City hoping to move forward with Waterfront East LRT plans without Union Station tunnel design

As development continues along the Waterfront East, the push to get transit built in the area has intensified. The City of Toronto is slowly moving plans forward but has left behind one key portion.

The updated construction cost for the Waterfront East LRT is $2.57 billion over 10 years, but only 30 per cent of the design has been mapped out. City planners are looking for an additional $63 million to further it along to 60 per cent designed, but in phases.

“[For the] tunnel connecting Union Station to Queens Quay. They’ve suggested not to further that design and my understanding from reading the report is that engineers are suggesting that that project [is] the most complex and the most expensive,” said Tim Kocur, executive director of the Waterfront BIA.

A statement from Toronto’s Transit Expansion Division said, “Balancing the City’s current financial pressures with City Council’s direction to expedite Waterfront East LRT construction, the City’s recommendation … provides an approach to advance the project while reducing immediate costs by phasing segments.”

Kocur said multiple buildings in the Port Lands are either under construction or expected to be completed by 2030 that would rely on the Waterfront East LRT to access the transit.

Eventually, the LRT is expected to move more than 100,000 residents and those working 50,000 jobs through the area as well as students.

“We’re delighted at George Brown College that the city is putting money on the table – another $63 million to bring this to 60 per cent design,” said Joe Cressy, former city councillor and now a senior VP at George Brown College. “That’s shovel-ready design. When we reach that threshold is just a matter of all three levels of government, putting in the dollars that they can cut the ribbon and will be there to celebrate it.”

The Waterfront BIA suggests, even without design for the tunnel to Union Station, better connection with the streetcars to the west is still needed in the short-term and quickly.

“The better you have transit connecting to Port Lands not only are you going to have more people but you’re going to have a few more people in cars congesting the downtown core even more,” added Kocur.

“It’s easy to be nostalgic and think we should’ve had the transit line in place 10 years ago but the second best time is tomorrow, right?”

The plan will be up for discussion at the Mayor’s Executive Committee next week.