Read the daily “on schedule” posts to find news and other information that affects your daily commute. You’ll learn about public meetings, special events and construction projects that affect transit services today.

Grassroots organizations are looking ahead to Wednesday’s special meeting of City Council on transit issues by mobilizing Toronto transit riders to add their voices to the debate on the future of transit in Toronto.

For example, TTCriders.ca urges all Councillors to support the LRT transit expansion plan that the chair of the Toronto Transit Commission Karen Stintz will move by at a special City Council meeting on Wednesday.

The group says Councillor Stintz’s light rail transit plan “will deliver the rapid transit Torontonians want. This plan is based on solid transit principles, will see rapid transit built quickly, underground where it is needed, to all parts of the city, and it’s completely paid for by the Province.”

TTCriders released the following statement today:

“We applaud Councillor Stintz and the other 23 Councillors who are calling for a special Council meeting on Wednesday which should get transit expansion moving again in Toronto. Now we call on Mayor Ford and the other 20 Councillors to get on board as well.

“Councillor Stintz’s plan calls for four Light Rail Transit (LRT) lines to be built: the Eglinton Crosstown (underground from Keele St to Laird Ave and at grade from Leslie Street to Kennedy Station); replacing the current Scarborough RT with LRT and expanding it north to Sheppard Ave; along Sheppard Ave East from Don Mills Station to Morningside Ave; along Finch Ave west from the new Finch West Station to Humber College. These new LRT lines will have almost no impact on existing car lanes as there is enough space to build new lanes on these wide suburban avenues.”

TTCriders has also launched an e-petition that allows Torontonians to send an email to their Councillor showing their support for the plan. You can add your name to the petition here.

Meanwhile, the Facebook group Save Transit City is organizing an on-street canvas of transit passengers on Finch Avenue West tomorrow. The goal is to let riders know about the special Wednesday meeting of City Council and that the discussion could result in a light rail line on Finch West — or not.

Canvassers meet tomorrow, Tuesday, February 7 at Finch Avenue West and Weston Road from 7 until 8:30 a.m.

Today, in an extraordinary move, the Chair of the Toronto Transit Commission, Councillor Karen Stintz, representing 23 other members of City Council, presented a petition to Toronto’s City Clerk, Ulli S. Watkiss, asking her to convene a special Council meeting to

“decide on a Council position as requested by the Chair of Metrolinx in his January 31, 2012 letter to Mayor Rob Ford and Toronto Transit Commission Chair Karen Stintz.”

The Clerk, in turn, has called the special meeting to take place in the Council Chamber of City Hall, 100 Queen Street West, at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, February 8. The Municipal Act allows for a majority of the members of a municipal council to petition the Clerk for a special meeting and it also requires the Clerk to schedule the meeting within 48 hours of receiving the petition.

What’s extraordinary is that this is the first time since 1998 — when Metropolitan Toronto and its six local municipalities amalgamated into the current City of Toronto — that someone other than the Mayor has requested a special meeting of Council. Usually, the Mayor asks the Clerk to hold such a meeting during unusual circumstances, such as when Mayor David Miller called a special meeting to decide whether to award a contract for new streetcars in June 2009.

(This may also be the only time that this has occurred in City Hall for many, many years, at least since 1977, when I started working there — but other municipal government experts may have to correct me on that.)

What this is all about, to keep it simple, is that in 2011, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Mayor Rob Ford agreed to direct all of the funds that Metrolinx had reserved for the former Transit City plan of light-rail transit (LRT) lines across the city to just one project, the Eglinton - Scarborough Crosstown LRT line. They also agreed that the transit cars serving the line would operate entirely underground, instead of partially on city streets, as the architects of Transit City had originally envisioned.

In exchange, Mayor Ford agreed that the City would extend the Sheppard subway west to Downsview Station and east to Scarborough Centre station on its own, using funds from the private sector.

Last week, Metrolinx asked Ford and Stintz to confirm the transportation plan and to urge them to make sure council would endorse the plan, so that they could get on with the business of building the Eglinton line.

But, it’s much, much more complicated than that. In fact, it isn’t simple, at all…

GO Transit contractors started rebuilding the platform at Ajax GO Station last Saturday, February 4.

During the work, trains serving Ajax have to stop 450 metres further east along the platform. Passengers boarding and exiting trains at Ajax will not have access to the four east-end coaches on each train, the first four cars from the locomotive, while construction proceeds.

The contractors are adding a new snow-melt system to reduce the amount of snow building up on the platform during the winter and revamping the platform shelters with closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras and new lighting. They’ll also install a new elevator that will eventually connect the platform to a future pedestrian tunnel to the parking structure.

The City of Mississauga has closed

• North Service Road between Annapolis Avenue and Redan Drive

all this week to accommodate Region of Peel contractors who are repairing a sewer that has collapsed.

miWay is detouring buses operating along the 4 Sherway Gardens route, while the roadway is closed.

GO Transit buses recently started dropping off and picking up passengers at new stops in Stouffville and Vaughan.

In Stouffville both north- and southbound buses operating along the 71 / 71A / 71C / 71D Stouffville / Toronto route now serve a new stop on Main Street at Tenth Line.

In Vaughan, both north- and southbound buses operating along the 63 King City / Toronto route now serve a new stop on Keele Street at Peak Point Boulevard.

Barrie GO Bus Passengers: We are happy to announce that starting on February 1st, 2012, your GO Bus will now stop on Keele St at Peak Point Blvd in both north and southbound directions! Thank you for letting us keep you in the know as we work to provide more options for your commute.

We are happy to announce that starting on February 1st, 2012, your GO Bus will now stop on Main St at 10th Line in both north and southbound directions! Thank you for letting us keep you in the know as we work to provide more options for your commute.

Greater Toronto and Golden Horseshoe area media report on public transit issues today.

Greater Toronto Area

• 680 All News Radio report, “U of T urban planning group wants city council to rethink transit plan”, here.
• CBC News Toronto report, “Transit revolt erupts on Toronto council”, here.
• Citytv News Toronto report, “TTC Chair Karen Stintz leads charge to resurrect Transit City”, here.
• Citytv News Toronto report, “2 months of free transit begins in York Region”, here.
• Globe and Mail article, “Stintz leads anti-Ford rebellion over the future of transit”, here.
• Globe and Mail article, “Transit experts blast Ford’s Eglinton Crosstown strategy”, here.
• Newstalk 1010 report, “War On Transit Heats Up At City Hall”, here.
• Steve Munro’s post, Stintz Leads Call For Special Council Meeting”, here.
• Steve Munro’s post, “The Chong Report (I)”, here.
• Torontoist post, “Transit Pros Support Eglinton Subway-Surface LRT Plan”, here.
• Torontoist post, “Planners, Urban Designers, Academics Call For Restoring Sense to Transit Planning”, here.
• Toronto Star article, “TTC chair Karen Stintz moves to bury Rob Ford’s subway”, here.
• Toronto Star article, “Is a subway twice as fast as light rail?”, here.
• Toronto Star article, “LRT the way to go on Toronto transit, think tank says”, here.
• Toronto Star column, “Mayor Rob Ford is Toronto’s Schettino”, here.
• Toronto Star column, “Only clear winner in contract settlement was the process”, here.
• Toronto Sun article, “Transit rebellion at City Hall”, here.

Elsewhere in the Greater Golden Horseshoe

• Niagara Falls Review article, “Draft budget excludes transit upgrade”, here.

Greater Toronto and Golden Horseshoe area media report on public transit issues today.

Greater Toronto Area

• DurhamRegion.com article, “Sexy bus ad prompts complaints to Durham Transit”, here.
• OpenFile Toronto post, “Past Pieces of Toronto: Spadina’s Moving Walkways”, here.
• OpenFile Toronto post, “Wisdom of the Ancients: Subway Song Edition”, here.
• The Grid article, “Fact check: Team Ford’s LRT email campaign”, here.
• Toronto Sun editorial, “Get the shovels in the ground for transit”, here.

Elsewhere in the Greater Golden Horseshoe

• MyKawartha.com article, “Who will run the rail?”, here.
• MyKawartha.com article, “Township will take part in survey to look at commuter options”, here.
• Peterborough Examiner article, “Consultant’s focus group tackles future of Peterborough Transit”, here.

Last week, Metrolinx and the TTC hosted an open house on the future Allen Road - Eglinton West rapid transit station. Staff presented the early designs for the station and offered members of the public the opportunity to share their ideas about the plans with the Eglinton Scarborough Crosstown light rail transit team.

If you missed the meeting, you can still have your say. The Crosstown staff have posted the presentation on line and are also providing an on-line form to gather your ideas about the proposals.

You can view the presentation here. (.pdf)

If you can’t view the .pdf file, you can read a text summary here.

You can submit your comments until Thursday, February 16 here.

This week, the series of open houses continues, with a public meeting this Thursday, February 9 to present the plans for the future Keele - Eglinton rapid transit station.

One third of Canada’s homeless people are between the ages of 16 and 24. Here’s one way that you can help get homeless youth back on track.

Next Friday, February 11, Tokens 4 Change and high schools across Toronto join in a one-day event to raise TTC tokens for Youth Without Shelter, which uses 5,000 TTC tokens to help 1,000 homeless youth in Toronto each year. The tokens let homeless young people visit the doctor, get to and from school or travel to job interviews.

From 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. Friday, high schools will each “own” subway stations and students from those schools will perform on the subway platforms to encourage you to donate tokens or cash to buy tokens. You can expect to see choirs, drum bands, dance mobs, poets and other acts in stations throughout the TTC’s network.

Project Humanity, a local non-profit organization raising social awareness through the arts, recently led workshops with local high school students and professional artists to create on-platform performances that shed light on homelessness and why tokens are an important way to help homeless young men and women.

A roving troupe of local artists will complement these station-specific performances by performing spontaneously at various stations.

Volunteers at the first event last year doubled their goal of 5,000 tokens by raising $30,000 - the equivalent of 10,000 tokens. This year, to date, more than 400 Tokens4Change volunteers have signed up to perform and collect tokens at 25 TTC stations.

From 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. Friday, February 10, you’ll see Tokens 4 Change performances at:

1 Yonge - University - Spadina subway:

Bloor, College, Downsview, Eglinton, Eglinton West, Finch, King, Osgoode, Queen, St. Andrew, St. Clair, St. Clair West, St. George, St. Patrick, Sheppard - Yonge, Spadina, Union, Wellesley, Yorkdale.

2 Bloor - Danforth subway:

Bathurst, Bay, Broadview, Dundas West, Islington, Jane, Kennedy, Kipling, Ossington, St. George, Spadina, Yonge.

4 Sheppard subway:

Don Mills, Sheppard - Yonge.

Across Canada, about 65,000 young people are without a place to call home.

Buy a red 2012 toque to support Raising the Roof’s campaign to “put a cap” on homelessness among young people. Wear your 2012 toque on Toque Tuesday, February 7.

The toques fund grass-roots agencies working to help youth break away from street culture towards a better future. Toques cost $10 each. This year’s goal is to sell 50,000 toques across Canada.

In Toronto, volunteers are selling toques at various TTC stations from 7 until 9 a.m. and from 3:30 until 7 p.m. Tuesday:

1 Yonge - University - Spadina subway: Bloor, Dundas, Eglinton, Finch, Queen, Queen’s Park, St. Andrew, St. Clair, Sheppard-Yonge, Union.

2 Bloor - Danforth subway: Islington, Yonge.

4 Sheppard subway: Sheppard-Yonge.

Meanwhile, the St. Catharines Transit Commission is selling toques at the information counter in the Downtown Transit Terminal on Carlisle Street, while quantities last.

And, if you wear your toque when you board any SCTC bus in St. Catharines or Thorold, you get to ride free anytime Tuesday!

Past campaign sales have allowed Raising the Roof to grant almost $3.3 million to 145 local community agencies serving the homeless across the country. Part of this year’s proceeds will also help fund Raising the Roof’s Youthworks program, which aims to find long-term solutions to youth homelessness.