Transit City not yet dead

Subway Dreams

Though Metrolinx and the TTC are developing a revised transit plan, it will not be taking a second look at previously studied subway plans.

The Downtown Relief Line and the Yonge subway extension therefore will remain longer term objectives for Metrolinx while the Bloor subway extension to Sherway Gardens in Etobicoke is not on the radar for either Metrolinx or the TTC.

"The four LRT corridors (along Eglinton, Finch, Sheppard and the SRT right-of-way), whether they're underground or above ground, they have the ridership need, they have the service need for these lines," said Metrolinx spokesperson Ian McConachie. "Right now, we're not looking at adjusting those priorities."

While citizens across Toronto might debate the relative merits of different subway proposals, what's clear is they all can't be built with the $8.15 billion the province has committed for the four LRT lines - a dollar figure the government has said it won't increase.

And while Mayor Rob Ford has said his priorities are to complete the Sheppard subway line from Downsview to Scarborough Town Centre (STC) and replace the SRT with a subway, both by 2015, Metrolinx hasn't committed to building any more subways.

The provincial transportation agency has also stated repeatedly it sees the Eglinton Crosstown LRT line as a key to its regional transportation plan. However, the line could be lost due to lack of funding if Ford's subway visions for Scarborough became reality.

Subway proposals that have been looked at in the past include:

1) Sheppard West

The 4.2 km extension of the Sheppard subway line from Yonge Station to Downsview Station would cost an estimated $1.75 billion (2009), according to the TTC's 2009 report on rail yards needed to serve the Yonge-University Spadina subway line. The extension is included in Ford's top transit priority - completion of the Sheppard subway. Councillors James Pasternak (York Centre) and David Shiner (Willowdale, Ward 24) also identify the line as their top priority. However, John Filion (Willowdale, Ward 23) disagrees. "Theoretically, it's a really good idea. In practicality terms, I think it's prohibitively expensive."

2) Sheppard East

Extending the Sheppard subway from its current terminus at Don Mills Station to STC would cost an estimated $4.1 billion (escalated $) including a new maintenance facility, according to a TTC briefing note prepared for Ford's transition team. The estimate is based on the subway extension running along Sheppard to just past Kennedy Road and then turning south to STC.

3) Kennedy to STC Subway

The cost to extend the Bloor-Danforth subway from Kennedy to STC, with a station at Lawrence Avenue, would cost an estimated $3.1 billion (escalated $) including new vehicles and a new maintenance facility, according to the TTC's briefing note for Ford's transition team. The note states the SRT can't be replaced with a subway on the existing right-of-way because both the radius of the curves between SRT stations are too tight and a tunnel section at Ellesmere doesn't support subway trains.

4) Eglinton Crosstown LRT

Technically, this isn't a subway proposal though part of it would be underground. The cost to build the 19-kilometre first phase, from Kennedy to Jane Street including a 10-kilometre underground section between Laird and Black Creek Drives, would be $6.065 billion (escalated $), according to the TTC's briefing note for Ford's transition team. The provincial government in the mid-1990s scrapped a previous plan to build a subway along Eglinton west of Allen Road.

5) Downtown Relief Line (DRL)

Endorsed by Metrolinx as a long term project, the DRL would cost an estimated $2.1 billion (order of magnitude estimate based on $300 million per kilometre of subway) to build a seven kilometre line from Pape Station to Queen Station, according to a TTC report on ways to improve capacity on the crowded Yonge subway line. The estimate is based on a route running essentially south along Pape Avenue then turning west at Queen Street. This is a smaller proposal than plans for the line put forth in previous decades (the full history of which is recounted on the grassroots website www.drlnow.ca).

Metrolinx envisions the line would significantly alleviate overcrowding on the Yonge subway line. According to the TTC's report, Metrolinx has estimated peak point ridership on the Yonge line south of Bloor to hit 42,000 per hour by 2031 but a DRL could divert 41 per cent of that ridership from Yonge. By contrast, the EA for the Spadina extension to Vaughan estimates it will divert approximately 4 per cent of existing peak point ridership on the Yonge subway. However, the TTC considers Metrolinx's statistics to be optimistic and dependent on significant capital investments in the transit network to reach ridership projections. In early 2009, Toronto city council voted to tell Metrolinx that after Transit City, the DRL was the city's next transit priority, before the Yonge subway extension to Richmond Hill.

6) Yonge Subway Extension

The cost to build the 6.8-kilometre extension of the Yonge subway to Hwy. 7 in Richmond Hill, including stations at Cummer and Steeles Avenues, is $2.4 billion (2008 $), according to a 2008 TTC presentation on the recommended concept. The project is a medium-term, unfunded project for Metrolinx. But along with funding, the extension will also have to await the TTC's improvements to capacity on its Yonge subway line. Those include the 2011 introduction of the new Toronto Rocket trains which have no interior doors and can carry more riders as well as an automated signalling system. Willowdale councillors David Shiner and John Filion disagree on the necessity of the extension. Shiner (Ward 24) said it would be his transit priority following the completion of the Sheppard subway from Downsview to Scarborough Town Centre because it would reduce traffic and bus congestion at the current subway terminus at Finch Avenue, especially after the creation of a new bus terminal at Steeles Avenue. Filion said it's his lowest priority. "People in my ward already can't get a seat on the subway in the morning getting on at North York Centre, so when the subway's extended the subway cars will be full of 905ers before it hits Finch station. There isn't the capacity," he said. Filion said his transit priorities are those that will best relieve overcrowding on the Yonge line, including building a rapid transit line along Eglinton, improving Bloor Station, and building the Downtown Relief Line.

7) Kipling to Sherway Gardens

The cost for a 3.7-kilometre extension of Bloor-Danforth subway west from Kipling Station to the intersection of The Queensway and The West Mall with an additional station at The East Mall would be $1 billion (order of magnitude estimate), according to a 2007 memo to councillors on the TTC from General Manager Gary Webster. The memo was in response to an inquiry from TTC Commissioner and Etobicoke-Lakeshore Councillor Peter Milczyn on the cost of updating the environmental assessment for the line approved in 1994. However, the commission voted not to update the EA, which would have cost $3 million, and the line is not in the TTC's plans at this time, said a spokesperson.