Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he wants to build a tunnel for cars and transit under Highway 401 that would stretch roughly from Brampton to Scarborough.
Citing increasing gridlock and little room for highway expansion at a news conference Wednesday morning, Ford says his government will begin studying the technical feasibility of building a tunnel stretching across the GTA under the country’s busiest highway.
“This tunnel and expressway will cut gridlock, support economic growth and help get people moving faster,” Ford said.
The last liberal government in Québec did that, but for a transit line (the REM).
They killed the only profitable commuter train line (DM) and literally gave it to a for profit entity (CDPQ) so they can transform it into a metro line. So now the public transit entities cannot compete with the private one, and even has to pay it royalties for something like 99 years.
I repeat, the public transit entity (ARTM) cannot compete against the for profit one, AND must pay it royalties for every passenger.
So now the ARTM doesn’t have the revenues from its defunct most popular commuter line, and must pay royalties on top of that. Public money, going straight into a for profit organization.
The new light rail line was not even working in 2023 and the public already had to pay $2.4 million to the CDPQ.
And those defending that model say that the CDPQ is a retirement investment firm that is profiting Quebecers, but their goal is still to make money. Unprofitable lines will be cut or never developed, even if needed.
They are literally privatizing public transit and some people are encouraging it saying that’s how we now have to build transit. It’s the way of the future!
Meanwhile the public transit entity says it’s not sure it can now maintain some of the other commuter lines and will have to look into cutting expenses and/or service.
Sigh…
EDIT: Source for the price the ARTM has to pay: https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/rem-hikes-per-passenger-payment-from-artm-even-before-it-starts-running