Key TTC subway project delayed years, $100 million over budget, report says

Yorkregion.com
April 5, 2019
Ben Spurr

A crucial signal modernization project designed to increase capacity on the TTC’s busiest subway line has been delayed by three years and gone nearly $100 million over budget, according to a new report from the transit agency.

An external review of the automatic train control (ATC) program has also raised the possibility the system, which is intended to allow the TTC to run trains much more frequently, may not be able to deliver the promised benefits to riders who already find themselves jammed onto subway platforms that are only expected to get more crowded in coming years.

The TTC has announced delays to the signalling upgrades on Line 1 which should increase capacity. More closures are slated for this Saturday.
“I’m disappointed and I’m frustrated,” said Councillor and TTC Chair Jaye Robinson in response to news of the delay, which transit agency management had been warning of for months but hadn’t publicly detailed until Thursday’s report.

Robinson (Ward 15, Don Valley West) said the more than 700,000 daily riders who use Line 1 (Yonge-University-Spadina) are eager for improved service and will be angered the signal modernization will take longer than expected.

“Having said that, I do think this is a very transparent look at what went wrong and how to fix it. (The TTC now has) an accurate timeline, they’ve built in contingencies. So I think it’s a lot more responsible going forward, and let’s face it, I don’t think the original schedule was realistic,” she said.

The ATC program has been in the works since 2008. It’s already operational on the section of Line 1 between Vaughan Metropolitan Centre and Dupont stations, where the transit agency says it has improved service capacity.

According to a schedule the TTC set four years ago, the agency planned to complete the project by late 2019, within a budget of $563 million. The new estimated completion date is September 2022, at a cost of $661 million.

Deputy Mayor and TTC board member Denzil Minnan-Wong called the $98-million cost overrun “massive” and said it was further evidence Toronto’s transit agency “has some really significant problems in administering and delivering capital projects on budget and on time.”

“And this is a very serious issue,” he said, citing the Toronto York Spadina Subway Extension as an example of another project that far exceeded its initial budget.

Minnan-Wong noted the delay to ATC means more of the temporary subway closures required to perform the installation. The TTC estimates it will need 12 weekend closures per year to finish the project by 2022.

ATC technology is considered a significant upgrade to the TTC’s “fixed block” system that has been in place since the subway opened in 1954.
Under the older system, a subway line is divided into sections, and only one train is allowed in each section at a time. For safety reasons, the section in front and behind are kept clear, restricting how closely together trains can run.

But ATC can provide the TTC’s control centre with an accurate, real-time location for each subway, which allows them to run much closer together.

The TTC has said the new system could allow it to run more than 30 trains per hour on Line 1, up from the 25.5 per hour it operates during morning rush hour today. Each train carries 1,100 passengers, and the TTC has described the increased capacity enabled by ATC as key to being able to meet demand through to
2026, when more 34,400 people are expected to board at Bloor station every morning rush hour.

The report says the project was delayed by several factors including the construction of the Spadina Subway Extension, which was planned to open in December 2017 with a fully functional ATC system and “required the exclusive focus of the entire ATC team.”

The TTC also revised the original schedule because it called for closing the entire downtown “U” of Line 1 from St. Clair West to St. Clair station at the same time, which the agency concluded would have been “overly disruptive.”

The increased costs are mostly related to having to pay employees and consultants over the longer duration of the project.

In an external review included with the report, consultant firm Transit Systems Engineering found no serious fault with the TTC’s handling of the project, concluding the ATC installation appears “well managed and effective” and the new schedule achievable.

However, the consultant found there were other factors that posed “significant risks” to achieving the promised capacity benefits of ATC even after the system is installed.

One issue is that the TTC subway may not have enough power to run trains closer together in some situations, and current ventilation systems may be inadequate. The system’s capacity benefits will also be undermined unless the TTC buys more trains.

The consultant warned that solutions to these problems “are lagging” but noted the TTC was working to address them.

Transit agency spokesperson Stuart Green said the signal modernization project “will absolutely provide operational benefits to the TTC.” But the agency is also pursuing other initiatives to help increase capacity, including expanding Bloor-Yonge station, upgrading power and ventilation systems, and buying more trains.