Experts say new plans for the Ontario Line show the project could deliver significant benefits to Toronto transit users, but warn the proposed rail line almost certainly can’t be built within the budget and schedule the Progressive Conservative government has proposed.Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency for the GTHA, released the initial business case for the Ontario Line on Thursday. The planning document, a confidential description of which the Star obtained and reported on earlier this week, provides the most detailed look yet at the province’s proposal to build a 15.5-kilometre rail line through downtown that would connect Exhibition Place to the Ontario Science Centre. Transit experts who spoke to the Star agreed that if the 15-station project is built as planned, it would improve access to transit for residents in underserved areas such as Thorncliffe Park and Liberty Village, and significantly relieve crowding on the TTC’s overburdened Line 1 (Yonge-University-Spadina).According to the business case, the new line would have 389,000 daily boardings, and reduce Line 1 crowding by 14 per cent.Matti Siemiatycki, an associate professor of geography and planning at the University of Toronto, said the most positive aspect of the Ontario Line is that it would extend from TTC subway stops in the downtown core all the way north to Eglinton Ave., which studies have long shown is critical to diverting large numbers of riders from Line 1. “I think, from the city’s perspective, building up to Eglinton now, if that’s actually feasible, is a big win for the city of Toronto,” he said. However, plans for the Ontario Line are still in their infancy, and the project would replace the city- and TTC-led push to build a relief line subway that, in its first phase, would only have traveled as far north as Danforth Ave. but is far more advanced in design.Early works for construction of the relief subway were supposed to start as soon ...
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