From: transit expert Tim Lane

I had a HORRIFYING day today, and am too tired to wax eloquent to any degree, on what went on last night.

Suffice it to say, that there were a LOT of VERY angry residents there.

Gregg Ross, David Jeanes, and Henry Swiech were there.
Cullen, Mark Taylor, Marianne Wilkinson and George Guirguis (Bay ward candidate) were there.

The City actually had a presentation, with questions from the audience afterwards.
I managed to ask the first question.
I asked Peter Steacy to show the map, projected on a screen, of the area from Pinecrest to the Queensway Transitway station.

I then asked him to show us how the buses currently traverse that section, eastbound and westbound, which he did with a laser pointer.

I then asked them how long it took buses to travel that section.

They could not answer that.

I asked them in any of them had actually taken a bus, recently, through there, in either direction.

No hands went up.

I told them that it was unacceptable for professionals designing a "solution" to speed up the buses, to not know how long the buses take to get through there now.

I then stated that on the 20, 21, and 22 of April, two weeks ago, I made a total of 16 (sixteen) trips through there, during the afternoon peak, and the morning peak, 8 in each direction.

I found that westbound buses could do the trip in about 4 minutes from Lincoln Fields Station to Pinecrest Station, in the a.m., stretching to about 5 minutes if they got the light red at the Pinecrest off ramp.

Eastbound, travel times varied from 6 to 8 minutes, with most trips being about 7 minutes.

I told them that a minor amount of lane repainting, and widening of shoulders, on the e. bound Queensway between Greenbank & Queensway Transitway station, would improve the bus times by a minute or more.

I then asked them if they really felt that it was worth doing a solution that would destroy 25 homes, and cost 10's or even 100's of millions of dollars, to save buses about three minutes, in one direction only.

Their answer, if any, was drowned out by a THUNDEROUS round of applause from the audience.

Lots more was said, by me, other speakers, and staff.

Staff agreed that the cheapest solution (blowing up the homes to avoid a $140M bus tunnel under Connaught) would not neccessarily be best, if it was not what people wanted.

I was particularly UNimpressed with Mark Taylor, candidate for Bay Ward, who tried to defend staff.

Marlene Catterall was there, and made an impassioned plea for a solution to be found, that did not destroy neighbourhoods.

David Jeanes made a pitch for going with ELRT right from the outset, all the way to Bayshore, and not building any more of the busway.