Toronto Mayor John Tory is intervening in transit plans with a call to speed up spending and the construction timeline for the relief line, designed to relieve crowding on the city's subway system in the urban core.
"[Toronto] Mayor John Tory says city and TTC staff have found a way to speed up construction of the relief line by at least two years, a proposal that would mean the long-awaited subway project could open by 2029," reports Ben Spurr.
"The proposal to speed up construction of the line would require accelerating design work, property acquisition and utility relocation, and starting procurement for equipment and contracts required for tunneling," adds Spurr. "TTC staff said construction on early works for the line could begin as early as 2020."
The first phase of the relief line would connect the eastern end of Line 2 at Pape to Line 1 at Queen St. in Downtown Toronto. The line would span 7 kilometers and cost an estmaited $6.8 billion (Canadian dollars), according to Spurr's description of the project.
The announcement is set against the political backdrop of recent efforts by Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government, led by Premier Rob Ford, to take over the TTC subway system.
FULL STORY: Tory says subway relief line construction could be sped up by two years, open by 2029
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