{"id":1151,"date":"2006-09-18T11:57:51","date_gmt":"2006-09-18T15:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=1151"},"modified":"2006-09-18T12:00:08","modified_gmt":"2006-09-18T16:00:08","slug":"wanted-a-transit-visionary-for-gta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/09\/18\/wanted-a-transit-visionary-for-gta\/","title":{"rendered":"Wanted: a transit visionary for GTA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"TTC Map\" alt=\"TTC Map\" src=\"http:\/\/static.flickr.com\/30\/64843870_b85603f75e_m.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>cross-posted from <a href=\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/votes\"><strong>Spacing Votes<\/strong><\/a> by Zach Slootsky<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Why can&#8217;t Toronto find someone with the guts to stand up for transit? This is the question that former TTC boss, Rick Ducharme, is asking in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/NASApp\/cs\/ContentServer?pagename=thestar\/Layout\/Article_Type1&#038;c=Article&#038;cid=1158531020049&#038;call_pageid=968350130169&#038;col=969483202845\">today&#8217;s<em> Toronto Star<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Wanted: One politician with a vision for a regionwide transit network, the ability to procure the funding to make it happen and the guts to back the plan when the going gets tough.<\/p>\n<p>The job vacancy in the Greater Toronto Area has been around for years. Toronto Mayor David Miller and Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion have talked good games, but never quite filled the role.<\/p>\n<p>Former TTC boss Rick Ducharme doubts the job will ever be filled.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve got to have a politician that really believes in transit and is going to put his whole heart into it,&#8221; says Ducharme, pointing to London Mayor Ken Livingstone and his controversial downtown congestion fee as an example.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Basically, he put his job on the line with what was tried there. It was successful. That&#8217;s gutsy moves. I don&#8217;t see that here at any level.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is coming from someone who knows a thing or two about the urban transit problem we are facing. Ducharme has over 30 years behind him in the transit business. He joined the Ministry of Transportation in 1972, became Go Transit&#8217;s transit coordinator four years later, eventually becoming managing director and in 1999 became the TTC&#8217;s general manager. He resigned this June citing &#8220;political interference.&#8221; This is someone who cares for transit and has dedicated his whole life to it.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;We can talk about plans, we can talk about co-ordination. You can talk about smart cards. All that to me is irrelevant. You need big investments. That stopped over 20 years ago. I don&#8217;t really see any political visionary that really would take on the fight to do it.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Let&#8217;s hope he&#8217;s wrong.<\/p>\n<p><em>Photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/flickr.com\/people\/davaophoenix\/\">Michael&#8217;s Way<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>cross-posted from Spacing Votes by Zach Slootsky Why can&#8217;t Toronto find someone with the guts to stand up for transit? This is the question that former TTC boss, Rick Ducharme, is asking in today&#8217;s Toronto Star. Wanted: One politician with a vision for a regionwide transit network, the ability to procure the funding to make<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/09\/18\/wanted-a-transit-visionary-for-gta\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Wanted: a transit visionary for GTA&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4010,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,8],"tags":[425,2347,717,3301,359,3005,426,3302,79,950,3299,1734,19,341,3300,889],"class_list":["post-1151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-traffic","category-transit","tag-david-miller","tag-general-manager","tag-hazel-mccallion","tag-ken-livingstone","tag-london","tag-managing-director","tag-mayor","tag-ministry-of-transportation","tag-mississauga","tag-politician","tag-regionwide-transit-network","tag-rick-ducharme","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-star","tag-transit-coordinator","tag-ttc"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Wanted: a transit visionary for GTA - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/09\/18\/wanted-a-transit-visionary-for-gta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wanted: a transit visionary for GTA - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"cross-posted from Spacing Votes by Zach Slootsky Why can&#8217;t Toronto find someone with the guts to stand up for transit? 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