can hold Giambrone and the other 43 councillors accountable, it’s called elections.

    Private appointees…who will appoint them? with elected officials there is the “complaint” process and elections that we can use to sort of control things. What if the private appointees screw up? what will happen?

    Will fares raise since private companies only really care about profit.?

    GravatarComment by Miroslav Glavic — March 30, 2009 @ 10:20 pm

  9. To answer your last question, David Harrison of Durham Transit repots <durhamtransit.wordpress.com> has read the legislation tells me that fare increases have to be approved by the province. I consider him to be very reliable and hopefully he will shed some light on this issue.

    As for private agencies doing public services – Waterfront Toronto seems to be doing pretty well despite having only one sitting politician, and appointed citizens hold the balance of power on the Toronto Community Housing Corporation board of directors (9 citizens vs 4 politicians). I’m not sure how it will be any different…

    GravatarComment by Andrae Griffith — March 30, 2009 @ 10:35 pm

  10. I’d be happy if politicians hold less than half of the seats. All I expect from a public agency is some amount of checks and balances. Why is Metrolinx jumping from one extreme to the other?

    An observer might conclude this is an attempt to fill the room with yes-men.

    GravatarComment by Triceratops — March 30, 2009 @ 11:05 pm

  11. I have never been a fan of Metrolinx. I worked at the TTC when there were no politicians on the Commission. Things went downhill when the city started to appoint Councilors.

    In Durham Region we are still waiting for Metrolinx’s Hwy. 2 BRT Quick-Win Project.

    GravatarComment by Andy — March 31, 2009 @ 4:52 am

  12. I’m ambivalent about a lot of this.  On one hand, a more targetted board structure similar to GO’s may help get things moving, and it’s good to see the legislation includes some mechanisms to get recalcitrant municipalities inline with the regional plan. 

    Certainly, in Durham Region, the contributions to Metrolinx made by our representative, Chair Roger Anderson, mostly amounted to complaining how Durham was getting nothing from Metrolinx.  My count is that there are about ten projects that directly benefit Durham, but Anderson didn’t particularly seem concerned about the facts.  Replacing him with an person experienced in managing large organizations could hardly be a bad thing.

    And at any rate, the new board structure is very similar to the existing GO board structure, so it will not make a difference for the majority of what the new combined Metrolinx does. 

    BTW, Andy’s comment above regarding the Highway 2 BRT project should be taken as criticism of Durham Region.  They have $80m in hand from the province to do the project, but it’s taking forever to get going, partiially because one of the prerequesites is to build expanded maintenance facilities to handle the buses.

    On the other hand, I can’t help but wonder if some of these moves are not intended to give the province more direct control of transit planning.  Realistically, they have such control and are not likely to give it up, so in the end, this change may not matter much. It’s not as if people like Miller will stop advocating just because they are not on the Metrolinx board.

    GravatarComment by David Harrison — March 31, 2009 @ 6:58 am

  13. “Conceptually, this new board would be more likely to implement it because they won’t need to worry about winning political brownie points. ”

    Oh yes they will.  They are, after all, political appointees.  Now to keep their jobs they have to suck up to Queens Park.

    GravatarComment by Mark Dowling — March 31, 2009 @ 7:49 am

  14. Not if there is a one-term limit on their service.

    GravatarComment by Andrae Griffith — March 31, 2009 @ 7:55 am

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