Provincial government approves Toronto's downtown relief line

Oct 20 2018, 12:35 am

Toronto’s relief line has got the thumbs up from the provincial government.

According to Mayor John Tory, the relief line’s environmental assessment has been approved by the Minister of Environment.

“For decades, people and politicians in Toronto have talked about the need for a relief line but nothing has been done. Since I’ve been mayor, we have moved further ahead than ever before on actually getting the Relief Line built,” said Tory, who is up for re-election on Monday.

Earlier this year, the TTC board unanimously voted to award the contract for the tunnel design for the Relief Line South project.

TTC relief line

Relief line/City of Toronto

The Board awarded the project to Arup Canada Inc. with a maximum price tag of $16,000,000 for a two-year time period.

The City of Toronto is investing $55.52 million and the province committed $150 million to Metrolinx to work with the city and TTC to advance planning and design of the Relief Line.

As well, the federal and provincial governments announced that they were committing to nearly $9 billion in funding for Toronto’s priority transit projects, including this project.

“Working with other levels of government, we have secured $205 million in funding for planning work on the Relief Line,” said Tory, adding that after an extensive period of public consultations, station locations and an actual alignment for the route have been approved by City Council.

“We’re moving forward with a realistic, long-term transit plan approved overwhelmingly by city council and supported by the other governments,” he said.

Last month, Tory’s “SmartTrack” also got news that it was on track.

The City of Toronto project, which is in partnership with the TTC and Metrolinx, got the green light from the Ontario government, approving six new stations in Toronto.

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