City council has agreed to spend up to $1.46 billion for a diminished version of the transit plan that formed the cornerstone of Mayor John Tory’s 2014 election campaign.

The decision to move ahead with SmartTrack had broad support, and was approved in a vote 37 to 6 on Wednesday despite some members’ concerns about the high cost of the proposed stations and uncertainties about the plan to finance the project.

In a speech before the vote, Tory described the approval as a landmark for Toronto’s transit ambitions.

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“This is the stage at which we are moving forward to start to build transit stations within the city of Toronto,” he said.

Citing the projected 33 million trips that will be taken using SmartTrack by 2041, he argued the investment represented the “cheapest transit we’re ever going to get inside the city.”

SmartTrack piggy backs on a previously planned expansion of GO Transit service known as regional express rail (RER). As part of SmartTrack, the city will pay Metrolinx, the provincial agency in charge of GO, to include six new SmartTrack-branded stations within Toronto.

The city is expected to raise $878 million of the $1.46-billion cost itself, and tap a federal transit fund to cover the remaining $585 million.

The plan is less ambitious than the version the mayor made the basis for his campaign four years ago, which proposed 22 “new” stations. The original plan also included a new heavy rail spur to Pearson Airport that has since been replaced by a proposed extension of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT.

Like most critics of SmartTrack on council, Councillor Gord Perks (Ward 14 Parkdale-High Park) said he agreed it was a good idea to add stations on lines that pass through Toronto neighbourhoods to provide residents with local access to GO. But he argued the province, not the city, should pay for it.

“The question we have to ask is, if you had a billion-and-a-half dollars, would building six GO stations be the best investment you can make to improve transit in the city of Toronto?” he asked.

“The answer to me is, compared to other options we should be considering, no.”

Councillor John Campbell (Ward 4 Etobicoke Centre) asked why the new GO stations, which are typically cheaper than subway stops, will be so expensive. The six SmartTrack stations could cost an average of more than $240 million, while the six stations on the recently-opened Spadina Subway Extension cost an average of just $215 million, and that included some tunnelling work.

“How can I as a councillor have confidence that we’re not getting taken to the cleaners on this?” Campbell asked.

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City planners said the cost of the SmartTrack stops was higher because they’re being built in densely populated urban areas.

Other councillors expressed doubts about tax increment financing (TIF). Tory initially told voters the largely untested financing mechanism could be used to pay for the entire SmartTrack cost, but it will now be counted on to raise just $292 million. A consultant report warned the development projections the TIF scheme relies upon could be “out of date” and its methodology “undocumented.”

The city plans to use development charges and a special fund created through property tax increases to pay the rest of its share. Tory has denied that this means he has broken his promise not to raise property taxes to pay for SmartTrack, on the grounds the fund was established last year for the purpose of funding transit in general, not SmartTrack specifically.

The success of Tory’s plan hinges heavily on Ontario government policy. On top of the province’s planned RER expansion, its ridership projections rely on the Ontario Liberals’ pledge to lower GO fares within Toronto to $3 starting next year, which would make it equal to the cost of riding the TTC.

Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 27 Toronto Centre-Rosedale) raised the possibility that “everything that we’re discussing at this moment in time could entirely change” if another party wins the Ontario election in June.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Ontario NDP said the party is committed to RER and the $3 GO fares.

A spokesperson for Ontario PC leader Doug Ford wouldn’t commit to supporting SmartTrack.

“Doug Ford has spent his whole career fighting to (build) more subways and transit in the city of Toronto. Folks across the province know that he (supports) the modes of transit that will actually relieve congestion and get people moving,” she said.

Josh Colle, the TTC Chair and councillor for Ward 15 Eglinton-Lawrence, told his colleagues they were right to scrutinize the SmartTrack plan. But argued healthy skepticism shouldn’t derail the proposal, which he described as one of several pressing transit priorities.

“We need to build it all,” he said. “We no longer have the luxury of not building transit in every corner of this city ... We have taken too many years off. We know what the consequences of that are.”

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