City council will discuss the future of transit in Toronto – in particular the fate of the light rail transit (LRT) plan — after TTC chair Karen Stintz submitted a petition Monday asking for a special council meeting.

The meeting will take place Wednesday morning.

Stintz – once a Ford ally – is leading the charge to bring back the Transit City LRT plan. Her petition Monday included the signatures of 24 councillors, including herself. (Scroll down to see the signed petition)

One of the first things Rob Ford did after becoming mayor was kill Transit City without the approval of council on Dec. 1, 2011. That March, he agreed to a memorandum of understanding with the province and Metrolinx for a new transit plan to build an underground Eglinton LRT, which would be paid by the province. A legal opinion concluded recently he also didn't have the legal authority to enter into that MOU without council's approval.

Stintz wants the mayor to scrap his plan for the completely-underground Eglinton crosstown line running from Black Creek to Kennedy station. She wants that line to run aboveground between Laird Drive and Kennedy, which would save as much as $2 billion in tunneling costs. In a compromise plan pitched last month, Stintz suggested that money that could be used for other TTC projects, including the mayor’s pet project — a privately-funded Sheppard subway extension.

The Eglinton LRT idea was first floated as part of the Transit City plan that had previously been approved for $8.4 billion in provincial funding in 2009.

On Monday, Stintz insisted the city has no subway plan, despite the mayor’s push to build underground transit.

“The non-binding memorandum of understanding [with the province] is not a funded plan and an underground LRT is not a subway,” she said.

“It would be my recommendation to my colleagues that we continue with the approved plans for where we have the [environmental assessments], where we have the funding, where we have sign-off by Metrolinx, TTC and the city of Toronto.”

Stintz said the mayor planned to raise transit issues at council in April, but the Transit City agreement the city signed with the province in 2009 expires next month.

“It really is incumbent upon council to come to a resolution on this matter as soon as possible,” she said.

Reacting to the petition, Coun. Doug Ford, the mayor’s brother, told CityNews: “I think it’s a personal attack on the mayor. The mayor was the only individual down here who had a very clear mandate from the people of Toronto to build subways – and we still plan on building subways.

“There are special interests and personal agendas at play ... There's councillors who don't live in Scarborough trying to represent Scarborough – to the negative. They want to ruin Scarborough like the ruined St. Clair Avenue."

Meanwhile, deputy mayor Doug Holyday said: "Twenty-four people can sign whatever they want. It doesn't make it right."

Last week, the chair of provincial transit agency Metrolinx sent the mayor and TTC chair a letter asking the city to confirm its transit plan.

The province has since allocated funding to Ford’s underground Eglinton line plan. But that plan was never approved by council.

"I think there's a desire to get on with the building of public transit. We need mobility in our city," Coun. Joe Mihevc said Monday. "People have been crying for that in the downtown area and especially in the suburbs of Toronto."

The Transit City agreement signed by the city and province in 2009 expires next month. The plan was crafted under former mayor David Miller and called for the construction of LRT lines across the city, including priority lines on Finch Avenue West, Sheppard Avenue East, an Eglinton crosstown route and the revitalization of the Scarborough RT. Future projects included lines along the waterfront, Jane, Don Mills and in Malvern.

Ford continues to insist Torontonians want subways. Underground transit was a key promise in his election campaign. Critics on council claim the light-rail option serves more people for less money.

On Monday, Holyday said subways are the best option because they are easier to maintain, they last longer and don't take up space on the roads.

"My concern is ... council might act in haste and make a decision without all of the information before them," he said at city hall Monday.

When asked about numerous reports and academics who've supported the LRT plan, Holyday says most of them opposed Ford from the beginning and takes their findings with "a grain of salt."

Stintz acknowledged that her days as the chair of the transit commission are probably numbered.

“I would expect that the board would convene and make some decisions,” she said.

Next week, the executive committee will debate the TTC becoming a nine-member board comprised of five citizens and four councillors.

This transit challenge against Ford comes just one day after he won a major victory by negotiating a tentative deal with the city’s outside workers’ union, CUPE 416.Stintz Toronto Transit petition