In 1972, while construction was underway on the Spadina Subway line, the provincial government of Bill Davis introduced the GO-Urban transit plan for the Toronto region.
The maglev project failed, and the province switched to supporting UTDC's Intermediate Capacity Transit System.
The same spirit of activism that had stopped the Spadina Expressway and saved the streetcars also blocked residential redevelopment projects such as the plans for Trefann Court and Kensington Market.
[1] The GO-Urban and ICTS experiments being failures, the TTC was unwilling to again risk anything experimental, and the plan called for future transit expansion to use subways of the same design as the existing lines.
[4] Sheppard was prioritized because the bus lines were overloaded, and putting it first could win support from suburban councillors who were less enthused to invest in transit.
The governments of Mississauga and Peel also wanted the Eglinton Line built sooner, and put pressure on the province, who was paying 75% of the cost, to have its schedule advanced.
Perks argued that a streetcar in a separate right-of-way along Sheppard would easily address the needed ridership, at a fraction of the cost.
Layton and his allies were strong followers of Jane Jacobs, and believed in preserving downtown neighbourhoods as they were and redirecting office developments to the suburbs.
The provincial government of David Peterson delayed approving the Network 2011 projects until a study analyzing transit needs across the entire Greater Toronto Area was completed.
[11] In April 1990 the Peterson government announced their "Let's Move" program of $6.2 billion in transportation spending across the GTA over the next ten years.
In 2007, mayor David Miller unveiled the Transit City expansion plan, which proposed light rail lines along two of the Network 2011 corridors, Eglinton and Sheppard East.