At 7am this morning protesters were out in force at the Preston – Albert intersection. They were objecting to the city’s secretly-decided-upon plan to divert 2500 buses a day from the transitway onto Scott-Albert for the duration of LRT construction, about 2 1/2 years.
Quite a few people turned up in the minus 7,000 degree cold:
That so many people turned out in the cold and the early hour must clearly convey the degree of concern amongst residents. Paul Dewar showed up; but I didn’t notice any city bureaucrats (other than a few who lived nearby and actually held protest signs) show up to see it.
Even showing up for five minutes clearly conveys to residents that the politician hears them. For this event, the Rail Office, Mr Watson, and senior transportation bureaucrats showed a tin ear by their absence.
Media was there in abundance. Carefully pulled off the road. After all, what else are sidewalks for?
So sorry I missed this! I showed up at 8:00, but the protest was (understandably) over by then. Good on you all!
Where exactly do folks want the buses to run? If this rail project had started when it was first discussed this would be over by now. I dont see any alternative being put forward.
R.Bowes, the Parkway is two lanes, and is easily accessible to both Albert/Empress intersection and Tunney’s, and doesn’t have houses 10 feet from it. There have been many alternatives proposed by people, to those people who have been paying attention. It doesn’t affect me, but this decision was made in secret at least a year ago, but the City has just deigned to tell people about it.
I am pretty sure this has been in the plans all along. Perhaps the decision was never finalized but during the tunnel plan consultation back when NS was cancelled for EW, Scott was the alternative for the buses. The Parkway is out because it is congested already in the morning making bus routes impractical, Scott street not so much. And the city would need to get the NCC onboard as it’s not the city’s road to go reroute things onto.
I would not say it was done in secret.
Yah. I was surprised to hear that this was news to people along Scott/Albert.
Even with Chiarelli’s original plan for “North-South”, if that had happened on the schedule that he and his people had in mind, something like this was going to have to happen re: the Lebreton-Westboro part of the line.