[URBAN NOTE] "Eglinton Transit City Line may survive"

[rfmcdonald]

This is very good news. The proposed Eglinton Crosstown LRT will play a critical role, with Eglinton Avenue constituting the next logical west-east street above Eglinton to have a non-bus mass transit route. Eglinton was even supposed to host the Eglinton West subway line in the mid-1990s before money issues led to its cancellation. With this, observers have noted, Transit City is likely to survive in some recognizable form.

A modified version of the Eglinton light-rail line, a key part of Toronto's Transit City plan, is likely to be constructed despite Mayor Rob Ford's assertions that his administration would focus on construction of new subway lines.

Bruce McCuaig, CEO of the provincial transit authority Metrolinx, said the 33-kilometre Eglinton line is a major priority for the province and his agency is working with city officials to make it a reality.

"They've communicated back that they understand the importance of the Eglinton line. So we have ... confidence that we will be moving ahead with that particular project," he told CBC News in an interview.

McCuaig's comments come just over a month after Ford said unequivocally that "Transit City is over," referring to the plan to construct an integrated network of light-rail lines across Toronto.

Ford later said his office's most pressing transit priority is to construct a subway line from the Don Mills station eastward to Scarborough Town Centre.

But TTC Chair Karen Stintz told CBC News that the Eglinton LRT may survive because an 11-kilometre stretch is slated to be constructed underground, or "below grade."

"We see that the light-rail transit across Eglinton is below grade," she said. "And even though it's not quote, unquote a subway, it does meet with the mayor's vision that new transit built in Toronto be below surface."