TTC to study downtown relief line
Subway extension; More detail on project needed: commissioner
Allison Hanes, National Post Published: Friday, August 21, 2009
The Toronto Transit Commission plans to seriously study the feasibility of a new downtown subway line, as an idea that's been dubbed the "missing link" in the city's transit network gathers steam.
TTC chair Adam Giambrone said yesterday the analysis of the so-called Downtown Relief Line would start this fall and likely involve public consultations next year before wrapping up in 2011. While studies on the line were carried out in the 1980s, Mr. Giambrone said yesterday more detailed analysis is needed to propel the idea forward.
"The study in 1989 was very preliminary," he said. "We need to do much more real engineering."
He did not offer a pricetag for the work, which is still subject to budgetary approval, but said Toronto council voted last spring to explore reviving the long shelved U-shaped subway making a wide swoop through downtown as a way to ease congestion on the Yonge line when it is extended to York Region.
"It and the Yonge North are twinned, if you will, as projects, so Yonge North had a fair bit of development and we're winding that up," said Mr. Giambrone. "And those resources, staff resources... will be reallocated to do work on the Downtown Relief Line."
Pushing the subway north would likely necessitate a costly and complicated overhaul of Yonge-Bloor Station and Toronto has expressed concern that picking up passengers outside the city could displace existing riders closer to downtown.
A brand-new DRL line would take traffic off the Yonge line, bringing passengers from the east and west sides of the Bloor-Danforth line and connecting up such neighbourhoods as Riverdale, Leslieville, the Distillery, East Bayfront, Liberty Village, Queen West and Parkdale.
Preliminary estimates peg the cost of redoing Yonge-Bloor Station at $1-billion and the price tag of a brand new subway system at just over $2-billion.
Councillor Michael Thompson (Scarborough Centre), who has championed the Downtown Relief Line at city council, the TTC and Metrolinx, the regional transportation planning body, said the new subway just "makes sense."
He sent a letter to Metrolinx officials this summer to ask them to move it up from the region's 25-year horizon. He met with TTC staff to discuss the idea last week.
"The fact that the TTC is reviewing and studying it is good," he said. "Obviously I can't predetermine the outcome but I know what I think needs to happen and obviously I'm pushing for it, but it needs to be on the table."
The DRL would have benefits for transportation planning, city-building and economic development, he said.
"It provides a much more efficient opportunity for transit in this city and it's been a missing link for quite some time," Mr. Thompson said. "Therefore it would be a great benefit from a passenger perspective to the TTC, both those in the downtown core, the 905 and so on."
ahanes@nationalpost.com