[URBAN NOTE] On the new funding and route for the Downtown Relief Line
The Toronto Star's Ben Spurr wrote about the new announcement. We even got a map!
The downtown relief subway line is one step closer to becoming a reality, after city planning staff identified the preferred route for the transit project this week and the provincial government announced funding to design it.
At the TTC’s Greenwood complex on Wednesday, Ontario Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca said the Liberal government would give provincial transit agency Metrolinx more than $150 million for planning and design work for the line, which would connect downtown Toronto with the Line 2 subway east of the Don River.
TTC officials called it the most significant funding to date for the relief line, which has been discussed by planners for decades and is considered among the city’s top transit priorities.
The subway will go east on Queen, across the Don River, and then link up with Pape station.
The Globe and Mail's Jeff Gray had more.
ntario Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca made the announcement at the TTC’s Greenwood subway yard in the city’s east end, flanked by Mayor John Tory and TTC chairman Josh Colle. Mr. Del Duca said the money would go to Metrolinx, the province’s regional transportation agency, where officials would work with TTC planners on the details of the proposed line, such its route and its more detailed costs.
Mr. Tory and Mr. Del Duca were careful to excise the word “downtown” from the line’s name and to point to its potential “regional” benefits.
Mr. Tory repeated his previous assertions that the relief line was a “precondition” before demands that the overcrowded Yonge line be expanded northward into York Region could be contemplated.
The funding announcement came on a bad day for public transit in Toronto, after a fire at Yonge Station forced the shutdown of much of the Bloor-Danforth line for the morning rush hour, leaving thousands of commuters in the lurch.
Responding to questions about the morning’s subway headaches, Mr. Tory said much of the $800-million the city is set to receive from Ottawa for infrastructure would go into repairing existing transit lines over the next two years, so that the city will not be building new lines as its current system crumbles.
The downtown relief subway line is one step closer to becoming a reality, after city planning staff identified the preferred route for the transit project this week and the provincial government announced funding to design it.
At the TTC’s Greenwood complex on Wednesday, Ontario Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca said the Liberal government would give provincial transit agency Metrolinx more than $150 million for planning and design work for the line, which would connect downtown Toronto with the Line 2 subway east of the Don River.
TTC officials called it the most significant funding to date for the relief line, which has been discussed by planners for decades and is considered among the city’s top transit priorities.
The subway will go east on Queen, across the Don River, and then link up with Pape station.
The Globe and Mail's Jeff Gray had more.
ntario Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca made the announcement at the TTC’s Greenwood subway yard in the city’s east end, flanked by Mayor John Tory and TTC chairman Josh Colle. Mr. Del Duca said the money would go to Metrolinx, the province’s regional transportation agency, where officials would work with TTC planners on the details of the proposed line, such its route and its more detailed costs.
Mr. Tory and Mr. Del Duca were careful to excise the word “downtown” from the line’s name and to point to its potential “regional” benefits.
Mr. Tory repeated his previous assertions that the relief line was a “precondition” before demands that the overcrowded Yonge line be expanded northward into York Region could be contemplated.
The funding announcement came on a bad day for public transit in Toronto, after a fire at Yonge Station forced the shutdown of much of the Bloor-Danforth line for the morning rush hour, leaving thousands of commuters in the lurch.
Responding to questions about the morning’s subway headaches, Mr. Tory said much of the $800-million the city is set to receive from Ottawa for infrastructure would go into repairing existing transit lines over the next two years, so that the city will not be building new lines as its current system crumbles.