A new “Ontario Line” will link Ontario Place to the Ontario Science Centre while providing relief to the packed Yonge Street line, Premier Doug Ford announced Wednesday.
As revealed by the Toronto Sun, the downtown relief line will use new technology which the government believes will put riders on the line faster and more cheaply than traditional construction.
The proposed 15-kilometre freestanding line will allow narrower, lighter, quieter subway trains that can more frequently and more easily run on elevated rails, something it will do as it runs over the Don River – not under through a deep tunnel as planned by the City of Toronto.
The province intends to build the Ontario Line as a private-public partnership, allowing the private sector to propose some of the design elements, a move provincial officials argue will lower the risk of going over budget.
“Ontario Place will soon be a world-class, year-round destination that visitors and residents will be able to get to on a subway,” said Ford.
The project is part of a $28.5-billion expansion to the provincial transit network which will be included in Finance Minister Vic Fedeli’s first budget Thursday.
The province is also vowing to extend Yonge Street’s Line 1 north to Richmond Hill, the Scarborough Subway and an underground Eglinton Crosstown West extension to Pearson Airport.
“You have waited long enough,” Ford said in a message to commuters. “I know that you are tired of being stuck in traffic … you’re tired of being crammed into overcrowded buses, you are tired of waiting to get home to your families.
“We are making the biggest, the largest investment in new subways in Canadian history,” he said.
The province also plans to build a three-stop Scarborough subway extension from Kennedy Rd. north to McCowan Rd. and then west to Don Mills Rd., the government says.
LIVE: Premier Ford, Minister Yurek and Minister McNaughton make an announcement about Ontario's transit network.
Ford’s brother, the former mayor of Toronto who died of cancer in 2016, campaigned and pushed hard for a Scarborough subway when others were proposing above-ground light rail.
The City of Toronto had proposed a one-stop Scarborough subway, and the province says it’s prepared to cover the extra cost to add two more stops.
Ontario NDP Transit Critic Jessica Bell accused the Ford government of ripping up years of detailed transit planning, causing years of delays for GTA commuters.
“Today, Ford condemned families to continue to wait while full car after full car passes them by, to continue to squeeze into overcrowded transit during crush hour, and to continue to spend longer commuting everyday while they wait for new transit lines to be built,” Bell said in a statement.
— Line 1 (Yonge Street): Extension from Finch Station to Langstaff/Richmond Hill Centre, estimated cost $5.6 billion, projected completion date shortly after Ontario Line opens.