TTC Study Proposes Downtown Relief Line

TTC Study Proposes Downtown Relief Line

TTC Subway - At Broadview - Oct 18th 5:50pm

Toronto's TTC released a preliminary study today indicating that crowding on the Yonge Subway is set to get worst. Much, much worst... if you can believe that. Considering that the Yonge Line is already way over capacity, I don't see how that line handles 50% more people even with the new trains that were released last year and now coming into full service and upgraded signalling. The Yonge Line is a pure disaster of overcrowding, it makes Tokyo's Subway Line look like a Sunday Picnic. There is no excuse for a city as rich as Toronto to have such a shitty subway.

Thankfully, the TTC armed with its government funded study can report back for the greater good. The study, to make a long storey short says that in less than 20 years the Yonge Line demand will go from 116,000 morning trips to 236,000 trips. Don't know how they plan on doing that unless they turn the subway into a 60 mph conveyor belt. How do they handle the crush of this additional demand? The TTC is proposing a downtown relief line from Pale running south to King and then running west to take the pressure of the Yonge Line.

The projected cost of this new plan is between 2.8 and 3.2 billion dollars. That my friends is no small change. Think about the additional western capacity that will be utilized by the new stops on the Spadina Extention that is currently under construction then add in a doubling of thr downtown population south of College and Carlton and you have the makings of subwaygeddon. You better get ready, it won't be pretty.

Cause and effect, Toronto is just to successful for its own good...

From Global Toronto

“Two weeks ago we hit a record ridership of 510 million trips over a 12 month period, we cracked the half a billion mark last year, next year we anticipate 528 million rides, so ridership continues to go up,” Brad Ross, Executive Director of Corporate Communications for the TTC said. “So we need to do some things to increase capacity as we see that ridership grow.”

To deal with the increased number of riders, the commission has taken steps to increase service along much-needed routes.

“We are doing some things with respect to new Toronto rocket subway trains, and a new signalling system that will give us some greater capacity but not for a very long time,” Ross said.

Over the last two months, the TTC has also increased service on 77 subway, streetcar, and bus routes.

According to Ross and officials at the TTC, an additional subway line could relieve the increasing pressure on the Yonge-University-Spadina line.

“We’re at capacity on the Yonge line, particularly at Bloor-Yonge station,” Ross said. “During peak times both in the morning and the afternoon, it is very, very crowded. It is at capacity. Sometimes you have to wait three, four trains before you can get on depending on the time of day.”

The TTC, Metrolinx, and the province of Ontario are also building expanded public transit across Toronto.

From The Toronto Star

Although there may be other means of taking up the additional ridership, the report says TTC and city staff are continuing to study the potential route and design of an additional downtown subway that would run south from the Danforth line, possibly from Pape Station, and then east along a street such as King.
That initial phase of the subway, commonly referred to as the downtown relief line, would cost about $3.2 billion, says the report.
The TTC’s new CEO Andy Byford has been calling for a downtown relief line to take the burden off the Yonge subway since he took the top job in February.
The $2.28 million study was approved by Toronto City Council in January. The TTC approved a second phase of the study, at a cost of $1 million, last month.