As long as the city’s public transit system has existed, conflicts between the suburbs and the city have resulted in late, canceled or substandard service.
There are only so many transit dollars to go around, and not every neighborhood likes to share. The announcement of a major project can generate both fanfare and jealousy, often pitting city and suburban interests against each other. These geographic conflicts result in transit delays, waste, or poor quality in every direction. Here, a brief history of the biggest casualties.
Eglinton Plan over and over again
1985: The City proposes a dedicated bus lane along Eglinton West. York and Etobicoke politicians are angry, questioning why North York should get a subway along Sheppard when they only get a short busway.
1994: Premier Bob Rae has tried to appease everyone by starting construction on a five-stop subway line with Eglinton, matching the length of the Sheppard route.
1995: Mike Harris moves into Queens Park and cancels the project, enraging former TTC chairman Mike Cooley, who says, “(Conservatives) are going to put their money where they get their political mileage. And his political reputation isn’t in a bad part of the metro.
2007: Mayor David Miller revived the Eglinton West Line, this time as a light-rail transit.
2010: Rob Ford vetoes Miller’s plans, but council votes to proceed with the Eglinton Crosstown LRT.
2023: The crosstown has been delayed once again, and it’s now been nearly 50 years since the city first proposed rapid transit along Eglinton.
The sad saga of the Scarborough Metro
1968: TTC is considering extending the Bloor-Danforth line northeast to Scarborough. Local politicians are thrilled, but city councilors are skeptical, arguing that the neighborhood is not dense enough to provide subway access.
1975: The province is pursuing a compromise: an elevated light-rail line that falls somewhere between a streetcar and a subway.
1985: The Scarborough RT opened two years late, more than doubling its estimated cost of $103 million. Expensive repairs are required almost immediately.
2013: The city council decided that RT maintenance was too expensive and approved plans to replace it.
Three-stop subway expansion.
2016: Due to rising cost estimates, the expansion has been reduced to only one stop.
2019: Premier Doug Ford revived the three-stop plan.
2023: The RT is expected to close later this year, leaving riders on buses until the subway opens in 2030, more than 60 years after the Scarborough Subway was first proposed.
Tortured Route to Downtown Relief
1910: A U-shaped line is proposed in the city which passes through the city along with Rani.
1954: Anticipating the arrival of the East–West Line, the city drafted an underground streetcar stop beneath Queen Station.
1958: Council approved the Bloor–Danforth subway, arguing that it was more important to address increased suburban traffic than an underground route along the Queen.
1985: The recession has caused ridership on the Yonge Line to drop, and a new TTC transit plan, a study for the network 2011, recommends delaying the Downtown Relief Line again, this time in favor of the Shepard Subway.
2013: Even though the Yonge Line is officially over capacity, Mayor Rob Ford declined to pursue a relief line, saying “the people of the city already have enough subways.”
2016: Under Tory, the council approves a relief-line route from Osgoode to Pep Stations.
2019: Doug Ford has turned the existing plans into his own project, the Ontario Line, which will run from Ontario Place to the Science Centre. It is expected to open in 2031, 121 years after the city first considered a similar route.
Etobicoke RT that never came into existence
1980: The Bloor–Danforth line rises at both ends, extending to Kennedy in the east and Kipling in the west. To appease Etobicoke politicians, who are jealous of the planned rapid-transit line in Scarborough, the TTC operates a light-rail station above the Kipling subway platform.
1981: The TTC has released its annual report, which briefly mentions the construction of a light-rail line extending north from Kipling to the airport, and proponents of the idea have proposed extending the route north to York University. Have dreamed
1985: Scarborough RT opens late and over budget. The council quietly scrapped plans for its western counterpart, concluding that light rail routes through low-density suburbs are not worth the expense.
2015: The Union Pearson Express opens, officially ending Kipling’s dream of a line connecting the airport.