Bloor Danforth Line

Bloor-Danforth
Old Mill Station
Route length:	26.2 km
Gauge :	1495 mm
Power system :	600 V  =
GO Transit from Milton Kipling GO / Kipling Go Transit to Bloor (see below) Islington Mimico Creek Royal York Old Mill Humber River Jane Runnymede High park Keele Keele (formerly Vincent) Yard Go Transit from Kipling (see above) Go Transit from Georgetown Dundas West / Bloor GO GO Transit by Barrie GO Transit to Union Station Lansdowne Dufferin Ossington Christie Bathurst Spadina Line from Vaughan Spadina Tram to Union Station St. George University Line to Union Station Bay Bloor-Yonge Yonge Line   (Union Station ↔ Finch) Sherbourne Rosedale Ravine (covered bridge) Castle Frank Prince Edward Viaduct GO Transit (Union Station ↔ Richmond Hill) Don River Don Valley Parkway Broadview Chester Pape Donlands Greenwood Yard Greenwood Coxwell Woodbine Main Street Victoria Park Warden maintenance track Warden GO Transit from Union Station Eglinton Line (under construction) Kennedy GO / Kennedy Scarborough Line GO Transit to Lincolnville

The Bloor Danforth Line (officially called Line 2 Bloor Danforth ) is a subway line in the Canadian city ​​of Toronto . It is part of the Toronto Subway and forms the most important west-east connection of the local public transport network. The line operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is 26.2 km long and has 31 stations, the track width is 1495 mm.

The line is named after the main streets Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue , which it mostly follows. In the city center it crosses twice with the U-shaped Yonge University Line , at the eastern terminus there is a connection to the Scarborough Line . The Bloor Danforth Line is used by an average of 510,620 passengers every day (2015).

history

In 1910, the city council commissioned an engineering firm in New York to design a subway network that was to include three lines with a total length of 18.7 km. After some modifications to the original proposal, a west-east line was provided under Bloor Street. However, the project failed in a referendum in January 1912 with a no-vote share of 57% and was not implemented. City architect Rowland Harris was able to ensure that the Prince Edward Viaduct , which was approved in 1913 and opened five years later, over the Don River , which connects Bloor Street with Danforth Avenue, was given a second level for a means of mass transportation, although its realization in the long term was not foreseeable.

In 1941, the TTC assumed a marked increase in population and traffic in the period after the Second World War and, for this reason, planned a subway tram ; In 1942 she made a change after the first proposal was rejected by the city administration. Among other things, a tunnel was planned under Queen Street , through which several tram lines should be led. In the post-war period, the bulk of the west-east traffic shifted to Bloor Street, which is why a means of mass transport seemed more suitable there than a subway tram under Queen Street, two kilometers south. In addition, the appropriately built Prince Edward Viaduct could also be used.

In January 1958, the Metropolitan Toronto Community Association decided to build the Bloor-Danforth Line and in April 1959 also approved the funding. Leslie Frost , Prime Minister of the Province of Ontario, broke ground on November 16, 1959 . After a little more than six years of construction, the first section of 12.9 km between the Keele and Woodbine stations was opened on February 26, 1966.

Map of the trial farm in the first six months after opening

At the beginning, the operation of the Bloor Danforth Line was linked to that of the Yonge University Line , so that there were three lines. Every other train from the west turned south on University Avenue after St. George Station . From the east every second train reached the lower level of the Bay station, only to then swivel in a southerly direction. The TTC abandoned this type of operation after a six-month trial phase, as it proved to be prone to failure and the hoped-for time gains by not changing trains did not materialize. The lower station level has been kept operational since then.

A year before the opening of the first section, the decision was made to extend the line at both ends. This should also open up the suburbs Etobicoke and Scarborough , which were still independent at the time . Both extensions with a total length of 9.8 km were opened on May 11, 1968: in the west from Keele to Islington , in the east from Woodbine to Warden . In order to make it easier to change to other means of transport in Etobicoke and Scarborough, the TTC decided to extend the line at both ends by a total of 3.7 km. With the opening of the sections Islington - Kipling in the west and Warden - Kennedy in the east on November 21, 1980, construction activity came to an end for the time being.

Route and stations

The line begins at Kipling Station in Etobicoke, near the Mississauga city ​​limits . It then follows Bloor Street for around 14 kilometers. It crosses the U-shaped Yonge University Line twice in the city center . You can change to this line at the Spadina , St. George and Bloor-Yonge stations . The Don River is bridged on the lower level of the Prince Edward Viaduct . On the other side of the river, Danforth Avenue joins, which the line follows six kilometers to the center of East York . There she turns to the northeast and after another four kilometers reaches the eastern terminus of Kennedy on the edge of Scarborough.

A special feature is that the Bloor-Danforth line does not run directly under the eponymous streets, but is offset by several dozen meters to the north of it. The tunnel is mainly located under parks and parking lots behind the front row of houses or under parallel side streets. With a few exceptions, the tunnel sections were built using the cut-and- cover method . Exceptions are drilled sections from Bloor-Yonge to Sherbourne (686 meters), from Lansdowne to Dundas West (561 meters) and west of Ossington Station (30 meters). Above ground are the stations Kipling, High Park , Keele , Victoria Park and Warden; the Old Mill station is half in the tunnel and half on a viaduct over the Humber River .

Expansion plans

In 1983 there were considerations to build a mass transit north-east to the center of Scarborough. Numerous politicians called for an extension of the Bloor-Danforth line instead of the then proposed express tram. Eventually, a medium-capacity mode of transport emerged, the Scarborough RT (now the Scarborough Line ). In 2005, Toronto politicians again called for a subway extension to replace the technically obsolete Scarborough line. The project of an above-ground light rail system on the RT route, which was proposed for the first time in 2006, failed in 2012 due to resistance from the provincial government and from Mayor Rob Ford .

In September 2013, the provincial government announced that it would finance two-thirds of a 6.4 km extension of the subway from Kennedy to Scarborough Center, with the remaining third being taken over by the Canadian federal government. Toronto City Council approved the extension a month later.

Web links

• Toronto Transit Commission

Individual evidence

1. ^ Subway. Toronto Transit Commission , accessed December 7, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Subway ridership, 2015. (PDF; 84 kB) Toronto Transit Commission, accessed December 7, 2017 (English). 
3. ^ Early Subway Proposals. Transit Toronto, 2006, accessed May 10, 2010 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e} A History of Subways on Bloor and Queen Streets. Transit Toronto, 2009, accessed May 10, 2010 . 
5. ↑ Toronto's Lost Subway Stations. Transit Toronto, 2007, accessed May 10, 2010 . 
6. ↑ Toronto's OneCity transit plan rejected by province. CBC News , June 29, 2012, accessed June 19, 2014 . 
7. ^ Province to Extend Bloor-Danforth Subway Line. Ontario Province, September 4, 2013, accessed June 19, 2014 . 
8. ↑ City council votes in favor of Scarborough subway. City News Toronto, October 8, 2013, accessed June 19, 2014 .