The Globe and Mail's editorial team gets this half-right, I think:

Under former mayor David Miller, the $4.6-billion Crosstown was to operate in a dedicated surface right-of-way for almost half the route while running in a tunnel through the city core. But Mr. Ford, who campaigned to end the so-called “war on the car,” insisted the entire 19-kilometre line be buried, at an additional cost of $2.2-billion, an almost 50-per-cent mark-up. While transit officials say that burying the LRT may attract a few more riders, $2.2-billion is a steep premium to pay for what is an essentially aesthetic decision, especially for a fiscal conservative.

There’s an elegant solution readily available to the mayor. He should ask Mr. McGuinty to revert to the original Eglinton plan, but on the proviso that the $2.2-billion be used as seed money for a public-private partnership deal for the Sheppard subway. The model is Vancouver’s Canada Line, built with $720-million in capital from a private consortium that operates the service through a 35-year franchise.

Given that the underground LRT will probably have fewer stations, causing people to walk farther to use it, the idea that it will attract "a few more riders" is at least debatable.

But secondly, and this is more important: extending the Sheppard subway east to Scarborough Town Centre isn't an obvious priority for the TTC. Not when there's competing demand for transit dollars in places such as Finch West. The $2.2 billion the city might spend to get part of the Sheppard line built could build all of the Finch West LRT, almost twice. Instead of committing the city to an even larger investment in the money-losing Sheppard line, the TTC could revolutionize transit service through some of the neighbourhoods that need it most.

Blog photo by TheDanLevy via Flickr.