This emphasis on cleaning up subway stations is another great example of the TTC putting a lot of money and attention in the wrong place. Not only will it compromise the unique look of the stations, but it's ultimately a fruitless exercise. Had the commissioners of the TTC ever traveled, they would know that.

I've had the great benefit of a job that requires substantial travel. A working trip rarely affords the same time for exploration that a vacation does, but you gradually learn how to make time to see the things that are important. The first lesson you learn, is that if you want to maximize your time, you'd better be comfortable with transit.

So I've ridden subways or trams in London, New York, Paris, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Singapore, Barcelona, Los Angeles, Washington DC, and more.

And if you want to find common themes among them, it's that the older the system, the dirtier it is and the less people care. The older stations in NY look their age. In London, you can still see the blast doors in some stations that came down during the blitz. In Paris...well...it's even older and generally no cleaner.

All these cities clean their stations, but it's clearly not a high priority, certainly not compared to service. Furthermore, (and London is a great example) they don't mess with the heritage of the stations. But then, Europeans understand heritage in a way we never will.

Why is Toronto so resistant to following the teaching of other cities. If they did, they might learn 2 amazing things:

1) You don't mess with your heritage.
2) It's the service, stupid.

Best quote of the week (from the first bullet above): "The subway stations speak clearly to a time period in Toronto. I have no problem with crazy-ass subway stations that will come with the Yonge extensions, but don't mess with your heritage."

"TTC chair Adam Giambrone says he's getting "positive" feedback from riders."

Uh-oh. We've heard that before.

Regarding the "positive feedback" TTC Chair Adam Giambrone has gotten regarding the station, maybe he did get a few comments.

Of course, if the TTC had bothered asking most patrons (which they didn't) whether any surplus money should be spent on what amounts to redecorating a few stations or on some other things such as improving service or improving cleaning and maintenance in the system, I'm sure that few would have opted for the high-priced makeovers of a few stations. Why exactly is public money being spent on these makeovers when so many stations are lacking features that would make them accessible for disabled and elderly patrons?

Talk about misplaced priorities. Of course, this is the same TTC Chair who just a few months back floated the idea of shutting down the Sheppard line as a possible cost saving measure for the City.

Giambrone hears everyday from the average rider that they want something new and modern. Bloggers and alt-weekly writers just aren't the majority.

If you want the stations preserved, you've got to have a more compelling reason than "people like them" because there's no proof that that's really the majority opinion. Legit arguments are that it's a waste of money when simple maintenance and adequate accessibility features are what's really necessary.

But if station designs are what make or break a TTC chairman's reputation for you then you're a special kind of person. I, and surely the vast majority of TTC riders, rather a chairman that gets us more buses on the streets and spearheads Transit City. Giambrone's doing that pretty well, all things considered.

Right on the money Bernard. If the stations are in good shape, as the Commissioner has claimed, why do they need to be renovated.

And to Ms. Stein: I ask you to consider a city that was truly governed by majority consensus. Don't see any pitfalls? If you think I have problems with the councillor just because of this issue, then you've got some catching up to do.

Mr. Giambrone has a tendency of coming down on the wrong side of an issue. Be it Lansdowne (oops, didn't want majority consensus there!), the Matador (ok, ok...eventually he came around), the Tax vote fiasco (we're ruined, shut the Sheppard...oh wait) or this. And don't give him too much credit for spearheading Transit City. It's a transit initiative and he's the TTC chair...what else is he going to do. If Mickey Mouse was TTC chair, he'd be championing Transit City. He could be the poster-boy for opportunistic politicians, only listening to the people that are saying what he wants to hear. And just because we expect that of politicians, doesn't mean the people should accept it, even special people like me, eh.

I think scott just doesn't like the tiles, which is fine, but not a reason to scrap heritage. We've lost loads of stuff because of feelings like this -- stuff that "isn't the TD Building" or whatever.

Scott, I too dislike being hostage in a dirty subway station where there is smeg on the walls, worse when I am told there is no smeg by somebody I am supposed to trust.

"Giambrone hears everyday from the average rider"

The average rider is a statistical measure. I have no objection to the TTC using a survey firm to find out what people want but am unwilling to simply take Adam Giambrone's observations, coloured as they are by his membership of the Commission and by his stated preferences, as knowing what the average rider wants.

This is particularly true if he asked push questions like "wouldn't it be nice if we revamped the stations", rather than asking if a cleaned up existing station was preferable to a tarted up one at 60% public expense (Museum - $1m TTC, $2m Ontario, $2m donors).

I do note that of the 2,200 responses to Torontoist's survey, cleaning and fixing stations was requested by 18% of responses, third after fares and service, although redesigning stations wasn't a default option which may skew that somewhat.

Personally I respect the heritage argument but my main beef is priorities. While elevators for disabled access are being rolled out at a glacial pace I feel the desire of TTC commissioners like Sandra "art background" Bussin for ribbon-cutting legacy projects is quite simply misspending infrastructure dollars.

$5m spent on Museum, $1m coming from TTC and there's still no second exit and no elevator and no guarantee of having them before 2014. That said, 80% of money did come from outside the TTC. If the Commissioners were forced to guarantee that all the other refurbishments will only cost TTC riders/City of Toronto 20% of the dollar cost, that would likely kill this nonsense.