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[Stephane Dumas]

I spotted this article of the National Post via Ontroads http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/ontroads/message/18421
http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/09/13/rocco-rossi-proposes-linking-the-allen-expressway-to-downtown-toronto-by-tunnel/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Rocco Rossi revived the divisive notion of building an expressway through the core of the city by pledging to link downtown Toronto to the Allen Road with a tunnel, possibly for the price of a toll, if he is elected mayor.

In his latest eye-catching move, Mr. Rossi, the former CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, pitches his “Toronto Tunnel” as part of an “integrated transportation” plan he says must involve cars. He has already said he would dig two new kilometres of subway track every year for 10 years, provided he can wipe out the city’s debt.

“If you look at what the realistic opportunity to have an impact on gridlock is, that’s doing what was already known in the ’60s: We need a third major expressway,” Mr. Rossi said in an interview. Unlike previous transit announcements, there is no map attached to this plan: Mr. Rossi wants to commission a study to draw out the exact specifications, including whether there will be exits along the eight-kilometre distance from Eglinton Avenue to the Gardiner Expressway, which is where the tunnel is supposed to end.

[iwishiwascanadian]

There is no way that could be done.  The tunnel would have to be very deep and the province and the feds are not going to cough up any dough.  Anyway, where will the expressway sprout out along the Gardiner?  The only place I could suggest would be the Railway Lands, but then the whole process of covering them and disrupting service to Union Station would be disastrous. 

[xcellntbuy]

The Toronto mayoral candidate's proposal reminds me of one of the old great political campaign gimmicks of Canadian federal elections when there were always great promises to build a bridge to Prince Edward Island.

I have pictures in my Canadian political and historical textbooks of the best and funniest political cartoons of the 1960's, with Prime Minister Lester Pearson commanding a ferry boat, vowing to build the fixed link between Canada's smallest province and the mainland to obtain Liberal votes in Atlantic Canada.  Back then, whenever there was talk of a bridge to Prince Edward Island, Canadians knew a federal election was just around the corner.

[iwishiwascanadian]

It seems like the mayoral candidates to the rights (Rob Ford and Rocco Rossi and the other woman whose name I forget) are gaining the outer Toronto votes by stepping on the toes of the people that live Downtown.  I have a bad feeling Rob Ford will be elected, but I have a feeling that he will end up bringing himself down. 

[The Premier]

There is no way that could be done.  The tunnel would have to be very deep and the province and the feds are not going to cough up any dough.  Anyway, where will the expressway sprout out along the Gardiner?  The only place I could suggest would be the Railway Lands, but then the whole process of covering them and disrupting service to Union Station would be disastrous. 

Agreed. They are better off expanding the Gardiner rather than even consider reviving the plan.

[iwishiwascanadian]

Out of curiosity, have any of the candidates got a plan for the Gardiner (and the DVP) other than tolling it?