TRANSIT TIMETABLE
Sheppard East delayed until 2021, after west-end transit line is completed
LRT construction moves ahead at Finch, but Sheppard project put on hold until 2021,
The province says that shovels will finally go in the ground next year on the oft-postponed 11-kilometre Finch West LRT.
But its east-end counterpart, the Sheppard East LRT won’t begin construction until at least 2021, when the $1.2-billion Finch line is estimated to be complete.
“Sheppard East is still in our plan. We will build it,” Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca told a news conference at Humber College on Monday.
“There is a capacity of the amount of infrastructure work you can put into the system to have built at the same time. We have to constantly consider what is the best position for us to make sure that we co-ordinate the construction of these multiple projects which are not small,” he said.
The province is building the $5.3billion Eglinton Crosstown LRT and, last week, it announced $1.6 billion for the 23-kilometre Hurontario-Main LRT in Brampton and Mississauga by 2022.
The revised schedule for Sheppard came as a surprise, said councillor Josh Colle, who chairs the TTC. But, “This is really good news today that we’re seeing Finch built,” he said.
Originally Finch was to be complete in 2015; Sheppard in 2013. In 2010, after the global economic crisis, they were postponed to 2019 and 2014, respectively.
By the time the city and province signed an LRT master agreement in November 2012, Finch was slated to begin construction in 2015 for a 2020 completion; Sheppard was to start in 2017 with service by 2021.
“Metrolinx and the city of Toronto continue to have ongoing discussions about the master agreement to reflect any updates that have occurred since it was signed,” said a spokesman for Del Duca.
“It seems like they want to delay the Sheppard LRT to the point of killing it,” said Brenda Thompson, a Scarborough member of the transit users’ group, TTCriders.
But not everyone is in favour. “We would rather stick with buses that are faster and more reliable and safer than have an LRT line, which will cause havoc to our area and ensure we lose out on the myriad of opportunities a subway brings,” said Patricia Sinclair of the Sheppard Subway Action Coalition.
The 11-kilometre, 18-stop Finch line is forecast to handle about 14.6 million rides a year, or 40,000 a day, by 2031. The 13-kilometre Sheppard LRT will provide 49,316 rides a day, or 18 million a year. The Hurontario LRT is projected to carry about 33 million a year by 2031 while the TTC’s King St. streetcar already provides about 60,000 rides a day.
“This (Finch) transit line will not take out a lane of traffic. This transit line will not limit or hamper commercial truck traffic,” said Mayor John Tory.
“It seems like they want to delay the Sheppard LRT to the point of killing it.” BRENDA THOMPSON TTCRIDERS GROUP