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A new poll released by the Toronto Relief Line Alliance reveals the breadth of support for the TTC's Relief Line among Torontonians. Not only do more than half favour it over the Scarborough subway or SmartTrack, a majority of respondents (55.6%) said they would not vote for their present councillor if they were opposed to the relief line.
These results hold true even for people who voted for John Tory as mayor. Despite the central part that SmartTrack played in his programme, 58.1% of them believe that the Relief Line is most important, only 20.1% believe SmartTrack should take priority, and 21.7% believe the Scarborough subway extension should come first. This preference holds true across age groups and the way respondents commute, and the only city region where another option gets priority is Scarborough itself (which is also the only region where the majority (51%) of respondents would vote for a councillor even if they opposed the relief line).
Earlier polls have shown similar results but were less clear because they offered more options than the three choices given this time. In late March another poll of Torontonians showed 28% of voters saying the Relief Line should be given highest priority and should be built first, followed by 22% who backed the Crosstown LRT (which is odd since it is already underway) and the Scarborough subway/Malvern LRT (17%). In that poll, only 10% said SmartTrack should get priority.
A similar poll a year earlier found the Relief Line was similarly top priority at 29%, with 19% backing the Scarborough subway and the rest backing a variety of other projects.
TTC CEO Andy Byford and the city's Chief Planner, Jennifer Keesmaat, have both signalled that the line is their top priority. While John Tory said in his election campaign that he would build it "way before" 2031, in January he signalled that he saw it being built between 2028 and 2031, with SmartTrack raising capacity meanwhile.
At the end of March Toronto City Council endorsed a first phase route for the Relief Line from Pape to Downtown via Queen/Richmond, and the preferred alignment and station locations will be presented to the executive committee on June 28th. The Relief Line Alliance is backing a much more extensive line all the way to Don Mills. As yet, however, there is no announced funding for any version of the line, and Council has not yet been asked to provide funding for anything more than studies.
The Relief Line Alliance poll was conducted April 6 and 7 and had responses from 981 voters in Toronto, giving an accuracy of +/- 3%, 19 times out of 20.
