The Toronto Transit Commission plans to seriously study the feasibility of a new downtown subway line over the next two years, as an idea that’s been dubbed the “missing link” in the city’s transit network appears to be gathering steam.
While studies on the so-called Dowtown Relief Line were carried out in the 1980s, Adam Giambrone, chair of the TTC, said last week that 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.”
Still subject to budgetary approval, Mr. Giambrone said the study of the Downtown Relief Line would start this fall and likely involve public consultations next year before wrapping up in 2011.
He did not offer a price tag for the analysis, but said Toronto council already 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 itis 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, who is also the councillor for Davenport. “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 council 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) has been championing the idea of resuscitating the Downtown Relief Line at city council, the TTC and Metrolinx, the regional transportation planning body.
Mr. Thompson sent a letter to Metrolinx earlier this summer to make the new board aware of the project and ask them to move it up from the region’s 25-year horizon.
He said the TTC’s plan to do engineering work on bringing the DRL to life “bodes well.”
“It makes sense,” said Mr. Thompson, who met with transit staff over a week ago. “The fact that the TTC is reviewing and studying it is good… Obviously I can’t predetermine the outcome but I know what I think needs to happen and obviouslyI’m pushing for it, but it needs to be on the table.”
The DRL makes sense both from a transportation planning, city-building and economic development perspective, 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.”
Comments