Rapid Transit in Toronto Levyrapidtransit.Ca TABLE of CONTENTS
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The Neptis Foundation has collaborated with Edward J. Levy to publish this history of rapid transit proposals for the City of Toronto. Given Neptis’s focus on regional issues, we have supported Levy’s work because it demon- strates clearly that regional rapid transit cannot function eff ectively without a well-designed network at the core of the region. Toronto does not yet have such a network, as you will discover through the maps and historical photographs in this interactive web-book. We hope the material will contribute to ongoing debates on the need to create such a network. This web-book would not been produced without the vital eff orts of Philippa Campsie and Brent Gilliard, who have worked with Mr. Levy over two years to organize, edit, and present the volumes of text and illustrations. 1 Rapid Transit in Toronto levyrapidtransit.ca TABLE OF CONTENTS 6 INTRODUCTION 7 About this Book 9 Edward J. Levy 11 A Note from the Neptis Foundation 13 Author’s Note 16 Author’s Guiding Principle: The Need for a Network 18 Executive Summary 24 PART ONE: EARLY PLANNING FOR RAPID TRANSIT 1909 – 1945 CHAPTER 1: THE BEGINNING OF RAPID TRANSIT PLANNING IN TORONTO 25 1.0 Summary 26 1.1 The Story Begins 29 1.2 The First Subway Proposal 32 1.3 The Jacobs & Davies Report: Prescient but Premature 34 1.4 Putting the Proposal in Context CHAPTER 2: “The Rapid Transit System of the Future” and a Look Ahead, 1911 – 1913 36 2.0 Summary 37 2.1 The Evolving Vision, 1911 40 2.2 The Arnold Report: The Subway Alternative, 1912 44 2.3 Crossing the Valley CHAPTER 3: R.C. Harris Recommends Grade-Separated Radial Railway Entrances, 1915 47 3.0 Summary and Chapter Text CHAPTER 4: Wartime Pressures and Transit Congestion 51 4.0 Summary 52 4.1 Streetcar Subways for Toronto Revisited, 1942 55 4.2 The Master Plan for the City of Toronto, 1943 59 PART TWO: THE SUBWAY ERA 1945 – 1973 CHAPTER 5: Toronto’s Pride and Joy, 1946 – 1954 60 5.0 Summary 61 5.1 Forty Years of Schemes and Dreams Finally Spawn Action 68 5.2 The Subway Transforms the City 79 5.3 Passenger Convenience: A Long-Term Legacy 83 5.4 The Golden Age of Subway Expansion 2 Rapid Transit in Toronto levyrapidtransit.ca 85 CHAPTER 6: The Complementary (Re)Zoning Phenomenon 6.0 Summary and Chapter Text 93 CHAPTER 7: The Subway System Expands 94 7.0 Summary 96 7.1 The First East-West Line and Visions of a Future Rapid Transit Network 105 7.2 An Early Central Area Rapid Transit Network is Conceived – and Implemented 111 7.3 Queen Street Streetcar Subway: The 1946 Plan Revisited and Eventually Transformed 120 7.4 The Spadina Subway 7.5 Seeking a Stable Fiscal Basis for Network Expansions: Toronto’s Perennial Dilemma 122 CHAPTER 8: GO-URBAN Automated Light Rapid Transit for Ontario, 1972 123 8.0 Summary 126 8.1 The Case for Innovation 128 8.2 The Proposed GO-URBAN Network for Metropolitan Toronto 131 8.3 The Mag-Lev Technology 8.4 GO-URBAN’s Legacy and the Scarborough RT Line 135 CHAPTER 9: Concept for Integrating Rapid Transit & Commuter Rail, Toronto Transit Commission, 1969 & 1973 9.0 Summary and Chapter Text 142 PART THREE: EXHAUSTIVE TRANSIT STUDIES PRODUCE ... THE SHEPPARD ‘STUBWAY’ 1973 – 1995 143 CHAPTER 10: The Metropolitan Toronto Transportation Plan Review, 1973–1975 10.0 Summary and Chapter Text 154 CHAPTER 11: Planning Policy Gone Awry? Metroplan, 1976 11.0 Summary and Chapter Text 158 CHAPTER 12: Network 2011 and Its Immediate Predecessors, 1982–1986 159 12.0 Summary 165 12.1 The Radial Line, 1982 169 12.2 Accelerated Rapid Transit Study (ARTS), 1982 173 12.3 GO-ALRT, 1984 175 12.4 The Sheppard/Finch Rapid Transit Corridor Study, 1985 12.5 The Network 2011 Final Report, June 1986 178 CHAPTER 13: “The Liveable Metropolis” and the TTC’s Rapid Transit Expansion Program, 1992–1994 13.0 Summary and Chapter Text 3 Rapid Transit in Toronto levyrapidtransit.ca 183 PART FOUR: THE PROVINCE WITHDRAWS & THEN RETURNS TO REGIONAL PLANNING 1995 – 2011 184 CHAPTER 14: The Amalgamated City, 1998–2000 14.0 Summary and Chapter Text 189 CHAPTER 15: Full Circle: The Greater Toronto Services Board, Transit City, MoveOntario, and Metrolinx, 2000– 190 2011 193 15.0 Summary 196 15.1 The Greater Toronto Services Board Report, 2000 198 15.2 Transit City, March 2007 200 15.3 MoveOntario 2020, June 2007 206 15.4 Metrolinx and “The Big Move,” November 2008 209 15.5 The First Five Transit Projects 15.6 The Downtown Relief Line Materializes (On Paper) Yet Again 15.7 Links to Vaughan and Pearson Airport 212 CHAPTER 16: What Have We Learned So Far? 16.0 Summary and Chapter Text 216 OUTSIDE THE BOX 217 CHAPTER 17: Gazing Into the Future 17.0 Summary and Chapter Text 223 224 CHAPTER 18: A Rapid Transit Network for the Central Area and Environs 228 18.0 Summary 230 18.1 A Proposal With Historical Precedent 235 18.2 A Digression on Wayfi nding 18.3 Relieving Union Station 1: A West-End “Gateway” GO Transit Station and Related Rapid Transit Network Modifi cations 18.4 Relieving Union Station 2: Rerouting Selected GO Transit Services onto the CP North Toronto Subdivision 238 239 CHAPTER 19: An “Out-of-the-Box” Network Proposition 242 19.0 Summary 19.1 The Concept 4 Rapid Transit in Toronto levyrapidtransit.ca 19.2 Maintaining and Expanding Union Station as a Primary Transit Hub 248 250 CHAPTER 20: Urban Rapid Transit on Five Continents: Examples for Toronto 252 20.0 Summary 254 20.1 Athens-Piraeus 256 20.2 Barcelona 258 20.3 Berlin 260 20.4 Hong Kong 263 20.5 Kiev 264 20.6 Madrid 270 20.7 Marseilles 273 20.8 Melbourne 275 20.9 Montreal 277 20.10 Nagoya 279 20.11 Osaka 282 20.12 Prague 284 20.13 Santiago 286 20.14 Saint Petersburg 289 20.15 Singapore 291 20.16 Sydney 20.17 Vienna 20.18 Washington 293 321 POSTSCRIPT: COMPLETING THE REGIONAL CONNECTION 322 RESOURCES 356 Bibliography List of Figures 5 Rapid Transit in Toronto levyrapidtransit.ca INTRODUCTION 6 Introduction levyrapidtransit.ca ABOUT THIS BOOK SELECTION FROM FIGURE 8.3.2, A DIAGRAM OF MAGNETIC LEVITATION TECHNOLOGY. Transit is the talk of the region these days and Edward J. Levy’s web-book Rapid Transit in Toronto: A Century of Plans, Progress, Politics and Paralysis is a timely body of work that provides useful historical lessons and insights as today’s politicians, planners and citizens discuss ways to tackle gridlock and congestion. The web-book published in collaboration with The Neptis Foundation is a treasure trove of rare, historical maps and plans dating back to the early 20th century which tracks numerous but unsuccessful attempts to build a rapid transit network that placed Toronto at the centre of a vast, interconnected region. Levy says there has never been a shortage of creative and robust rapid transit plans which, had they come to fruition, might have created the integrated network Toronto never built and now needs more than ever. Instead the history of attempts to build a rapid transit network in Toronto has been a sad story of financial and political compromise. Many of these plans contained the concept of a U-shaped subway line extending east and west of the city core, the long sought “network builder” that would have allowed Toronto’s skeletal subway system to become a true network offering several well distributed and integrated interchanges, built-in redundancies in the case of train breakdown, area-wide connectivity and operating flexibility for the benefit of the majority of riders across the city and region. In the postscript to his book: Completing the Regional Connection, Levy argues that the rebirth of regionalism with the creation of Metrolinx and the Province of Ontario’s “Places to Grow” plan for south/central Ontario provides the backdrop to what should be our next grand in-city subway building exercise. 7 Introduction levyrapidtransit.ca In doing so the Greater Toronto Region must learn from its history and do it right, said Levy. His solution is the Regional Relief Line which builds on the idea of the proposed but very limited Downtown Relief Line, and places it squarely in a regional context, showing how a series of modifications would reduce congestion across the region, and allow a 50-year discussion about the integration of GO Transit and the TTC to become a reality. “It is crucial that the tiresome downtown-suburban dichotomy over such projects be expunged from the discussion because this line could become the ultimate network builder, linking TTC and GO Transit services, thereby serving the whole region,” s aid Levy. Rapid Transit in Toronto will be released on March 19, 2013. Copyright © 2013 Edward J. Levy, Rapid Transit in Toronto. All Right Reserved. 8 Introduction levyrapidtransit.ca EDWARD J. LEVY The author of this 100-year history of rapid transit in Toronto developed his interest in the subject over more than 50 years of work in transportation planning, traffic engineering, design consulting, and advising government agencies on transportation policy and infrastructure expansion needs, with an emphasis on public transit. After graduating from the University of Toronto in 1957 with a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Civil Engineering, and working with several major consulting engineering and planning firms in Canada and the United States, he co-founded Barton- Aschman Canada Limited (later BA Consulting Group Limited) in 1973.