TORONTO Transit Commission was due to open its Spadina Avenue light rail extension on July 27, adding 3·7 km and 12 stops to the 2·1 km Harbourfront line opened in 1990. At the northern terminus, the line interchanges with the east-west Bloor-Danforth subway. TTC has shelved plans for a fleet of all-low-floor LRVs, and will work the route with its standard CLRVs.
TTC has approved a 1 km western extension of the Harbourfront line along Queen’s Quay from Spadina Avenue to Bathurst Street, costed at C$21m. Linking the Harbourfront and Bathurst lines, it will serve a waterfront redevelopment, and will handle 6·6 million passengers/year by 2011.
Tunnelling for TTC’s 6·4 km, C$875m Sheppard subway from Yonge Street to Don Mills began in late June, following an official ceremony on June 9 when Transportation Minister Al Palladini officially named the two tunnel boring machines ’Rock’ and ’Roll’. The 5950mm diameter TBMs, costing C$7·5m each, are boring below Sheppard Avenue west from Leslie Street, and are expected to reach Yonge Street by the end of 1999. The line is due to be completed in 2002.
- On June 19 the Province of Ontario issued a report calling for the creation of a new agency to co-ordinate public transport in the Toronto area. The Greater Toronto Services Board would take over GO Transit’s commuter rail and bus routes, and ’create a seamless operating environment for all 17 transit agencies in the region’. o
