The impact of COVID-19 is unprecedented, but no one yet really knows or understands if, when, or how city life will return to something approaching normality. High on the list of imponderables is public transit. If the pandemic achieves nothing else, it will have given those Torontonians who had to step outside a unique glimpse into life without congestion.
Commercial concentrations of office jobs in the downtown core of Toronto rely heavily on transit. Only 1 in 5 commuters drive a car. The lack of parking and its cost will restrict people moving from transit to the auto. Enforcing 6-foot separation on transit is equally problematic. The system was at crush capacity in rush hour before Covid and forced reduction of capacity, estimated by some to be a 75% reduction, isn’t the answer either.
While the 6-foot separation is in force the major office hubs downtown will remain hollowed out. Making transit acceptable again is the challenge. Once social distancing is lifted formally, encouraging people to get closer will remain a problem for quite sometime.
Quick Relief will allow downtown commuters to use transit
without crushing each other on the subway
and save time.
SRRA put forward ‘Quick Relief’ as a practical, affordable and relatively fast proposal for how to fix two of Toronto’s worst transit congestion problems: a) severe congestion at Bloor/St George and Bloor/Yonge, and b) and overcrowding on Line 1 on Yonge Street. Early in 2020 (Before COVID-19), SRRA released a short video to update the proposal based on research conducted in 2015. It illustrates many benefits. Quick-Relief-video
Post-COVID, Quick Relief can not only dramatically reduce commuting time for thousands but can also enable a vision for providing more physical space for commuters where it is needed most. It is worth noting that other planned new relief projects cannot be operational before 2030 at the earliest.
Quick Relief is an idea that is deceptively simple, affordable, and operational in less than two years. Quick Relief proposes to change how we think about two GO corridors that feed into downtown – the Kitchener line and the Stouffville line – by transforming them from ‘commuter’ lines to ‘rapid transit’ lines through the strategic use of existing GO rolling stock.
Quick Relief is consistent with existing plans by the Government of Ontario to electrify GO corridors and create enhanced all day, two-way transit service over the next decade. Quick Relief provides an early validation of the GO corridor enhancement plan and for the larger GO Network now envisioned as OnCor and formerly branded as Regional Express Rail.
It was inspired by a similar successful transformation implemented in London, England. The ‘Overground’ service expanded the London network’s capacity almost overnight by integrating underutilized surface commuter lines with the underground subway system. The success of this has seen ridership increase by more than 500%.
Quick Relief allows commuters travelling from the west to the core to transfer -- at no extra cost -- from Line 2 at Dundas West and onward to Union Station. SRRA estimates that as many as 600,000 Toronto residents could save between 30 and 50 minutes a day. For commuters travelling east from Scarborough to the core Quick Relief allows them to transfer at Main or Kennedy, then directly to Union. As many as 900,000 residents will save up to an hour coming from the East to the core.
Prioritizing faster trip times for routes converging on Union Station also responds to the new reality that the centre of employment gravity has shifted south of King Street towards the waterfront. Downtown Toronto has also become the fastest-growing residential hub in the GTA over the past decade, setting up the potential for higher two-way utilization of the Region’s transit network.
Avoiding the need to transfer at St George or Yonge Street dramatically reduces the crush of people transferring through those two stations during peak hours. Shifting thousands of commuters to the westerly and easterly GO routes which serve the core dramatically reduces the load on Line 1, while also providing more space for passengers on Line 2 between Dundas West and Main. The tracks and corridors are already there. Quick Relief simply envisions these surface routes being used to run additional GO trains at peak hours.
SRRA consulted with experienced railway engineers, who agree on the technical feasibility of Quick Relief at the conceptual level. The extra good news is that the entire incremental capital cost ranges from $50M to $200M, an extremely low investment for exceptionally high ridership benefit. This will also generate valuable benefits for the network overall. At present, Line 1 between Eglinton and Steeles bears the brunt of commuter traffic in both directions. Quick Relief provides a critically important alternative north/south option for commuters who live east of the Don Valley Parkway.
Quick Relief complements and responds to major changes already under way such as the near term completion of the Crosstown LRT. When Crosstown opens two years from now, without Quick Relief, thousands of additional passengers will be forced to continue to feed congestion on Line 1. With Quick Relief in place, there will be fewer commuters headed to the core on Line 1 &2, benefiting from fast, less-crowded alternatives via Mount Dennis, for travelers from the west, and Kennedy, for travelers from the east.
Quick Relief underscores the value of the government’s plans to extend the Yonge line to Richmond Hill, complete the Scarborough Subway and the Eglinton West expansion to the Airport.
Post-COVID, governments and their agencies will have to rethink how they deliver service. Quick Relief provides an immediate opportunity for Metrolinx and the TTC to collaborate for the benefit of all commuters. Transferring from the TTC’s subway to Metrolinx’s commuter service at no cost will pay for itself in new system wide ridership. Transportation models of ridership ensure a “win-win” as Quick Relief exceeds its costs, both financially and culturally, and provides the consumer with a positive post-COVID solution.
