UPDATE: Mayor's office killed "Transit City" webpage

UPDATE: Jackie DeSouza, the city's director of strategic communications, told the Star on Friday: "We removed the page from the website yesterday as the mayor's office had said Transit City no longer exists. I had a discussion with them. As you know, the TTC is developing a transit plan consistent with the mayor's platform and, once that plan is finalized, we'll post the information on the city's website."

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As recently as Mon. Jan. 3, the City of Toronto's "Transit City" webpage -- unabashedly championing the light-rail plan condemned by subway-loving Mayor Rob Ford -- was working, complete with FAQs explaining why light rail is cheaper and better than subways for the various planned routes.

City issues writer/gadfly Jonathan Goldsbie clicked the link Friday and got this:

Web page not found

Finding the webpage through a Google search and clicking the "cached" tab also yields nada.

We have asked city staff if the page is down permanently and who made the call. The real surprise is that it stayed up so long.

Much of the same information is on the TTC's Transit City webpage, but with this caveat at the top:

Mayor Ford has requested that the TTC develop a new transit plan consistent with his platform. Work on a new plan is underway. For more info on the current plan see the Metrolinx website at http://www.metrolinx.com

 

Comments

[Greg]

Why is this relevant?

[aym]

This is a typical response to restrict information and control media. Guess you beat the plan but you can silence it. Shame on Ford.

[Darwin O'Connor]

It must have been changed Jan 6.

I have been using changedetection.com to monitor the Waterfront West Streetcars Environmental Assessment webpage for a few years. It checks for changes every 24 hours and it detected that the Transit City link had changed to the Projects link, however the project page is still there.

See http://www.changedetection.com/log/ca/toronto/waterfront_transit_log.html

[david the liberal]

who cares.

The transit-city was ill-planned anyways. The people behind that plan failed to understand the key problem for traffic - the traffic lights! Throughout the world not a single light-rail transit system worked - I have lived in London and Shanghai, so please do not tell me they do.

[mustardman]

And? The story is? People didn't know that thing existed nor cared.

[De]

@Darwin: Quite irrevelant as to where you lived.So I suppose that makes you an expert on public transportation.Perhaps you noticed that the city grid of the two mentioned cities are completely different than Torontos. How can you compare London or Shanghai to To I have no idea but you manage it somehow. Perhaps you would like a medal for that huh?

[AF]

The author of this should really do some reseach before posting this article. The City and the TTC alwasy had an issue maintaining two websites, with the public asking which one is correct, most current (not to mention the duplication in effort to [produice and amaintain two websites. If the author looked at the webiste prior to all the latest hype he would have found that the City's website was a repeat of the information on the TTC transit City webpage often with link to the TTC page. Get informed. This poor reporting!

[Patrick]

@david the liberal: Even fixing the cycling of traffic lights won't change the behaviours of drivers in the long run. I drive every day, and each and every day I see people who rush the red light making left-hand turns or going straight. Until actually OBEY traffic signals, no amount of updating their frequency or pattern will solve anything.

[Patrick]

david-

London has an LRT system. And they are in use all over Europe, including in Paris and Berlin. I guess you weren't looking very hard.