Locals push back against Ontario Line above-ground design at first open house

Thestar.com
January 24, 2020
Ben Spurr

Residents living along the northern end of the proposed Ontario Line route have told Metrolinx they’re concerned about plans to build the transit project above ground through their neighbourhoods.

The provincial transit agency for the GTA held the first of four public open houses about the Ontario Line project Thursday evening at the Ontario Science Centre. The attraction would be at the northern terminus of the 16-kilometre rail line that forms the centrepiece of the Ontario PC government’s transit plans and would would connect to Exhibition Place, via Queen St. downtown.

Many attendees said they agree the city needs more transit built as soon as possible, and many were supportive of the project.

But a number of residents pushed back against the proposal to build the section of the line that would run through Thorncliffe Park and Flemingdon Park on an elevated guideway.

“I accept the fact that we need better transit, no question. I don’t like what they’re planning to do to my neighbourhood,” said Luba Maisterrena, a 73-year-old retiree who lives in a high rise at 95 Thorncliffe Park.

She said she’s worried the plan to run trains on an elevated guideway along Overlea Blvd. and then up Don Mills Rd. would “split the two sides of the neighbourhood.” She also expressed concerns that residents in her building and others would have their views obstructed and have to put up with train noise.

Metrolinx has said the trains would operate once every 90 seconds, in each direction.

“We’d love it underground,” said Maisterrena.

Other residents said they believed Thorncliffe and Flemingdon, where family incomes are well below the city-wide average, were being treated worse than other more wealthy neighbourhoods along the route, where the plan is to build the line underground.

“It’s a cop-out. Through the Danforth it’s going to be buried. High income, high land value. But you come through Thorncliffe and Flemingdon and you want to put it above ground?” asked Sierra Constantinides, a mother who works in the film industry and lives on nearby Wynford Heights Cres.

Other residents said they were against the guideway because it would require removing the trees from Overlea, and speculated an elevated structure in the middle of the street would attract loitering young people and crime.

Other residents at Thursday’s open house said they were looking forward to the Ontario Line opening.

Howard Rideout, who lives near Pape Ave. and Danforth Ave. where the Ontario Line will connect with TTC Line 2, said he loved the Ontario Line idea.

“I think it’s great,” he said.

He noted the project would give him an alternative to the Line 1 subway to get downtown, and argued its design was “much smarter” than previous plans for the relief line subway, because it would make use of the GO corridor.

Osher Joseph, a senior high school student who lives near Kennedy station, also said the project would make it easier for him to get to the city core.

“It connects so many communities together. I thought that was really, really cool,” he said.

The fact that plans for an above-ground transit line championed by Premier Doug Ford are sparking opposition is an ironic twist, given his history. As a Toronto city councillor Ford led a push with his brother, then Mayor Rob Ford, to cast plans for above-ground transit in Scarborough as second rate.

Some attendees at the open house expressed concerns the Ontario Line would take up lanes of car traffic and increase gridlock in the area. Published plans for the project don’t contemplate the need to displace traffic, but the residents’ concerns echoed those stoked by the Fords during earlier transit debates, when the former mayor falsely claimed constructing an LRT in Scarborough would require “rip(ping) out traffic lanes.”

Plans to build the Ontario Line on an elevated structure through existing GO Transit corridors have also provoked opposition in the Leslieville and Cabbagetown neighbourhoods, where an open house is scheduled for next Tuesday.

Despite opposition, Metrolinx says it’s committed to building sections of the Ontario Line above ground. Avoiding expensive tunnelling is key to reducing costs for the project, which have been estimated at roughly $11 billion.

“We’re proceeding with the guideway at this point in time, but, that being said, we’re going to listen to the feedback,” said Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins. She acknowledged “the guideway was a concern for some people” at the meeting, but pledged the agency would take measures to mitigate impacts of noise and vibration.