The Yonge subway, commonly known as the yellow line, is running red, exceeding its capacity daily at its peak hour by 3000 TTC riders.
Luckily, the Yonge relief line would provide a solution to this problem by diverting an estimated 17,000 Torontonians per day from the overcrowded Yonge subway route. The relief line has been a project in the making for several years and is quickly becoming a dire alternative for the current transit system in Toronto. The subway line would run along an East-West corridor, on King St., and would divert into the eastern corridor to Danforth-Pape station and westbound towards Dundas station.
The relief line would diversify TTC riders from the Bloor-Yonge station, which is already bursting with approximately 211,000 TTC riders daily according to Toronto Transit Commission ridership figures. Kennedy station alone sees 71,000 daily TTC users. The Yonge relief line would allow these citizens to use an alternative and faster route to their station.
The Yonge relief line has been labeled as a high priority project by Metrolinx in the 2013 study, The Big Move. Experts agree that this new relief line will act as a permanent resolution to congestion n the TTC; whereas the proposed SmartTrack is a good interim solution.
City planning published the Relief Line Project Assessment Study in June that will assess which areas would be ideal for the relief line and how to carefully build a new subway line through densely concentrated areas of the city such as King St. Important areas of the study include surface transit routes that would correlate well with station stops; supporting equality in mobility for people of various incomes, genders and ethnicities; and, engineering feasibility.
The study has already assessed that the eastern portion of the Yonge relief line would be built prior to the western quadrant because of the current existence of the University line.
In March 2014, public meetings were held to assess which areas residents deemed worthy of possible station stops in the relief line. In June 2014, the results of these potential stations were released. According to the findings, many residents were concerned about Union Station being the downtown terminus for the relief line. Wellington Street was also identified as a reasonable route option for the subway because of it would not disrupt the streetcar. Pape station received strong support as the connecting station in the east end for the Yonge relief line.
Further public meetings scheduled for November 2015 have been since moved to 2016.
Torontonians need the Yonge relief line and the TTC needs to commit permanent plans to the best possible solution. By showing continued support for the relief line, it can become a useful subway line for all and the TTC will become an efficient transit system ready to compete with other large metropolises worldwide.