We opened the York University Busway in 2009 when I was Chair of the TTC. It is a bus only roadway linking the Downsview station to York University and was constructed to address over- crowding and reliability issues on route 196, the York University Rocket. The busway is used by the TTC, York Region and Go Transit busses. There are some 1.400 busses a day servicing York University. The busway increased the average speed of route 196 by 41% making it the third fastest TTC route at rush hour and it is now faster than any of the subway lines. Due to the savings in time from using the busway, service frequency on route 196 was increased while at the same time we were able to lower the operating costs by reducing the number of buses needed to service the route from 20 to 16. Negotiating land for the route with York University was difficult. The University did not want to give up an inch of their land to accommodate the busway. In the end, they only agreed to allow access to their lands on a temporary basis; until such time as the subway was built. Now that the subway is nearing completion and the section northward onto the campus is scheduled to be removed, the city has to decide what to do with the balance of the busway through the hydro corridor. This road cost $37M to construct. $18.4M was contributed by the City of Toronto and the balance paid in equal shares by the Governments of Canada and Ontario. Now that we are constructing the Finch West LRT, expected to be completed by 2021, it appears that the busway will become redundant. I am proposing an alternative to closing it; convert the Busway to an Oil Tanker Route. The busway should be retained, converted to an oil tanker only route and extended westward to connect directly with highway 400. This would provide a unique opportunity to keep the oil trucks away from the Subway stations, reduce wear and tear on the pavement, and relieve some of the traffic congestion in the Finch corridor. In fact, it might be a good way to remove all heavy trucks from Keele Street. So, who will pay for this? Well, the oil companies of course. Before you shed a tear for the big oil companies, as most of the politicians in this election seem to be, consider that the price of a barrel of oil has dropped by half but the price of gas at the pump hasn’t. You can be sure that the oil companies will continue to register even higher profits this year. I would bring back the David Miller Vehicle Tax but this time, instead of putting it on passenger cars, I would put the tax on trucks over 20 tonnes and use that money to extend the busway. I would pass a bylaw that prohibits heavy trucks from using Finch Avenue and Cheeswood Rd, forcing them onto the Busway (now a truck corridor). The city could instead levy a highway 407 type toll on oil trucks. In any case, it could all be done without spending a dime of public funds. It would provide a safe, direct route for trucks into and out of the tank farms without compromising subway safety. Otherwise it’s only a matter of time before we have an oil spill into the subway that would make the Murray Road propane explosion look like a Canada Day firecracker.