Mayoral candidate John Tory has unveiled a plan to create a 53-kilometre rail line that would connect Etobicoke, downtown Toronto and Scarborough using pre-existing GO Transit track.

Under the plan, the city would build 22 new stations along the Lakeshore, Kitchener and Stouffville lines, providing frequent, all-day service between the two burgeoning suburbs, Pearson International Airport, Unionville and Union Station. The line would intersect with the Bloor-Danforth line, the Yonge-University-Spadina line and the planned Eglinton Crosstown LRT.

In order to accommodate the project, the province would have to sign off on electrifying the GO Transit track on effected routes, something PC Leader Tim Hudak has been critical of in the past.

“I believe this plan makes an awful lot of sense from the standpoint of using existing assets not only to do things more cost effectively but to get things done a lot faster and get relief in place and available to people a lot sooner,” Tory told reporters prior to a speech at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre Tuesday. “It is something that I think any leader would look at and say ‘You know what, this makes way too much sense not to do.’”

Dubbed the SmartTrack line, Tory said the project would cost the city about $8 billion, with about a third of the price tag covered by increased tax revenue from development along the route and the other two-thirds covered with funding from the provincial and federal governments.

Tory said the line could be up and running within seven years, compared to the 17 years it may take to build a downtown relief subway line along either Queen or King Street.

That proposed line has been thrust in the forefront in recent months after a TTC staff report suggested that overcrowding on the Yonge line had made the construction of a relief line a top priority.

“I have referred to a Yonge Street relief line and if you want to talk about relief, this is going to do it in seven years as opposed to Olivia Chow’s proposal which would do it in not less than 17 years,” Tory said. “This is going to be a substantial relief to travellers on the Yonge Street line while providing transit service for the first time to places like northeast and northwest Toronto. I am very proud of the fact that we can do something that does those things at the same time.”

Fellow candidates criticize Tory for change of heart

Though fellow mayoral candidates Olivia Chow, David Soknacki, Karen Stintz and Sarah Thomson have all identified the construction of a relief subway line as job number one, Tory said the regional line would take precedence should he be elected on Oct. 27.

This despite previous comments from Tory that he would “start building the relief line right away” and make it “priority number one” as mayor.

“I am not really sure what John is thinking,” Stintz told CP24 on Tuesday. “We have recognized as a city that we need the downtown relief line moving forward and John earlier in his campaign acknowledged that as the priority and now he is saying it is the wrong line at the wrong time. It is extremely unclear to me if John actually understands the transit priorities in this city.”

Though Olivia Chow has not yet personally commented on the SmartTrack proposal, Tory’s apparent change in stance on the downtown relief line was the subject of an attack ad Chow’s campaign posted to YouTube Tuesday morning.

The 46-second ad features several previous comments Tory has made about the need for the downtown relief line and then concludes with a message branding Tory as “Not clear, not informed” and “just a flip-flopper.”

Discussing his decision to back away from the downtown relief line as a top priority with reporters earlier in the day, Tory brushed aside suggestions that he was flip-flopping.

“I believe you can only have so many priorities because otherwise you have none,” he said. “I have been very clear with what my top two priorities are and that is building the Scarborough subway as agreed and getting on with this regional express line. I would continue with the planning work on the downtown line but it would fall behind those top two.”

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