The provincial government says it will commit more than $150 million to help plan and design a long-awaited downtown relief line to help ease the strain on Toronto’s congested subway system.
Ontario Minister of Transportation Steven Del Duca made the announcement alongside Mayor John Tory at a news conference Wednesday.
“The proposed relief line, as many know, will make it easier for people to travel around the Greater Toronto Area and relieve pressure on the crowded Yonge subway line,” Del Duca said.
Del Duca praised the “considerable work” that the city has already undertaken on the relief line project and said the funding for Metrolinx will help build on that work as part of a larger regional transit strategy.
“Gridlock doesn’t respect area codes or postal codes or other boundaries. It’s a regional challenge that requires a regional solution,” Del Duca said.
Mayor Tory said the funding is a welcome move in a city that “took years off” from building transit and is desperate for more infrastructure.
“We felt we had the luxury to debate and re-debate and re-study and reconsider the decisions of the past,” Tory said. “We felt we had years sometimes to sit back and look at the transit projects we had already built and yet during that very same time we had the makings of a very bad situation on places like the Yonge Street subway.”
A 2015 study on crowding on Line 1 found that even with improvements that are meant to add capacity on the line, such as automatic train control, demand on the line will outstrip capacity by 2031.
Tory pointed to already overcrowded platforms at rush hour as proof that the city needs to press on with transit building.
He also praised Chief Planner Jennifer Keesmaat and TTC CEO Andy Byford, saying the project has been a constant on the city’s radar.
“They have done a lot of the work to get us to the stage we’re at,” Tory said. “We have not had our tools down or our pants down on the relief line. We have been working hard on that and this is going to allow us to get the important next stages of this project ready to put shovels in the ground.”
The planning work going forward will include identifying stations and a route for the relief line.
Once planning for the line has been completed, the city will still have to come up with funds to build the line. However Tory said he’s confident that the city will find a way.
“We’re getting to work on much needed work, including costing it and I’m sure we will sort out in the same spirit how it will be paid for once we get that work done,” Tory said.
The news comes the same day as a massive morning rush-hour service disruption on Line 2 highlighted the need for improved transit. Thousands of people were diverted onto shuttle buses because of a smoldering cable underground near Bloor-Yonge Station. Regular service eventually resumed on the line and normal service was anticipated for the afternoon rush.
