One all-too-common approach to Toronto’s transit challenge must be avoided: doing nothing now on the promise of magic bullets later. The real solution lies not in magic bullets. And it often isn’t very sexy. We need to expand the service we already have and build new services with the plans already in place.

Last week, the TTC urged council to invest in buses. Subway closures on weekends happen because old signals and old tracks need upgrades. These may not be inspiring initiatives, but they are an essential part of the solution.

Another part is the city’s long-standing request to electrify GO lines and integrate fares with the TTC so people who live in Toronto can use them. It’s not a new idea, just a good one, and it’s what John Tory based his SmartTrack proposal on.

In a Star op-ed last week, Jordan Whelan wrote that millennials — those like me who were born around 1980 — ought to support Tory for mayor because of his magic bullet transit proposal. Whelan, misleadingly implying that all millennials live downtown, used Liberty Village to illustrate SmartTrack’s magic.

Liberty Village is in my ward. Part of the reason people like living there is that it provides a good range of transport options. We should improve these, often in not-sexy ways, and we should spread them across town, as we are doing with the Eglinton Connects project, which incorporates better walking and cycling as well as better transit. (Tory opposes this project.)

But Liberty Village is not a neat microcosm of the city. People live all over and many struggle to find work or make ends meet. Some are single parents who can’t afford to live in Liberty Village. Some take the bus or live in areas where new LRTs are planned, approved and funded.

The area is currently served mostly by the crowded — very crowded — King streetcar. Two GO lines also run past it and for years I’ve worked to increase service, integrate the transit fare, provide another stop and electrify it to provide an alternative to the 504 King streetcar. I’m not alone. In 2011, council voted 40-2 for the idea.

We should be happy the province is finally proceeding. We should also be clear that no matter who is elected mayor, it will go ahead. We should also question whether SmartTrack, which would duplicate this incoming service but use smaller trains, is as magical as we’re told.

Because by saying yes to SmartTrack, we are saying no to urgently needed, ready-to-go transit in parts of the city that need it. Liberty Village will be able to use the GO line either way, but people who live around Finch or Sheppard East won’t get transit improvements.

Magic bullets are also expensive. Tory’s would cost $8 billion, almost three times more than the subway relief line he opposes — with $2.7 billion paid by the city. What makes Tory’s magic bullet particularly magical is the implication that in some sense we’ll never have to pay for it; Tory proposes using a high-risk funding tool, which fails 89 per cent of the time according to one U.S. study.

We’ve heard this before. Don’t invest now to improve service now. Never mind that that’s why we pay property taxes. Say no to dull light-rail projects that are ready to go. Instead, focus on something big, years away. Yes, it has an enormous price tag. But don’t worry about how we’ll pay for it. Trust us, it won’t cost you anything.

That’s what I heard during my first term on council, which is Rob Ford’s first (and hopefully last) as mayor. The TTC’s budget was cut so crowding got worse. We wasted four years not building in Scarborough, debating “subways, subways, subways” instead. Remember when we were told the private sector would build them for us, for free?

And now here we are. Nothing has been built in Scarborough and if council eventually votes for the subway, it won’t start being built until after the next election and won’t be finished until 2023 — nine years from now.

Waiting is the truly high price of the dubious promise of magic bullets, and all generations can agree we can wait no more.

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So of course we should use the GO lines that run through Toronto to get around. We should also improve service now and build what’s ready to go. Banking on a magic bullet didn’t get us moving with Ford. We should learn from, not repeat, that mistake.

Michael Layton is the Toronto city councillor for Ward 19.

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