Sep 29, 2026 · 38 min · 11 segments
The two Transit Steves — Wickens and Munro — return to The Torontonian to explain why you have to go back to the ancient Greeks to understand Toronto’s transit woes.
Mary WiensHostEmmett ShaneGuestbefore Ford became premier, the Tories regarded Metrolinx as this cesspool of liberal political appointees, and they wanted to flatten it.
Well, Metrolink did something very clever.
And so they were extremely useful to him, and they managed to sell him on the idea of these lines.
We'll build your stuff for you, and we'll make you look...
Now, they didn't probably say it in those words, but the point is...
Ford, I'm sure, would have said, hey, I want this and this and this, and they went away and came back, and here's the plan, and Bob's your uncle.
And there's Dougie Subway's plan.
I mean, do you honestly think that someone in the Premier's office drew that map?
It's a public agency that relies on non-disclosure agreements with its commercial partners and its public-private partnerships.
And it's godlike insofar as they extract enormous sacrifices from transit riders, drivers, and small business owners as these projects are being built.
Anyone... who lost their business on Eglinton while the Crosstown was being built will understand the sacrifice involved.
Yeah, so just to remind listeners, when we met the two Steves last on the Torontonian, you and I, Emmett, took a streetcar trip on a cold winter afternoon.
It was December, and Torontonians had waited almost 15 years for the Eglinton Crosstown to open.
In the end, it opened six years behind schedule and several billion dollars over the original cost estimate.
Yeah, and a lot has happened since that ride, including a blockbuster story about the ballooning cost of another major project, the Ontario line.
Also overseen by Metrolinx? Pesky journalists insist on pointing out the cost overruns of the gods, right? The latest estimate for the Ontario line was $34 billion, more than three times what Premier Ford said it would cost back in 2019.
In fact, let's play that rather lordly clip of Premier Ford sounding like Zeus himself, praising Metrolink's Ford's track record.
And of course, every Torontonian remembers that he was also a councillor at one point under his brother, Mayor Rob Ford.
before Ford became premier, the Tories regarded Metrolinx as this cesspool of liberal political appointees, and they wanted to flatten it.
Well, Metrolink did something very clever.
And so they were extremely useful to him, and they managed to sell him on the idea of these lines.
We'll build your stuff for you, and we'll make you look...
Now, they didn't probably say it in those words, but the point is...
Ford, I'm sure, would have said, hey, I want this and this and this, and they went away and came back, and here's the plan, and Bob's your uncle.
And there's Dougie Subway's plan.
I mean, do you honestly think that someone in the Premier's office drew that map?
It's a public agency that relies on non-disclosure agreements with its commercial partners and its public-private partnerships.
And it's godlike insofar as they extract enormous sacrifices from transit riders, drivers, and small business owners as these projects are being built.
Anyone... who lost their business on Eglinton while the Crosstown was being built will understand the sacrifice involved.
Yeah, so just to remind listeners, when we met the two Steves last on the Torontonian, you and I, Emmett, took a streetcar trip on a cold winter afternoon.
It was December, and Torontonians had waited almost 15 years for the Eglinton Crosstown to open.
In the end, it opened six years behind schedule and several billion dollars over the original cost estimate.
Yeah, and a lot has happened since that ride, including a blockbuster story about the ballooning cost of another major project, the Ontario line.
Also overseen by Metrolinx? Pesky journalists insist on pointing out the cost overruns of the gods, right? The latest estimate for the Ontario line was $34 billion, more than three times what Premier Ford said it would cost back in 2019.
In fact, let's play that rather lordly clip of Premier Ford sounding like Zeus himself, praising Metrolink's Ford's track record.
And of course, every Torontonian remembers that he was also a councillor at one point under his brother, Mayor Rob Ford.
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