Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie is promising to install barriers on all TTC subway platforms in Toronto if she becomes premier, an idea that has long been studied by TTC staff but could potentially cost billions if implemented across the network.
“We know that over a million people ride the TTC each and every day, and for myself and for others, there’s situations where you just don’t feel safe,” Crombie said, standing outside Line 2’s Kennedy Station Friday. “You have people using the TTC as a shelter, for somewhere to come in out the cold. There are times on our subway cars where, quite frankly, you just feel unsafe.”
She pointed out there have been stabbings and assaults at various stations and said more must be done.
The TTC’s latest capital budget lists platform edge doors as one of the unfunded items on a wishlist for modernizing the TTC over the next 15 years. The transit agency pegs the cost of installing the barriers across the system at $4.1 billion.
Asked about the expense of the project Friday, Crombie seemed surprised, but said “if that is the price of safety, then so be it.”
She added that the project might not be done all at once.
“I want people to ride the subway. We’ll make it as safe and secure as possible. Obviously, we would start with the most trafficked stations like Yonge and Bloor, like St. George, like Kennedy. So we would start with the high-traffic stations, and perhaps roll it out later.”
Platform edge doors are already a part of the TTC’s plans for the massive overhaul of Bloor-Yonge Station.
Crombie said she has not spoken with Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow about the proposal so far, but plans to have a sit-down with her at some point to discuss various ideas.
Crombie also announced Friday that she would hire 300 special constables across various provincial transit agencies – such as the TTC, Ottawa’s OC Transpo and Metrolinx – in order to make public transit safer.
Asked about Crombie’s idea during a campaign stop in Windsor, NDP Leader Marit Stiles said the province does need to invest more in making public transit safer and more affordable. However she added that neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives can be trusted to do so.
“What a mess we have seen in transit projects all across this province, Liberal and Conservative governments have gone all in on these P3 models (public-private partnerships), and it’s cost us more,” Stiles said. “I mean, the cost of these projects continues to grow day by day, and they never end. They are never actually opening the projects. It’s outrageous.”
PC Leader Doug Ford, when asked about the idea during a campaign stop in Niagara Falls on Friday, said his party has already spent billions of dollars expanding transit and plans to continue doing so.
“We’re going to continue spending money on building transit, getting people out of their cars, getting them into transit. We’re spending over $70 billion on expanding transit around our province – never been done, not only here, but in North America,” Ford said.
He pointed to multiple subway expansion projects in Toronto, as well as rapid transit in Brampton and expanded GO service around the GTHA.
Responding to Crombie’s idea, transit advocacy group TTCriders said the doors are needed, but what the province really needs is a new model for funding transit.
“Platform edge doors will make the TTC safer and more reliable by reducing service disruptions caused by people at track level and debris that can cause fires, but the doors are not a silver bullet for the TTC’s urgent service and repair needs,” TTCriders spokesperson August Puranauth said.
The group said it will be asking every party to commit to taking care of existing transit infrastructure, funding transit operations, and funding the Eglinton East LRT and Waterfront East LRT projects.”
Elsewhere on the campaign trail Friday, Mike Schreiner is in Chesley, meeting with Ontario Health Coalition Representatives.
