TORONTO — Metrolinx and Infrastructure Ontario have released the Initial Business Case for Toronto’s Ontario Line, the proposed new east-west subway line that will replace the relief line that the City of Toronto was planning.
The new 16-kilometre line will connect Ontario Place/Exhibition through downtown Toronto to the Ontario Science Centre, said a July 25 statement.
The line, announced by the provincial government in April, would have 15 potential stations, including six interchange stations, adding 17 new connections to GO Transit and the existing network of existing subways and streetcars.
A previous statement said the line would cost $10.9 billion and would be finished by 2027.
The document said the trains will be fully automated and driverless with signalling that enables high frequency service, similar to technology being used in Paris, London and Singapore. There will be shorter trains and platforms approximately 100 metres in length. Up to six kilometres of the route is to be elevated or at grade in existing rail corridors, isolated from traffic, which helps to lower costs, said Metrolinx.
The system will have up to 40 trains per hour, 90 seconds apart.
Metrolinx anticipates 389,000 daily boardings. There will be connections to three GO lines, Lakeshore East, Lakeshore West and Stouffville; four connections to Line 1, 2 and Line 5-Eglinton Crosstown; and 10 connections to King, Queen and Gerrard streetcars.
“Toronto needs more than a subway, it needs a better transit network, and this is precisely what the new Ontario Line will deliver,” said Metrolinx president and CEO Phil Verster in the statement. “If you live in Thorncliffe Park, your commute to the heart of downtown will become 26 minutes, not 42, freeing up more time for what is important to you.”
The statement said: “The team has also been sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with the City of Toronto and TTC, meeting more than 40 times already, learning from the work done on the relief line, and helping us move forward together at the pace required.”
The procurement model will be a public-private partnership (P3), noted Infrastructure Ontario president and CEO Ehren Cory.
“This is an incredible opportunity for local companies and those around the world to support a historic transit project leveraging our homegrown P3 delivery model,” said Cory in the statement.
“The Ontario Line and the other subway projects will also include many transit-oriented development opportunities. We will be actively engaging industry to share more details and gather input on how best to deliver this ambitious project.”
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