Network 2011
Encyclopedia
Network 2011 was a plan for future transit expansion created in 1985 by the Toronto Transit Commission
. It was centred on three proposed subway lines: the Downtown Relief Line
, Eglinton West Line
, and the Sheppard Line. Eventually only a portion of the Sheppard Line would end up being built.
. In 1972, while construction was underway on the Spadina Subway line, the provincial government of Bill Davis
introduced the GO-Urban
transit plan for the Toronto region. Rather than build either subways or light rail, the plan would build a network of innovative maglevs to ring Metro Toronto. The maglev project failed, and the province switched to supporting Bombardier's Intermediate Capacity Transit System. An initial line was built, the Scarborough RT, but it went greatly over budget and no further ones were attempted.
Network 2011 was designed to meet the needs of a rapidly growing city where building new expressways was politically impossible. There was also strong resistance to further intensification of the downtown core. The same spirit of activism that had stopped the Spadina Expressway and saved the streetcars also blocked residential redevelopment projects such as the plans for Trefann Court
and Kensington Market
. Community activists also opposed more downtown office towers, and as a result the city plan called for the creation of three suburban "subcentres" that would become central business districts independent of the core: North York City Centre, Scarborough City Centre
, and Etobicoke City Centre. Improving transit to these areas was a central focus of the plan.
The GO-Urban and ICTS experiments being failures, the TTC was unwilling to again risk anything experimental, and the plan called for future transit expansion to use subways of the same design as the existing lines. The plan did not consider using the CLRV and ALRV streetcars that were then being delivered to run on the downtown tracks.
Under the lead of planner Jiri Pill, the TTC delivered a plan to Toronto in May 1985 calling for a near doubling of Toronto's rapid transit lines. The Network 2011 plan had five elements to be built over the next 28 years and would cost an estimated $2.7 billion:
One critic of the plan was Steve Munro, of Streetcars for Toronto, the group that had saved the Toronto streetcar system
in the 1970s. He argued that the TTC planners were too focused on subways, and this made the programme too expensive and less likely to be built. He argued that options such as underground LRT were not considered by the TTC, and would have met requirements with a lower price. The opposition to the plan was led by the Better Transportation Coalition, under the leadership of Gord Perks
. Perks argued that a streetcar in a separate right-of-way along Sheppard would easily address the needed ridership, at a fraction of the cost.
There were also concerns over the Downtown Relief Line. Munro noted that a line running from Danforth to downtown would serve mostly as a transfer for passengers coming from further east and would have little benefit to the local community. Local councillor Dale Martin agreed that the line mainly served the interests of developers looking for intensification rather than local residents. Jack Layton
emerged as the leader of the councillors opposed to the DRL, concerned it would lead to further intensification downtown. Layton and his allies were strong followers of Jane Jacobs
, and believed in preserving downtown neighbourhoods as they were and redirecting office developments to the suburbs. The new developments in the suburbs would allow true urban communities to develop there, and create a multi-directional traffic that would make far better use of existing downtown infrastructure.
. It also deprioritized Sheppard, offering to fund it only if the private sector contributed a significant amount.
Peterson's Liberals lost the 1990 Ontario election to the New Democrats under Bob Rae
. In 1993 the Rae government released its own transit plan, which they named the Rapid Transit Expansion Program. It retained the Sheppard Line, but only to Don Mills; upgraded Eglinton to a full subway, but only to York City Centre; kept the Scarborough RT extension from the Let's Move proposal, and added an extension of the Spadina Line to York University
.
The Eglinton and Sheppard Lines were the initial priorities, and work began almost immediately. In 1995 the Progressive Conservatives under Mike Harris
were elected, and they immediately launched a program of sharp cost cutting. Despite already being under construction the Eglinton Line was cancelled. Sheppard did go ahead, but any plans to go further east than Don Mills were shelved. The new Sheppard Line opened in 2002 at a cost of over $2 billion.
As of 2010, the only parts of the Network 2011 plan completed are the Sheppard line between Yonge and Don Mills, and the Spadina line extension to Downsview Station
. In 2007, mayor David Miller
unveiled the Transit City
expansion plan, which proposed light rail
lines along two of the Network 2011 corridors, Eglinton and Sheppard East. This plan was accepted, and partially funded by the provincial government's "Big Move" transit plan. The 2010 Toronto election saw the election of Rob Ford
, who announced the cancellation of Transit City on the day that he took office.
Toronto Transit Commission
-Island Ferry:The ferry service to the Toronto Islands was operated by the TTC from 1927 until 1962, when it was transferred to the Metro Parks and Culture department. Since 1998, the ferry service is run by Toronto Parks and Recreation.-Gray Coach:...
. It was centred on three proposed subway lines: the Downtown Relief Line
Downtown Relief Line
The Downtown Relief subway line is a subway line planned for Toronto, Canada, but not yet constructed. Various plans along the basic right-of-way have been proposed since the earliest history of the Toronto subway system, which are collected in the Queen Street subway article.-History:The Downtown...
, Eglinton West Line
Eglinton West subway
The Eglinton West subway was a proposed east-west subway line in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was to start from the existing Eglinton West station on the Toronto Transit Commission's Yonge-University-Spadina line. Work began in 1994, but was halted in 1995 when the newly-elected Government of...
, and the Sheppard Line. Eventually only a portion of the Sheppard Line would end up being built.
The Plan
The 1970s had seen the end of new expressway construction in Toronto, and the preservation of the Downtown streetcar systemToronto streetcar system
The Toronto streetcar system comprises eleven streetcar routes in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission , and is the largest such system in the Americas in terms of ridership, number of cars, and track length. The network is concentrated primarily in downtown and in...
. In 1972, while construction was underway on the Spadina Subway line, the provincial government of Bill Davis
Bill Davis
William Grenville "Bill" Davis, was the 18th Premier of Ontario, Canada, from 1971 to 1985. Davis was first elected as the MPP for Peel in the 1959 provincial election where he was a backbencher in Leslie Frost's government. Under John Robarts, he was a cabinet minister overseeing the education...
introduced the GO-Urban
GO-Urban
GO-Urban was a major mass transit project planned for the Toronto area which would have been run by GO Transit. The system envisioned the use of automated guideway transit vehicles set up in hydro corridors and other unused parcels of land to provide rapid transit services without the expense of...
transit plan for the Toronto region. Rather than build either subways or light rail, the plan would build a network of innovative maglevs to ring Metro Toronto. The maglev project failed, and the province switched to supporting Bombardier's Intermediate Capacity Transit System. An initial line was built, the Scarborough RT, but it went greatly over budget and no further ones were attempted.
Network 2011 was designed to meet the needs of a rapidly growing city where building new expressways was politically impossible. There was also strong resistance to further intensification of the downtown core. The same spirit of activism that had stopped the Spadina Expressway and saved the streetcars also blocked residential redevelopment projects such as the plans for Trefann Court
Trefann Court
Trefann Court is a small neighbourhood in the eastern part of downtown Toronto, Canada. It is located on the north side of Queen Street between Parliament Street and River Street. It extends north only a short distance to Shuter St. In the nineteenth century Trefann Court was considered a part of...
and Kensington Market
Kensington Market
Kensington Market is a distinctive multicultural neighbourhood in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Market is an older neighbourhood and one of the city's most well-known. In November 2006, it was designated a National Historic Site of Canada. Robert Fulford wrote in 1999 that "Kensington...
. Community activists also opposed more downtown office towers, and as a result the city plan called for the creation of three suburban "subcentres" that would become central business districts independent of the core: North York City Centre, Scarborough City Centre
Scarborough City Centre
Scarborough City Centre is the central business district in the Scarborough district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is roughly bounded by Kennedy Road to the west, Markham Road to the east, Ellesmere Road to the south, and Sheppard Avenue to the North...
, and Etobicoke City Centre. Improving transit to these areas was a central focus of the plan.
The GO-Urban and ICTS experiments being failures, the TTC was unwilling to again risk anything experimental, and the plan called for future transit expansion to use subways of the same design as the existing lines. The plan did not consider using the CLRV and ALRV streetcars that were then being delivered to run on the downtown tracks.
Under the lead of planner Jiri Pill, the TTC delivered a plan to Toronto in May 1985 calling for a near doubling of Toronto's rapid transit lines. The Network 2011 plan had five elements to be built over the next 28 years and would cost an estimated $2.7 billion:
- Sheppard Subway Line from Yonge to Victoria Park, the top priority with work hoped to begin almost immediately. Estimated cost of $500 million
- Downtown Relief LineDowntown Relief LineThe Downtown Relief subway line is a subway line planned for Toronto, Canada, but not yet constructed. Various plans along the basic right-of-way have been proposed since the earliest history of the Toronto subway system, which are collected in the Queen Street subway article.-History:The Downtown...
running from Union StationUnion Station (Toronto)Union Station is the major inter-city rail station and a major commuter rail hub in Toronto, located on Front Street West and occupying the south side of the block bounded by Bay Street and York Street in the central business district. The station building is owned by the City of Toronto, while the...
to Donlands Station to relieve pressure on the Yonge-Bloor Station. Estimated to cost $565 million and open in 1998. - Temporary buswayBuswayBusway may refer to several things:Transport technology* Bus rapid transit, bus systems including some elements of trams or metro systems* Guided busway, concrete tracks exclusively for modified busesTransport systems...
on Eglinton West to be completed by 2003 and would cost $365 million - Sheppard Phase 2, extension of the Sheppard Line east from Victoria Park to Scarborough Town CentreScarborough Town CentreThe Scarborough Town Centre is an upscale shopping mall in the Scarborough district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Central to the Scarborough City Centre, it is adjacent to the Scarborough Centre RT station and Scarborough Centre Bus Terminal. It was constructed by Oxford Properties and opened in...
and west to Dufferin. Opening in 2009 at an estimated cost of $740 million - Replacement of the Eglinton busway with either light rail or a full subway. Construction to begin in 2011 and cost of $425 million.
- Also attached to the plan, but not an official part, were the Harbourfront509 Harbourfront509 Harbourfront is a streetcar route in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission.-History:The Harbourfront LRT, originally designated 604 Harbourfront, began service in 1990...
and Spadina LRT lines that were already underway when the plan was announced.
Debates
The plan was well received by most in Toronto, and was approved by Metro Council in June 1986. Most of the debate was over which sections should be built first. The mayors of York and Etobicoke wanted the Eglinton Line moved up in priority, while North York and Scarborough pushed for the Sheppard Line to be built first, and for the entire line to be built at once rather than in two sections. The Eglinton line had been discussed since 1975, and the need for a Downtown Relief Line has also previously been discussed. The call for a subway along suburban Sheppard was unexpected. Sheppard was prioritized because the bus lines were overloaded, and putting it first could win support from suburban councillors who were less enthused to invest in transit. The creation of the Sheppard Line would add enough passengers on to the Yonge Line to overload Yonge-Bloor Station, requiring the Downtown Relief Line to be the next built. This angered councillors from York and Etobicoke, who wanted the Eglinton Line to have higher priority. The governments of Mississauga and Peel also wanted the Eglinton Line built sooner, and put pressure on the province, who was paying 75% of the cost, to have its schedule advanced.One critic of the plan was Steve Munro, of Streetcars for Toronto, the group that had saved the Toronto streetcar system
Toronto streetcar system
The Toronto streetcar system comprises eleven streetcar routes in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission , and is the largest such system in the Americas in terms of ridership, number of cars, and track length. The network is concentrated primarily in downtown and in...
in the 1970s. He argued that the TTC planners were too focused on subways, and this made the programme too expensive and less likely to be built. He argued that options such as underground LRT were not considered by the TTC, and would have met requirements with a lower price. The opposition to the plan was led by the Better Transportation Coalition, under the leadership of Gord Perks
Gord Perks
Gord Perks is a Canadian environmentalist, political activist, writer and is the city councillor for the Toronto municipal electoral district of Parkdale—High Park, Ward 14.-Environmentalist:...
. Perks argued that a streetcar in a separate right-of-way along Sheppard would easily address the needed ridership, at a fraction of the cost.
There were also concerns over the Downtown Relief Line. Munro noted that a line running from Danforth to downtown would serve mostly as a transfer for passengers coming from further east and would have little benefit to the local community. Local councillor Dale Martin agreed that the line mainly served the interests of developers looking for intensification rather than local residents. Jack Layton
Jack Layton
John Gilbert "Jack" Layton, PC was a Canadian social democratic politician and the Leader of the Official Opposition. He was the leader of the New Democratic Party from 2003 to 2011, and previously sat on Toronto City Council, serving at times during that period as acting mayor and deputy mayor of...
emerged as the leader of the councillors opposed to the DRL, concerned it would lead to further intensification downtown. Layton and his allies were strong followers of Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs, was an American-Canadian writer and activist with primary interest in communities and urban planning and decay. She is best known for The Death and Life of Great American Cities , a powerful critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s in the United States...
, and believed in preserving downtown neighbourhoods as they were and redirecting office developments to the suburbs. The new developments in the suburbs would allow true urban communities to develop there, and create a multi-directional traffic that would make far better use of existing downtown infrastructure.
Provincial revisions and cancellations
The complaints from Peel region were also matched by demands from York Region that the province fund Highway 407. The provincial government of David Peterson delayed approving the Network 2011 projects until a study analyzing transit needs across the entire Greater Toronto Area was completed. In April 1990 the Peterson government announced their "Let's Move" program of $6.2 billion in transportation spending across the GTA over the next ten years. Let's Move added several components to the Network 2011 plan: a northern connection along Finch between the Yonge and Spadina Lines, extension of the Bloor Subway to Sherway Gardens, SRT extension to Sheppard, building an LRT along Eglinton into Mississauga. Missing from the plan was the Downtown Relief LineDowntown Relief Line
The Downtown Relief subway line is a subway line planned for Toronto, Canada, but not yet constructed. Various plans along the basic right-of-way have been proposed since the earliest history of the Toronto subway system, which are collected in the Queen Street subway article.-History:The Downtown...
. It also deprioritized Sheppard, offering to fund it only if the private sector contributed a significant amount.
Peterson's Liberals lost the 1990 Ontario election to the New Democrats under Bob Rae
Bob Rae
Robert Keith "Bob" Rae, PC, OC, OOnt, QC, MP is a Canadian politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre and interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....
. In 1993 the Rae government released its own transit plan, which they named the Rapid Transit Expansion Program. It retained the Sheppard Line, but only to Don Mills; upgraded Eglinton to a full subway, but only to York City Centre; kept the Scarborough RT extension from the Let's Move proposal, and added an extension of the Spadina Line to York University
York University
York University is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, Ontario's second-largest graduate school, and Canada's leading interdisciplinary university....
.
The Eglinton and Sheppard Lines were the initial priorities, and work began almost immediately. In 1995 the Progressive Conservatives under Mike Harris
Mike Harris
Michael Deane "Mike" Harris was the 22nd Premier of Ontario from June 26, 1995 to April 15, 2002. He is most noted for the "Common Sense Revolution", his Progressive Conservative government's program of deficit reduction in combination with lower taxes and cuts to government...
were elected, and they immediately launched a program of sharp cost cutting. Despite already being under construction the Eglinton Line was cancelled. Sheppard did go ahead, but any plans to go further east than Don Mills were shelved. The new Sheppard Line opened in 2002 at a cost of over $2 billion.
As of 2010, the only parts of the Network 2011 plan completed are the Sheppard line between Yonge and Don Mills, and the Spadina line extension to Downsview Station
Downsview (TTC)
Downsview is a station of the Yonge–University–Spadina line of the Toronto subway and RT. It is located at the intersection of William R. Allen Road and Sheppard Avenue West. The station is currently the northern terminus of its western branch, the Spadina line. It is also a ‘Vivastation’ on the...
. In 2007, mayor David Miller
David Miller (Canadian politician)
David Raymond Miller is a Canadian politician. He was the 63rd Mayor of Toronto and the second since the 1998 amalgamation. He was elected to the position in 2003 for a three-year term and re-elected in 2006 for a four-year term...
unveiled the Transit City
Transit City
Transit City was a plan for developing public transport in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was first proposed and announced by then-Toronto Mayor David Miller and Chair of the Toronto Transit Commission Adam Giambrone on March 16, 2007...
expansion plan, which proposed light rail
Light rail
Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
lines along two of the Network 2011 corridors, Eglinton and Sheppard East. This plan was accepted, and partially funded by the provincial government's "Big Move" transit plan. The 2010 Toronto election saw the election of Rob Ford
Rob Ford
Robert Bruce "Rob" Ford is the 64th and current Mayor of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was first elected to city council in the 2000 Toronto municipal election, and was re-elected to his council seat in 2003 and again in 2006...
, who announced the cancellation of Transit City on the day that he took office.