Councillors want Yonge subway extension now

Post City Magazine
February 2014
By Bree Rody-Mantha

After years of promises from politicians to extend both sides of the Yonge-University-Spadina (YUS) subway line into York Region, residents still don’t know when they can expect the extensions to be completed.

A group of councillors from Richmond Hill, Vaughan and Markham are hoping 2014 will be the year things get down to business.

The extensions would see the Spadina line extended to York University and the Yonge line to Highway 7. The latter is of particular importance to many York Region politicians, who say the region’s current transit does not support its growing population.

Last year, 15 councillors from the three cities, along with their mayors, signed CivicAction’s pledge to combat congestion in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA).

With the ball no longer in the court of municipal government, co-operation of the federal government, Toronto City Council and the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is needed. At a recent development services meeting in the city of Markham, councillors voted to formally request the federal government to support the project.

TTC chair Karen Stintz said that the extensions are important but should not be a priority at this time.

“Our challenge is to figure out how we can relieve the current congestion on the subway system,” said Stintz. “Until then, we can’t seriously consider an extension.”

Toronto City Council has been at odds over what the next transit priority should be, with many advocating for a downtown relief line to ease crowding on the YUS line. A subway line in Scarborough has also been the subject of much heated debate recently.

But Coun. Godwin Chan said that debating those lines will only delay things more. “I think the capacity argument has to be looked at from different angles,” said Chan. “We are shovel ready. When you talk about Scarborough, when you talk about the downtown relief line, they don’t know how many stations, how many kilometres … we will just be waiting forever.”

He also resents that the federal government is willing to commit funds to the Scarborough subway despite an apparent lack of direction.

Coun. Alan Shefman said that it’s time to face reality and get the region moving.

“I’m just really passionate about connecting our region,” said Shefman. “It’s time to join the rest of the world where transit is not operated locally, but regionally.”

In the past, Shefman has accused provincial transit agency Metrolinx of flip-flopping on the issue.

When approached for an interview about the state of the extensions, Metrolinx offered an email statement, saying that the Yonge subway extension, which has already had an environmental impact study completed, is part of the next wave of their GTHA-wide “big move” plan. However, Vanessa Thomas, media relations and issues team lead with Metrolinx, could not provide a date for that wave.

“Roll-out of projects is subject to a number of considerations including funding [and] project state-of-readiness,” said Thomas.

Chan thinks enough is enough. “I know there’s limited resources, [but] they set a precedent by helping with the Scarborough extension. There’s no reason they shouldn’t be helping with this.”