TTC needs more reliable power
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Stupid of the Week
TORONTO - Tuesday’s commuter chaos that crippled transit in downtown Toronto is just another symptom of a complex systemic failure.
Yet another underground power vault failed, cialis cutting electricity to most of the city’s downtown core subway and streetcar lines. Madness, salve predictably, ensued.
Blame, though, should not be dumped solely on the shoulders of the beleaguered TTC. Toronto Hydro, the City of Toronto and the province share responsibility, as well.
There’s nothing like a crisis to make a point. The TTC is one of Toronto’s largest energy consumers. Its 373-km of electrified subway and streetcar lines depend on a reliable supply of electricity in order to operate. On Tuesday, that supply was interrupted for hours. Again.
That Canada’s most critical transit system can be put out of service by one small fire is evidence the TTC does not have an adequate business continuity plan. There should be redundant alternative sources of electricity for our transit lines. At the very least, there should be enough back-up power to get subway trains into stations and off-loaded and to move streetcars off main roads and into safe harbours where they won’t impede traffic (e.g. replacement shuttle buses, taxis and *gasp* Uber cars). There isn’t.
Why not? Lack of money, for one thing. Lack of competence, for another. And an overall lack of vision. The TTC business continuity plan is sorely lacking, and based on the premise that shutting things down for hours at a time is OK. It’s not. But the problem is bigger than the TTC.
Toronto gets its electricity from distant generating stations through three main high-voltage power corridors. These are near capacity today. If even one fails, the city will suffer the consequences. So far, neither Ontario nor Toronto have a realistic plan to fix this.
One idea would be to encourage large downtown buildings to invest in co-generation equipment that would essentially convert their heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems into micro power plants. This would lessen the demand on our existing power grid and potentially even generate surplus power to sell to neighbours. The TTC could partner with these buildings to obtain alternative power sources for its transit lines.
Many building owners expressed interest in doing this while I was in the mayor’s office, but their inquiries were rebuffed by Toronto Hydro, which quoted them ridiculously high costs to connect them to the power grid — an essential requirement. So nothing happened.
Another idea: Before the city sold its share of Enwave, that utility had repeatedly approached the TTC about building micro power plants to service its transit system. But the TTC wasn’t much interested and nothing ever happened.
Now Toronto faces the dawn of a new transit age. Billions of dollars worth of new subways, streetcars and light-rail lines are currently in development, have been planned or have been promised to alleviate Toronto’s insufficient transit system. That’s wonderful news. One problem, though. Not a single penny has been promised — yet alone delivered — in order to operate those shiny new trains when they arrive. Those new streetcars and subways will sit idle without staff to operate them or money to power them.
Before the first of these new lines is delivered, whether it’s a downtown relief line or a Scarborough subway, we’d better figure out how we’re going to pay to operate it. And not on a bare-bones model where every careless cigarette or grease fire shuts the whole system down for a day.
Our new transit lines must be built with redundant back-up systems so colossal failures like the one on Tuesday don’t become a routine occurrence. That means biting the bullet and building a proper, self-sustaining business model for transit. That means making riders pay the true cost of their ride, while the city subsidizes only those transit users who live in Toronto and truly can’t afford the fare.
If Toronto is going to expect more of us to embrace transit, transit better be reliable enough to embrace us back.
— Towhey is managing director of Ballacaine Strategy & Execution, a weekend host with Newstalk 1010 and one-time chief of staff to former mayor Rob Ford.