

Web Staff, cp24.com





City council has voted 24-19 in favour of building a light-rail transit line along Sheppard Avenue East, rejecting an impassioned plea from Mayor Rob Ford to expand the Sheppard subway line instead.

Councillors made their decision following a marathon meeting in which Ford called the plan a "billion dollar boondoggle" while predicting that it would make the provincial eHealth scandal look "miniscule."

"I feel sorry for the taxpayers. They spoke loud and clear saying that they wanted me to go to bat for them and to fight, fight, fight," Ford said following the vote. "This will be an election issue and I'm willing to take anyone on that wants streetcars over subways."

The Sheppard Avenue East LRT, which comes with a $1 billion price tag, will run from Don Mills Road to Morningside Avenue.

Under Ford's plan the Sheppard subway line would have been expanded into the Scarborough Town Centre at a cost of $3.7 billion. The extra cost would have been made up through private sector funding, Ford had said.

"I respect the will of council 100 per cent, but they don't respect the will of the people because people have very clearly spoken that they don't want streetcars - they want subways," Coun. Doug Ford told reporters. "I'd be willing to have a referendum, to have this whole council go back to an election because I know the will of the people is subways."

Council has already voted to go with an above-ground LRT line along Finch Avenue and an LRT route on Eglinton Avenue that will be partially above ground, rejecting Ford's call for underground routes.

"If you listened to the mayor's words he just said ‘I want subways, I want subways.' We asked how are you going to finance it and he just said 'I want subways,'" Coun. Josh Matlow told reporters. "The reality is the mayor has failed to bring forward a plan."

The city is expanding its transit system with more than $8 billion in funding from the province, which has the final say on how the money will be spent.

In a news release issued late Thursday afternoon Transportation Minister Bob Chiarelli said the province would respect the will of council.

"This government respects the will of the city's democratically elected councillors and they sent a message today to the province and to Metrolinx that light-rail transit is their preference," he said.



