Near the end of a brilliantly-executed package of stories on the redrawing of Toronto’s transit map, Star reporter Tonda MacCharles recorded this gem from Toronto MP Adam Vaughan, federal representative for downtown Toronto:

“He’s created a bottleneck of impossibilities that the price for which is beyond calculation.”

The “he” is Ontario Premier Doug Ford. “Beyond calculation” is the price tag of the variable projects, some of which are unstudied, in various stages of design, and employ unstated technology, along phantom route — even though Ford tabulates the cost at $28.5 billion.

The cost, of course, will be way north of $30 billion — and that is without all of the fantasies being realized. The map, for example, shows the Sheppard subway extended from the current Don Mills Rd. terminus east to McCowan Rd. But there is no money, or timeline, earmarked.

“Bottleneck of possibilities” is probably a better analysis. There is nothing impossible about the provincial rejigging of Toronto’s transit plan — except its arrival as announced on April 10, 2019.

If you are planning to live until 2030, you might want to seal Thursday’s Star in a time capsule and open it a decade hence.

According to Trump North — the herald who trumpeted the announcement in Olympic phraseology of “cheaper, faster, better” and to WWF (wrestling, not wildlife) excess of greatest of all time — nobody in these parts has seen anything like this.

We haven’t. We won’t. History tells us so.

Still, who among us was not caught up in the moment, nodding with the Trumpian Tablet as he urged reporters to do cartwheels over the exciting plans he has for his dearly beloved city, the same city he routinely disparages.

We want these transit dreams to come true. For citizens, it is long past being a partisan political issue. We’ve been disappointed and deceived and taken for a ride by all political parties, all levels of government, the transit agencies, planners and bureaucrats. We just want someone — anyone — to do what’s right.

Build as much transit as possible, as soon as possible, as efficiently as possible — but only where it is needed, please. That last clause is mine. Sadly, too many are so fed up they don’t even care if the transit goes where it is not needed.

There were good signs, bad signs, quizzical signs, fearful signs and more than one transparent insight into the man behind the plan.

“Good” is the fact Ford didn’t kill the LRT on Finch and replace it with a subway, as feared; “bad” that he didn’t replace the Finch LRT with a Bus Rapid Transit — cheaper, faster, more appropriate for the demand to 2050. I use Finch Ave. W. numerous times a week. I would love to be wrong on this.

“Good” is the promise to open the Yonge Line 1 extension to Richmond Hill after the relief line is in place; and good that it is being built concurrently.

“Quizzical” that so much effort — and money — is being shovelled into burying the Eglinton West LRT. Whose money is going to pay for this? Certainly not Toronto’s after the city studies concluded that a surface route is more appropriate.

Fearfully honest is the reason behind the decision to extend the subway by three stops from Kennedy through the Scarborough Center up to Sheppard and McCowan. Every analysis says this is an overbuild. The ridership isn’t there for a $3.9 billion one-stop subway city council approved. It won’t be there for the $5.5 billion three-stop extension. Why do it, at an added cost of $1.6 billion (the increase alone will top an extra $2 billion by the time they are finished)? At least Ford was honest: he did it for his brother, the late mayor Rob Ford. “This one is for you, Rob,” the premier said.

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Imagine that. The Fords went to city hall, turned the transit plans into chaos, tried to replace LRTs with subways, failed, found a compromise, left city hall with a partial win, only to return with the power of the premier to take over the TTC, impose a discredited solution. And Doug Ford openly admits to it — a legacy coup that we all must pay for. Amazing.

The Ontario line? We’ll be talking about this for a long time. Soon enough, truth will come out on this “crown jewel” and “jaw-dropping” and “new” technology that’s been around for decades.

Royson James is a former Star reporter who is a current freelance columnist based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @roysonjames

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