1970S
1973
Go-Urban
1980S
1982
GO-ALRT
1985
Network 2011
1990S
1990/1993
Let's Move/Rapid Transit Expansion Program
2000S
2007
Transit City
2010S
2011
Metrolinx/ Toronto Transit Plan
2016
Relief Line
Network 2011 (1985)
Cancelled
Evolved into Let's Move
Network 2011 at its core was a transit plan that was created to achieve the planning goals of Metropolitan Toronto and their objective of creating multiple central business districts within the city.
Network 2011 was a 1985 plan by the Toronto Transit Commission for transit expansion, named for the target completion date of 2011. The plan focused on three new rapid transit lines: a subway along Sheppard Avenue from Dufferin Street in the west to Scarborough City Centre in the east, a new rapid transit corridor on Eglinton Avenue West initially composed of express buses linking Mississauga to Eglinton West Station, and a downtown subway between approximately the intersection of Front Street and Spadina Avenue and Pape Station.1 Furthermore, an extension of the Spadina line from Wilson Station to Sheppard Avenue would allow for transfers between the Yonge-University-Spadina line and the future Sheppard subway.2
The plan was to be phased over a 26-year timeframe, with the recommended phasing beginning with a Sheppard subway between Yonge Street to Victoria Park Avenue to be constructed between 1989-1994.3 Then, a downtown subway between Pape Station on the Bloor-Danforth Line in the east to approximately the intersection of Spadina Avenue and Front Street in the west would be constructed in the years of 1994-1999.4 Following that, between 1999-2004, rapid transit on Eglinton Avenue West would be constructed, initially as a partially grade-separated busway, with the possibility of converting it to a subway later.5 Finally, between 2004-2010, the Sheppard subway would be extended on both ends from Yonge Street to Dufferin Street in the west, and from Victoria Park Avenue to Scarborough City Centre in the east.6 All-in-all, the plan would cost $2.7 billion, 25 per cent paid for by the Metro Toronto government and 75 per cent from the provincial government.7
Planning for what became Network 2011 began in 1982, with the release of the Accelerated Rapid Transit Study undertaken by Metro Toronto and the TTC.8 The report, which studied four corridors for future rapid transit expansion including Eglinton, “Central Radial” (a route downtown via existing rail corridors), Sheppard, and the Finch hydro corridor, identified potential station, yard, and routing locations, as well as potential costs and impacts on the surrounding community and environment.9
Accelerated Rapid Transit Study
The TTC studied numerous corridors for potential future rapid transit line alignments as part of the Accelerated Rapid Transit Study, several of which became the foundation of Network 2011 later on.10 Many of these studied corridors were later developed into or resemble plans today for rapid transit. Shown are the alignments studied in the Accelerated Rapid Transit Study including the Eglinton, Central Radial, Sheppard, and Finch corridors.
The findings of the study were then broken down into three more detailed studies offering further analysis of the ridership and feasibility of each of the corridors: the Sheppard/Finch Rapid Transit Study, the Downtown Rapid Transit Study, and the Eglinton West Rapid Transit Study.11 From the studies, lines were proposed along Sheppard Avenue, Eglinton Avenue West, and through downtown along a Pape-Eastern-Railway Corridor-Front alignment.12
The findings of these studies and the recommended alignments were combined to create Network 2011, which utilised the findings of the three studies to recommend suggested phasing for constructing the plan according to Metro Toronto planning objectives. The Metro Toronto official plan of the time (Metroplan) called for the creation of a multi-centred urban structure within Metro Toronto, with the development of nodes which would act as major employment and activity centres outside downtown Toronto to encourage decentralisation.13
Downtown Rapid Transit Study
The routing of the proposed downtown subway was a key concern of the Downtown Rapid Transit Study, a precursor document of Network 2011. The main concern for the downtown subway was to relieve pressure off the Yonge subway line, which would otherwise exceed design capacity if unbuilt.14 A variety of routings were considered, including a subway along Bay Street from Bay Station on the Bloor-Danforth line to Union Station on the Yonge-University line, but the majority of alignments created a “J” or “U” shape.15 In the end, a routing along Pape-Eastern-Railway Corridor-Front was recommended, with the western terminus located at approximately Front Street and Spadina Avenue.16 An alignment along Front Street and Wellington Street instead of along the railway corridor and Front Street was also recommended as an alternative to the recommended alignment.17
A New Downtown Subway
One of Network 2011’s key proposed additions to Toronto’s rapid transit network was a “J” shaped line studied earlier as part of the TTC’s 1985 Downtown Rapid Transit Study. The study had recommended an alignment along a Pape-Eastern-Railway Corridor-Front alignment using Intermediate Capacity Transit System (ICTS) technology similar to the Scarborough RT, although larger trains similar to ones proposed as part of the GO ALRT proposal from the same era were also a contender.18 Both elevated and underground options of the alignment were considered.19 Given “serious consideration” as a result of potential savings of $52 million in 1985 dollars, an elevated alignment of the proposed downtown line along Front Street would have caused immense visual impacts and reduced pavement and sidewalk widths in the area.20 Pedestrian links in the Union Station area would also have been severely impacted.21 Here, images show the proposed line elevated through the Pape Street at Gerrard Street intersection, past Union Station, and its visual impacts running along Front Street. At Union Station, a large modernist station facility would stand in front of the classical beaux-arts façade of Union Station, with connections with the Yonge-University-Spadina subway made by several stories of stairs. A similar horizontal alignment located underground was eventually recommended.22 Ultimately, the elevated line’s unsightly visual impacts on existing structures such as Union Station led its rejection in favour of an underground alignment.23
As a result, the proposed Sheppard subway (which would connect two of the identified nodes, Scarborough City Centre and North York Centre) was identified as the priority of the Network 2011 plan.24 Although a downtown subway would relieve the then already overburdened Yonge subway line, it was deemed inconsistent with Metroplan.25 The anticipated growth of the suburban centres of Scarborough City Centre and North York Centre as dictated by Metroplan, the high volumes of bus ridership along Finch and Sheppard Avenues, and a diverse set of alternatives (including GO Transit improvements, the then-proposed “Spadina LRT”, and express buses on streets such as Sherbourne Street) played important roles in placing a proposed subway on Sheppard Avenue a priority ahead of a line through downtown.26 Meanwhile, rapid transit on Eglinton Avenue would improve links between Peel Region and Metropolitan Toronto, relieving growing traffic between the two jurisdictions.27 Intense population and employment growth had occurred in the decades prior in the suburban communities outside the former City of Toronto, a trend that was predicted to continue.28
Varying forms of rapid transit technology were recommended for each of the lines; subway technology was assumed for Sheppard, Intermediate Capacity Transit System (ICTS) technology for the downtown line (although limited changes in alignment geometry could support a subway), and a busway for Eglinton West (with eventual upgrade to some form of rail transit).29 The wide right-of-way along Eglinton Avenue West – originally planned for the Richview Expressway would allow for a surface dedicated transit right-of-way from Renforth Drive to Jane Street, with grade separations located at Kipling Avenue, Islington Avenue, and Royal York Road.30 From Jane Street to Caledonia Road, the busway would enter a tunnel before surfacing north of Eglinton Avenue to run along the surface on the CN Belt Line right-of-way, before veering south to meet Eglinton West Station from the north in the station's bus terminal.31
Proposed Eglinton Busway
The proposed Eglinton West rapid transit line was recommended to be constructed initially as a busway.32 Here, images of the MBTA’s Silver Line, a busway running along dedicated right-of-ways on the surface and briefly underground show a system with several similarities to what was proposed along Eglinton, albeit in a much more urban setting.35
“MBTA route SL2 bus at World Trade Center station” by Pi.1415926535 is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
North York Centre
The planned Sheppard subway, when fully built, was planned to connect two emerging central business districts, North York Centre and Scarborough City Centre. Pictured is North York Centre, with the intersection and western terminus of the first phase of the subway, Sheppard Avenue and Yonge Street at the far right.36
(David Cooper / Toronto Star) © Toronto Star, 1979. Reproduced under license.
Approved by Metro Toronto council by 1986, the plan was to be implemented in phases according to the Network 2011 plan, with council agreeing with the plan for a subway on Sheppard Avenue from Yonge Street to Victoria Park Avenue to be the priority, much to the dismay of municipal officials in Etobicoke, York, and Peel Region who wanted rapid transit on Eglinton Avenue first.37 Officials from the three municipal bodies were further dismayed at the plan’s commitment to construct only a busway on Eglinton, rather than a light rail line or a subway, with the plan only specifying that it could be replaced with a subway – eventually.38 The plan saw further opposition from surrounding municipal and regional governments including York, Peel, and Durham Regions who sought funding for their transportation plans centred around the then proposed Highway 407, and who saw Network 2011 as competition for such funding.39
Ultimately, difficulties in funding the plan quickly derailed the timelines proposed. The then-Liberal provincial government – who was not involved in the development of the Network 2011 plan, baulked at the $75 million a year from the province necessary for a full build-out and decided to conduct their own study of transit proposals in the province.40 Completed in May of 1988, their report downgraded funding priority of the Sheppard subway in favour of expanding GO Transit commuter services and extending the Spadina line towards York Region.41
scarborough town Centre
Scarborough City Centre, pictured, an emerging central business district that would be the planned eventual terminus of the Sheppard subway.42 Planning in Metro Toronto at the time de-emphasised growth in the downtown, taking action such as restricting office development to protect adjacent communities and reduce the pressure of redevelopment for historic structures within them.43 New central business districts such as Scarborough City Centre were intended to receive the majority of new office developments, something planners hoped would decrease the pressure of large amounts of commuters headed downtown in the peak direction by encouraging reverse commuting.35
(Alan Dunlop / Toronto Star) © Toronto Star, 1985. Reproduced under license.
By then, the cost for completing a Sheppard subway from Yonge Street to Victoria Park Avenue had more than doubled from a 1985 estimate of $500 million to an estimate of $1.1 billion in 1989.45 Come 1990 – an election year, the (eventually defeated) Liberals kept the Sheppard subway on life support by supporting the project only if a portion of the project could be paid for through private sector investment and without disrupting funding for their own transit plan, dubbed “Let’s Move”.46 Also retained was plans for rapid transit on Eglinton in the form of a busway to Peel Region but a downtown subway and a complete Sheppard subway from Downsview to Scarborough City Centre were dropped.47
Although much of what Network 2011 proposed was never built in the timeframes proposed, elements of the plan were highly influential in the plans of subsequent provincial and municipal governments and remain so. The Sheppard subway, a key element of the Network 2011 plan was funded several years later under the Rapid Transit Expansion Program and opened in 2003, ten years after the original proposed opening date of 1993 detailed in Network 2011.48 Meanwhile today, plans for a downtown subway continue to be studied while rapid transit on Eglinton has taken the form of light rail, currently under construction and planned for a 2022 opening.
Post-Network 2011 Future Expansion
The Network 2011 plan also laid out potential future extensions to the rapid transit network after the Network 2011 projects had been completed.49 For the proposed downtown subway, the plan envisioned extensions west via Front Street and the rail corridor, with two potential alignments further west along the rail line or north along Roncesvalles Avenue after passing the King-Queen-Queensway-Roncesvalles intersection.50 An extension of the downtown subway north of Pape to Eglinton Avenue was also proposed to run along Pape Avenue, onto the Millwood viaduct, and north-east along Overlea Boulevard, similar to the proposed alignment of the Ontario Line more than thirty years later.51 The Sheppard subway was envisioned to be extended westwards, passing underneath Downsview airport and north to run west along both the Finch hydro corridor and Finch Avenue.52 After meeting Highway 27 (known as Etobicoke Parkway in the Network 2011 plan) the alignment would veer south along the road before meeting and running south along the Manby (Etobicoke) hydro corridor, with a terminus at Kipling Station.53
footnotes
  1. Canada. Ontario. Metropolitan Toronto. Metropolitan Toronto Technical Transportation Planning Committee. Network 2011. Toronto: Toronto Transit Commission, 1985; Mitchell Smith. “TTC Urges $2.7 Billion Expansion.” Toronto Star, October 1, 1985, sec. A19.
  2. Smith. “TTC Urges $2.7 Billion Expansion.” sec. A19.
  3. Canada. Ontario. Metropolitan Toronto. Metropolitan Toronto Technical Transportation Planning Committee. Network 2011, 56.
  4. Ibid, 57.
  5. Ibid, 58.
  6. Ibid, 58.
  7. Michael Smith. “Province Considering New Subway TTC Says.” Toronto Star, April 5, 1987, sec. A3; Smith. “TTC Urges $2.7 Billion Expansion.” sec. A19.
  8. Canada. Ontario. Metropolitan Toronto. Metropolitan Toronto Technical Transportation Planning Committee. Network 2011. Toronto: Toronto Transit Commission, 1985.
  9. Canada. Ontario. Metropolitan Toronto. Metropolitan Toronto Technical Transportation Planning Committee. Network 2011.
  10. Canada. Ontario. Metropolitan Toronto. Metropolitan Toronto Technical Transportation Planning Committee. Metro/TTC Rapid Transit Study. Toronto: Toronto Transit Commission, 1982
  11. Canada. Ontario. Metropolitan Toronto. Metropolitan Toronto Technical Transportation Planning Committee. Network 2011.
  12. Ibid.
  13. Ibid, 14.
  14. Ibid, 26.
  15. Canada. Ontario. Metropolitan Toronto. Metropolitan Toronto Technical Transportation Planning Committee. Downtown Rapid Transit Study. Toronto: Toronto Transit Commission, 1985
  16. Canada. Ontario. Metropolitan Toronto. Metropolitan Toronto Technical Transportation Planning Committee. Downtown Rapid Transit Study, 52.
  17. Canada. Ontario. Metropolitan Toronto. Metropolitan Toronto Technical Transportation Planning Committee. Downtown Rapid Transit Study, 53.
  18. Canada. Ontario. Metropolitan Toronto. Metropolitan Toronto Technical Transportation Planning Committee. Network 2011, 14.
  19. Canada. Ontario. Metropolitan Toronto. Metropolitan Toronto Technical Transportation Planning Committee. Downtown Rapid Transit Study, 50.
  20. Ibid.
  21. Ibid.
  22. Ibid.
  23. Ibid.
  24. Canada. Ontario. Metropolitan Toronto. Metropolitan Toronto Technical Transportation Planning Committee. Network 2011, 59.
  25. Canada. Ontario. Metropolitan Toronto. Metropolitan Toronto Technical Transportation Planning Committee. Network 2011, 50-51.
  26. Canada. Ontario. Metropolitan Toronto. Metropolitan Toronto Technical Transportation Planning Committee. Network 2011, A2.
  27. Canada. Ontario. Metropolitan Toronto. Metropolitan Toronto Technical Transportation Planning Committee. Network 2011, A3.
  28. Ibid.
  29. Canada. Ontario. Metropolitan Toronto. Metropolitan Toronto Technical Transportation Planning Committee. Network 2011, 34.
  30. Canada. Ontario. Metropolitan Toronto. Metropolitan Toronto Technical Transportation Planning Committee. Network 2011, A3.
  31. Ibid.
  32. Pi.1415926535. MBTA route SL2 bus at World Trade Center station. 2017, colour digital, Wikimedia Commons, Boston, accessed February 13, 2021, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MBTA_route_SL2_bus_at_World_Trade_Center_station,_December_2019.JPG. Creative Commons License (CC BY-SA 3.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en
  33. David Cooper. Canada – Ontario – North York - Yonge St, 1979, black and white digital, Toronto Star photo archive, Toronto, accessed January 14, 2020, https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-TSPA_0107105F&R=DC-TSPA_0107105F
  34. Mitchell Smith. “Tonks Makes Pitch to Keep Subway Plan Alive for Eglinton.” Toronto Star, June 24, 1986, sec. A6.
  35. Bob Mitchell. “Eglinton Transit Line Gets Top Billing in 2011.” Toronto Star. June 3, 1986, sec. W6.
  36. Mike Foster. “Metro's the Loser If Network 2011 Put Back on Shelf.” Toronto Star, February 17, 1987, sec. N4.
  37. Michael Smith. “Ontario Likely to Derail Sheppard Subway, Officials Fear.” Toronto Star, December 26, 1987, sec. A8.
  38. Peter Howell. “TTC Fighting on Two Fronts Province, Toronto Give It Rough Ride.” Toronto Star, March 12, 1990, sec. A1.
  39. Alan Dunlop. Scar Town Centre, 1985, black and white digital, Toronto Star photo archive, Toronto, accessed January 7, 2020, https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-TSPA_0107997F&R=DC-TSPA_0107997F
  40. W R Code. “The Strength of the Centre: Downtown Offices and Metropolitan Decentralization Policy in Toronto.” Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 15, no. 10 (1983): 1361. https://doi.org/10.1068/a151361.
  41. Code. “The Strength of the Centre,” 1361-1362.
  42. Howell. “TTC Fighting on Two Fronts Province, Toronto Give It Rough Ride.” sec. A1.
  43. Jim Byers. “Huge Transit Expansion Announced for Metro.” Toronto Star, April 5, 1990, sec. A1.
  44. Byers. “Huge Transit Expansion Announced for Metro.” sec. A1]
  45. Canada. Ontario. Metropolitan Toronto. Metropolitan Toronto Technical Transportation Planning Committee. Network 2011, 56.