TTC subway extension enters next stage
Posted March 13, 2013 9:01 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Construction on the TTC’s Spadina subway extension entered its next phase Wednesday.
Federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt, Premier Kathleen Wynne, Mayor Rob Ford and TTC chair Karen Stintz were on hand at the event at the site of the future Highway 407 station in Vaughan.
Wynne said this project is a great example of all levels of government working together and she remains committed to battling gridlock and expanding transit in the Greater Toronto Area.
“We need to be able to move around the region seamlessly,” she said.
“For Ontario to work, we need people to be able to get from their houses in Vaughan to their jobs in Toronto. We need people to be able to visit their mothers in Mississauga and get back to take their kids, pick them up from daycare in Ajax.”
She added that transit expansion projects like this are vital to the province’s economy and hopes taxpayers are willing to consider new ways to fund them.
“We have to have an honest conversation about how we’re going to pay for transit going forward because the needs are huge and we cannot to take a long break,” she said.
Ford, a major champion of subways, is hopeful that this subway extension is only the beginning.
“This expansion will be the key piece of Toronto’s trans-infrastructure that will improve the existing network and hopefully — hopefully, be the start of further subway projects in Toronto,” he said.
He added that the expansion is generating thousands of jobs.
“The economic benefits of this expansion are huge.”
Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua said this project is an example of what can be done when all levels of government work together.
“We ought to be thinking about a borderless GTA because the challenges we face are indeed GTA-wide when it comes to transit.”
The 8.6-kilometre subway extension will open in 2016 and run from Downsview to Highway 7 with six new subway stations including one at York University.
