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Streetcar Right-Of-Way - The Saga Continues

Since we last wrote there have been a number of changes to the situation regarding plans for the St Clair West streetcar line (please see Streetcar Right-Of-Way - The Saga Continues.)

First of all, the Environmental Assessment (EA) was approved by City Council and that process is now in full swing.We plan to do a full article on the EA process at some point. For now, suffice it to say that the first step is to select a consultant to undertake the project (ie the EA). To that end, an RFP (Request For Proposals) has been prepared and posted for candidate consultants. The consultant will be selected on or about June 23rd of this year. The consultant's first task will be to develop a Study Design - and one month has been tabled for this initial part of the project.

It should be noted that the RFP contains an important concession to the community as a result of consultations with SWRC (don't you just love all these acronyms). In their definition of the problem being addressed by the EA, the TTC incorporated the need to address the interests of the community. Prior to that, the problem was primarily focused on how to increase transit usage and decrease private automobile usage along St Clair West. It appears to demonstrate the TTC's interest in involving the community in this project.

It should be clearly noted that the 3 concepts that were developed at the start of this project do not reflect the only options available. In fact one of the main tasks in the EA will be to explore a variety of options and to make a determination of which one will best address the defined problem, as stated in the RFP.

Another important development regards timing. It was determined that it would not be possible to properly conduct the EA and ensure full community involvement and still get the project underway for the 2004 budget year as originally planned. So, as it stands, the actual work on the tracks - whatever that work will be - will not commence until 2005. However, a fair bit of maintenance and repair work will be undertaken in the meantime - as you can tell.

Yet another interesting development is the fact that the EA process is now being managed by the City instead of the TTC. The fact that St Clair Ave W is identified in the Official Plan appears to have a bearing on this latest twist in the story.
On a related note, the City is planning to survey all the folks living along our illustrious thoroughfare. So if you get something from the City in the coming weeks be sure to give it your full attention.

... and keep checking because the news will be breaking fast on this issue.

Editor's Note: It should be noted, if it has not already been evident in the nature of our reporting, that our sole interest is to keep everyone informed of the issues surrounding this project and not to promote any particular point of view.