Transit Updates Within the City of Toronto

The City of Toronto experienced a flurry of interesting transit news items in June.  This posting summarizes many of them.  For further information, contact us at ontario@transportaction.ca.

RAPID TRANSIT PROJECTS

• A bombshell article in The Trillium revealed information about a significant “descoping” of the GO Expansion project.  See our post of June 27 for more details.
• Operational control of the soon-to-open Eglinton Crosstown LRT has been transferred to TTC, which will initiate final acceptance testing soon.
• Construction has started on the East Harbour transit hub.  This station will serve GO Lakeshore East, GO Stouffville and the Ontario Line subway.  It is expected to become the second busiest transit station in Greater Toronto, after Union Station.
• After 6 years of study, construction has started on Woodbine GO station on the Kitchener GO line.  It will replace Etobicoke North, which lacks capacity to accommodate future growth on the line.  Woodbine Entertainment Group is providing up to $170 Million to support construction.  According to the Province, the new station will create new links between Pearson Airport, UPX, GO Trains and bus service from TTC, MiWay, York Region and Brampton Transit.
• With the commercial close of the Stations, Rail and Systems contract, the construction and lifecycle maintenance costs of the 7.8-km 3-stop Scarborough Subway Extension (SSE) has been revealed to be $10.2 Billion, or $1.3 B/km.  This is twice the capital cost assumed in the Metrolinx Preliminary Design Business Case in 2020! Difficult soil conditions have slowed the SSE tunnel boring machine.  Tunneling was expected to be completed in 4Q-24, but only about 2 km of the tunneling has been completed.
• Contract award for the Yonge North Subway Extension Advance Tunneling project is expected this summer.

TTC MATTERS

• Vigorous debate continues on whether Bathurst and Dufferin Streets (south of Eglinton Ave)  should be reconfigured from the current two-lanes for general purpose traffic/parking in each direction to one dedicated bus lane, one general purpose lane and no parking in each direction Heavy lobbying is underway both for and against.  A decision is expected in July.
• The TTC board is contemplating a pilot test of platform edge doors in subway stations.  Benefits include passenger safety, fewer issues with “trespassers on track” or “debris on track”, and more efficient heating/cooling of stations.  Cost to implement at a legacy station would be about $40 – 60 Million per station, or about $4 Billion in total.  Staff will develop a pilot test plan for one station, possibly Dundas (TMU) Station.
• As part of Toronto’s strategic parking framework, TTC is considering lowering transit fares during certain times (festivals, events) to reduce traffic congestion during big events.

Photo: Two TTC streetcars pass a steel frame building being erected for Ontario Line works at Osgoode.