This DRL versus Yonge Extension stuff is a completely false choice. Even assuming that there is limited capital funding available, the extension of the subway increases the need for relief of the Yonge line and therefore makes the DRL more likely. At the TTC's presentation the other day, they kept going on about how the DRL is their absolute worst-case scenario and they would avoid building it if at all possible. Only extreme overcrowding on the Yonge line resulting from the extension could result in it being built.
Here's perhaps a more reasonable choice: eliminate the massively complex and disruptive $500 million, 6-year reconstruction of Yonge and Bloor that would no longer be needed if the DRL is built. Then, postpone construction on, say, the Scarborough-Malvern line (the second line to Malvern that is already a low priority to the TTC), worth about $800 million. You're at $1.3 billion already. The TTC projected the cost of the DRL to Queen as being $2.1 billion, on an alignment that would be far more expensive than the partially surface Front/Rail Corridor alignment. If that knocked off ~$400 million (a conservative figure considering how much it apparently costs to tunnel in this city), you're down to $1.7 billion. There's only a $400 million gap. The province and feds committed $250 million to the Front Street Extension, a waterfront project that isn't likely to ever get built. Commit that money or other waterfront money to a project that would help the waterfront more than any other, and you're down to $150 million, or less than the TTC is spending on the one overbuild bus terminal at Steeles. In other words, easily affordable. Or, even better! Reduce the preposterously high cost of subway construction in this city so we can build all the lines.
There are over 350 buses an hour going south to Finch station. The case for the subway extension is absolutely unimpeachable.
