Abstract:
Determined to save Toronto's streetcars, a citizen advocacy group, the Streetcars for Toronto Committee, formed in 1972. By issuing an authoritative paper challenging the Toronto Transit Commission staff's plan to abandon streetcar operations and by dealing effectively with the media, the committee persuaded the transit commissioners to retain the metropolitan area's streetcars. Since then, the committee has gone on to fight other transit battles, representing transit users who favor more efficient and cost-effective transit alternatives. The committee has become a model for citizen action elsewhere and currently is promoting "realistic" light rail transit as a component of Toronto's long-range "Network 2011" plan, which calls for a conventional heavy rail subway.
Supplemental Notes:
This paper appears in Transportation Research Board Special Report No. 221, Light Rail Transit: New System Successes at Affordable Prices - Papers presented at the National Conference on Light Rail Transit, May 8-11, 1988, San Jose, California, Conducted by the Transportation Research Board. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved
