44 North
Senior Member
I often think Yonge north of Steeles is more likely than Yonge south of Steeles.
Politically, if the province tendered Yonge from Steeles to Highway 7, then told the city money is available for Finch to Steeles anytime they want, the Toronto electorate would throw council out really fast if they tried to block construction of that chunk.
Interestingly I'm half expecting something like this the longer YSE is delayed. Since the bulk of the project is in York Region, the yard is in York Region, and the greatest political/public demand is in York Region - I don't see why the Prov and York Region couldn't just say "F-Off Toronto, we're going it alone!"
The specs and EA would change though, it would no longer be a TTC project using TTC rolling stock, and the project would be designed as more of a light metro type of line (albeit with 'heavy rail' qualities). Its southern terminus could be Steeles, with the onus on Toronto/TTC to extend Line 1 from Finch to Steeles to meet this YRT/Metrolinx-owned subway and fill in the 2km gap. Or Toronto could decide to work alongside York Region/Metrolinx to extend this hypothetical light metro/subway further south to an intermodal Finch Station.
I've already prattled on about something similar in the appropriate threads (Fantasy, Yonge North). But I definitely see it being a realistic and optimal direction. 6-car ART/ ALRT can handle the loads for the next millennium, and if Bombardier's technology is chosen then the Feds would be more than happy to chip in for the bulk of it. And besides, these medium capacity metro systems are way more optimal in a suburban/semi-urban setting than $700M/km deep bore heavy rail. IMO it'd give York Region way more clout to have its own subway system, one they can extend whenever/wherever they want without having to rely on Toronto/TTC.