Plans for downtown Toronto’s first subway
in decades are taking shape, with the city’s planning department urging
that it run below Queen Street.
Details
of the long-awaited downtown relief line – a route that has been
discussed in various permutations for a century – emerged on Friday. Staff have
concluded that the best approach involves a connection from Pape Station
near Danforth Avenue to the area around City Hall.
Although the plan is primarily about
diverting passengers from the overcrowded Yonge subway line, a briefing
for councillors made clear the value of the new line to the city centre
as well. According to a draft staff presentation, the subway plan would
“fill [a] rapid transit void in the core” and “recognizes that downtown
is 24/7.”
The
proposal pencils in stations along Queen Street around Sherbourne
Street, Sumach Street and Broadview Avenue, and one near Gerrard Square.
These would allow access to Regent Park and Moss Park, and offer the
chance of a connection to the Stouffville GO corridor, which is expected
to get much more frequent service under provincial and city plans.
Ridership
projections for the proposed line are expected in the next few weeks,
and the plan itself will form part of a broader package of transit
proposals going to city council in June. Future extensions would push
the line farther north and west. But no funding for any of it has been
secured, and construction of even the first phase would likely take at
least a decade.
Surging ridership on
the Yonge subway line in recent years has made clear the importance of a
downtown relief line. Officials including Toronto Transit Commission
CEO Andy Byford and the city’s chief planner, Jennifer Keesmaat, have
repeatedly described the relief line as the city’s top transit priority.
Mayor John Tory, who ran on a more immediate plan to relieve the subway
by adding service on local GO rail corridors, has said the DRL would
still be needed in the longer term.
“We have to take action now,” said Councillor Josh Matlow, one of the stronger voices at city hall arguing for the DRL.
“As
Toronto’s finally moving on expanding our rapid transit system … based
on growth projections, the relief line addresses an existing condition
that’s getting worse every year. Many of our streetcar lines, along with
the Yonge [subway] line, are already overcrowded.”
The
preferred alignment that emerged on Friday – which must still go
through a public consultation process and be formally recommended to
council – would avoid adding passengers to the increasingly crowded
Union Station. By moving farther north than earlier proposed routes, it
also would reduce potential conflict with plans for more service along
the GO lines. And it would offer an east-west alternative through the
downtown.
“We are very happy to finally
see some concrete work being done on this proposal,” said Louis Mark, a
founder of the Toronto Relief Line Alliance, which plans to start
ramping up its advocacy. “We have to keep working to make sure as many
people as possible know about this proposal, and about its benefits, to
make sure it has as much support as possible.”
City
planning staff looked at six possible routes. These all started from
Broadview or Pape stations and made their way by various routes
downtown. The alternative laid out on Friday got top marks in the most
categories, including affordability, public health and environment,
choice and experience.
One key
advantage the route planners say, is that it would create a station by
Nathan Phillips Square in “the geographic and psychological centre of
the city.” This route also has what staff described as the lowest cost
of the options, by providing a shorter crossing of the Don River and
avoiding pricey soil stabilization required if passing under the river
farther to the south.
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