…but not a devil either. Transit activist Steve Munro comments on the comments made by Rick Ducharme during a Toronto Star interview taken after Ducharme’s departure from the TTC. While Steve Munro sympathizes with some of Ducharme’s concerns about political interference, he cannot let certain allegations go unchallenged. His report is an interesting summary of what could be Rick Ducharme’s true legacy:

He complains that if he were given 100 new streetcars, he would just park them (and presumably Mayor Millerç—´ 100 new buses too) because, without transit priority, thereç—´ no point in running more service.

This is a self-serving attitude that infected TTC management over a decade ago � it痴 not their fault the service is rotten, just blame everything on traffic congestion. The problem is that this argument doesn稚 wash when you look at the real world.

Between 1990 and 2001, service declined on the streetcar routes by 25 to 40 percent thanks mainly to budget cuts. The claim is that service just followed demand, but in fact the actual stats show that the cuts came first. Moreover, we are not seeing better service when demand starts to rise again because the TTC cut its fleet size to match the new, lower service level.

…

Ducharme talks about the idea that, in our Transit City plans, we are going to build a network of similar lines similar to St. Clair. The strange part about this is that it was Ducharmeç—´ TTC that prevented the City of Toronto planners from including an LRT network in the new Official Plan. The plan contains a few references to LRT, but you have to look closely.

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State of Good Repair

While we congratulate Ducharme for focussing on repairing and rebuilding the system we have, letç—´ not forget that he inherited that mantra from his predecessor, David Gunn.