Eglinton West Subway

The Eglinton West Subway is an unfinished subway line in the Canadian city ​​of Toronto . Construction began in 1994 but was halted by the Ontario government the following year and has not been resumed since.

Planning history

In 1985 the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) published the Network 2011 expansion program . By 2011, various projects to upgrade tangential connections were to be implemented in northern Toronto . Among other things, a Rapid Transit bus was planned along Eglinton Avenue. This was to begin at the Eglinton West subway station and lead to the Mississauga city ​​limits - with the possibility of later conversion to a subway line. The then still independent cities of Etobicoke and York urged, however, to run the new transport connection as an underground from the start. They raised their concerns several times in the Metropolitan Toronto Council .

Planned route of the unfinished Eglinton West Subway

The provincial government led by the NDP under Bob Rae finally promised in 1994 to support the subway project financially. In the same year construction began on the first section to York Center. A second station level was built below the existing Eglinton West station on the Yonge University line . In 1995, however, the Progressive Conservatives won the elections and the new administration of Mike Harris ordered an immediate construction freeze due to the large budget deficit in the province. The lower level of the station Eglinton West, which in unfinished buildings had been filled and has since remained unused.

Further development

In March 2007, the city of Toronto and the TTC presented the Transit City expansion program , which no longer relied on subways, but provided for the construction of more cost-effective light rail vehicles. The planned Eglinton line should have started at Toronto Airport , followed the entire Eglinton Avenue and led to Scarborough . This would have created a 33 km long west-east connection north of the city center. The provincial government promised funding in May 2009, but the new mayor Rob Ford declared when he took office in December 2010 that he would no longer support the project. The traffic planning authority Metrolinx ignored the wishes of the controversial mayor, but shortened the planned route considerably. Construction began in 2011 and is expected to be completed in 2021, with the backfilled part being used for the new project.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Network 2011 - To think of what could have been. Transit Toronto, 2006, accessed May 14, 2010 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b} The Eglinton West Subway. Transit Toronto, 2006, accessed May 14, 2010 . 
3. ^ Eglinton Crosstown Light Rail Transit (LRT). (No longer available online.) Toronto City Council, 2010, archived from the original on May 22, 2013 ; accessed on May 14, 2010 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ^ Province Moving Transit Projects Forward. Ontario Ministry of Transportation, April 1, 2009, accessed May 14, 2010 . 
5. ↑ Mayor Rob Ford: Transit City is over. (No longer available online.) Toronto Life, December 1, 2010, archived from the original on May 21, 2014 ; accessed on June 19, 2014 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.