Mayor Tory unveils plan to speed up completion of downtown relief line

Mayor John Tory announced on Thursday an accelerated plan to have the downtown relief line completed two years earlier than anticipated.

“I’m confident that Toronto residents want to move forward and they want transit built as soon as possible, including the relief line,” Tory said during a news conference at Pape Station.

Tory said construction of the relief line, which was initially slated to start in 2020 and will now end in 2029, will be sped up by completing the design, planning and acquisition work in parallel.

“Instead of taking the approach that’s been taken in the past where you did everything in sequence, we’re doing things in parallel now,” Tory said.

“So normally, until you reach the 30 per cent design stage, you wouldn’t necessarily be proceeding with land acquisition, with getting boring machines, with utility relocates. We’re going to move ahead with that work now.”

Tory said $162 million will be added to the 2019 TTC capital budget for the accelerated plan, which would include moving ahead with utility relocation and acquiring technical equipment such as boring machines.

“This will allow us to get shovels in the ground as soon as possible,” TTC Chair Jaye Robinson said.

VIDEO: John Tory promises to expedite building of TTC relief line. Mark Carcasole reports.

3:06 John Tory promises to expedite building of TTC relief line

Last fall, the Ontario government gave the City of Toronto and Metrolinx the green light to move ahead with the downtown relief line following an environmental assessment.

The subway line, which would connect Pape Station on Line 2 with Osgoode Station on Line 1, is expected to provide relief for the Yonge-University-Spadina subway line due to overcrowding.

“When we reach the 30 per cent stage of design work, because of this investment, we’re going to keep going because before we were stopping ourselves at each stage along the way and waiting to do things and we’re not waiting,” Tory said.

The second phase of the Relief Line, which is still under consideration, would link Pape Station north to Line 4 (Sheppard).

The downtown relief line is estimated to cost at least $6.8 billion.

VIDEO: Downtown relief line coming two years earlier than first planned

1:46 Downtown relief line coming two years earlier than first planned: TTC