[URBAN NOTE] "What a relief! TTC endorses downtown line"

[rfmcdonald]

Transit Toronto's Robert McKenzie shares the good news: the Downtown Relief Line has been prioritized by the TTC!

The TTC proposes building a new subway line southward from Pape Station beneath Pape Avenue, then westward beneath Queen and King Streets to St. Andrew Station. The goal is to provide an alternative rapid transit route for passengers traveling downtown from Scarborough and east-end Toronto. More important, perhaps, the line would reduce pressure on Toronto’s main subway junction at Bloor - Yonge Station, and, as a result, increase the capacity of the 1 Yonge - University - Spadina subway to carry passengers from North York and other points further north.

The TTC staff report recommending that the commissioner prioritize the DRT was (rightly) full of gloom and doom about the future or rapid transit in Toronto, if the City and the TTC do not build such a line. Since Metrolinx and York Region hope to extend the Yonge branch of the subway line northward to Richmond Hill, the line will have reached and exceeded its capacity before 2031.

Although the actual route of the proposal line may differ widely when it finally opens, the authors of the TTC staff report envision stations at Pape Avenue and Gerrard Street East, Pape and Queen Street East, Queen and River Street / Bayview Avenue, King and Sherbourne Street, at the present King Station at King and Yonge Streets and at St. Andrew Station at King and University Avenue in the first phase of the line. Later phases of the line extend the subway under King West and Roncesvalles Avenues to Dundas West Station and under Pape Avenue, Overlea Boulevard and Don Mills Road to Eglinton Avenue, where passengers could connect with the future Eglinton - Scarborough Crosstown light rail transit line.

If the City and TTC build all three phases, the project could cost as much as $8.3 billion. Building the line only between Pape and St. Andrew Stations would cost $3.2 billion. Extending to Dundas West would cost $6.2 billion. Extending north to Eglinton and Don Mills would cost $5.5 billion.