Growth surge tests breaking point of subway capacity

Yonge St. has become more than just the city’s main subway corridor, it’s “the trump card” for developers to push for ever bigger buildings, said Toronto Transit Commission chair Josh Colle.

“When developers give their rationale for a development, they will often say, ‘We’re right on the subway line,’ to justify (higher density) projects,” said Colle.

“Everyone keeps saying we need to intensify along transit lines and that’s happening. But as Yonge intensifies even more, that’s going to put even more bodies on that line and that’s more pressure on the system.”

Colle said developers should be contributing more to the cost of transit to serve those new residents, many of whom are renting units owned by investors who love buying units on Yonge St. because they know they will hold their value and attract a steady stream of tenants.

Condo developers maintain they are paying more than enough in development fees, which the city has been increasing, and fear more hikes will only push up condo prices further.

Rush-hour capacity on the Yonge line is about 29,000 people, and the line has been close to those numbers for years now, even with more downtown condo dwellers biking and walking to work, the TTC says. But a growing strain on the system is offpeak use that continues to grow.

Some of the worst bottlenecks are now at Eglinton, said Colle.

“There’s been so much (highrise condo) development at Yonge and Sheppard, and Yonge and Finch, that by the time the trains get to Eglinton, they are full,” forcing commuters to wait two or three trains, he said.

It’s hoped that the Eglinton Crosstown line, scheduled for completion in 2020, and other planned transit improvements will funnel more commuters onto the University line, away from Yonge. The proposed Downtown Relief Line would also go along way toward diverting commuters from Scarborough, North York and other parts of Toronto away from the Yonge line, which is expected to hit capacity in 15 years, said Colle.

So far, $563 million has been approved to replace 60-year-old tracks and switching devices that, when fully updated in 2020, will allow the TTC to simply run more trains on the line.

“This work should probably have been done 25 years ago,” Colle said.