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鈥淭he more capacity you can build in the downtown, the better off everyone is, including U of T,鈥 says Eric Miller (photo by Roberta Baker)

Analyzing SmartTrack: U of T expert Eric Miller on John Tory's transit plan

Transportation Research Institute releases its report

Some future U of T students might find it a little less crowded getting to the downtown Toronto campus by subway if Mayor John Tory鈥檚 SmartTrack transit plan is implemented.

Tory asked Professor Eric Miller, head of U of T鈥檚 , to analyze the ridership potential of his plan which would provide service from the Airport Corporate Centre in the west, southeast to Union Station and northeast to Markham in the east. 

It would have 22 new stations and five interchanges with the TTC. The line would be built in seven years, with service starting in the early after 2021.

The report was released at City Hall on Jan. 19. (.)

Miller told U of T News afterwards that while the report doesn鈥檛 specifically look at travel to and from the downtown campus 鈥済iven where U of T is located I think the major impact would be to the extent that it does seem to offer some relief to the Yonge subway line.

鈥淪martTrack would free up some space and provide some capacity for people on Yonge St., so that could be good news for students coming from the north [of Bloor].鈥

Coming in from the east or west, though, would mean going to Union Station and backtracking to the St. George campus.

鈥淎nything that improves service into the downtown area is probably helpful for U of T,鈥 though it is not the primary focus of who would benefit from SmartTrack, he said.

After the report was released, Tory, a U of T alumnus, told reporters that using TTC fares and frequent service (five minute headways) SmartTrack could attract 鈥渕ore than 300,000 daily riders, which is more than the daily ridership of the entire GO system.鈥

In general, Miller said, 鈥渢he more capacity you can build in the downtown, the better off everyone is, including U of T.鈥  

But he added that 鈥渘o one line is going to be a huge benefit to everybody,鈥 noting that the institute, part of the department of civil enginering in U of T's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, is also studying the impact of a proposed downtown relief line. That report will be made public in a few weeks. 

Miller鈥檚 report looked at potential ridership in 2031 and 2041, and Tory鈥檚 boast about adding more than 300,000 riders is based on using TTC fares and a five-minute headway for trains.  It would attract huge ridership if those things happen, but there are still a lot of technical questions to be addressed,鈥 Miller said. 

鈥淯ntil you have the cost side of the equation you can鈥檛 declare victory,鈥 Miller said.  鈥淎t some point you might not be able to run five-minute headways for technical reasons, or it will cost you multi-millions of dollars to do it.

鈥淭here are many miles to go on this one.鈥

Another report done by City planning staff suggested that the heavy rail portion of SmartTrack, from the Mount Dennis neighbourhood, centred at Eglinton Ave W. and Jane St. west to the Mississauga Airport Corporate Centre, would be too costly and disruptive to neighbourhoods. 

Tory agreed and suggested light rail would be more efficient and cheaper. The plan 鈥渨on鈥檛 exactly be the same concept we discussed during the (election) campaign,鈥 but it remains 鈥渂old and transformative.鈥  

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