The Don Mills LRT was a proposed
light rail line in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
, Ontario, Canada. It was part of the
Transit City
Transit City was a plan for developing public transport in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was first proposed and announced on 16 March 2007 by then-Toronto Mayor David Miller and Chair of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) Adam Giambrone. T ...
proposal announced March 16, 2007, to be operated by the
Toronto Transit Commission
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the public transport agency that operates bus, subway, streetcar, and paratransit services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, some of which run into the Peel Region and York Region. It is the oldest and larges ...
(TTC). It was expected to cost approximately $675 million, with construction to begin in 2012, and an expected opening in 2016. It would have been the fifth of the seven Transit City lines to be complete after the
Sheppard East,
Finch West,
Waterfront West, and
Eglinton lines. Ridership was estimated to be 21.2 million trips in 2021.
Mayor
Rob Ford
Robert Bruce Ford (May 28, 1969 – March 22, 2016) was a Canadian politician and businessman who served as the 64th mayor of Toronto from 2010 to 2014. Before and after his term as mayor, Ford was a city councillor representing Ward 2 Etobi ...
cancelled the line after taking office in December 2010. While LRT lines on Sheppard East, Finch West, and Eglinton were revived through a new agreement between the City of Toronto and
Metrolinx, the Don Mills LRT was not included.
The 925 Don Mills Express bus follows a similar routing to the proposed LRT.
The Don Mills LRT is still included in Metrolinx's regional transportation plan ''
The Big Move
The Big Move is the regional transportation plan (RTP) published by Metrolinx for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) in Ontario, Canada. It makes specific recommendations for transit projects, resulting from seven "green papers" and ...
'' under the 15-year horizon.
Metrolinx has also completed a detailed benefits case analysis for the
Relief Line, exploring the potential of constructing a subway instead of the Don Mills LRT to
Don Mills station
Don Mills is a subway station that is the eastern terminus of Line 4 Sheppard in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The station is at the northeast corner of Sheppard Avenue East and Don Mills Road, within the residential communities of Don Valley Vill ...
.
Route layout
According to initial Toronto Transit Commission planning, the Don Mills LRT line would run for between
Steeles Avenue
Steeles Avenue is an east–west street that forms the northern city limit of Toronto and the southern limit of York Region in Ontario, Canada. It stretches across the western and central Greater Toronto Area from Appleby Line in Milton in th ...
and
Line 2 Bloor–Danforth
Line 2 Bloor–Danforth is a subway line in the Toronto subway system, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It has 31 stations and is in length. It opened on February 26, 1966, and extensions at both ends were completed in 1968 an ...
. The LRT would operate via
Don Mills Road
Don, don or DON and variants may refer to:
Places
*County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON
* Don (river), a river in European Russia
*Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name
*Don, Benin, a town in Benin
*Don, Dang, a vil ...
from the north, and then turn east along Overlea Boulevard through the community of
Thorncliffe Park
Thorncliffe Park is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in the former Borough of East York.
The City of Toronto recognizes Thorncliffe Park's boundaries as the Don River on the south side; Leaside Bridge, Millwood Road, and Laird Drive ...
. South of Thorncliffe Park, the TTC was examining three different alignments for the LRT to connect to the Line 2 subway, prior to cancellation of the project:
[UrbanToronto forums - TTC: Jane LRT - Post #880309](_blank)
/ref>
* Pape Avenue, via the Leaside Bridge, to station;
* Broadview Avenue, via the Leaside Bridge, to station;
* Bayview Avenue, via Millwood Road and Southdale Drive, to station.
The Big Move proposes that the Don Mills LRT run along Pape Avenue to Pape station. It also proposes that the LRT stretch north past Steeles Avenue, along Leslie Street to Highway 7 in York Region
The Regional Municipality of York, also called York Region, is a regional municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, between Lake Simcoe and Toronto. The region was established after the passing of then Bill 102, An Act to Establish The Regional M ...
.
Proposed stops/stations
The TTC did not indicate specific stops at the time of planning. The Big Move indicates that the line would intersect mobility hubs at Eglinton, , Steeles, and Highway 407
The following highways are numbered 407:
Canada
* Manitoba Provincial Road 407
* Newfoundland and Labrador Route 407
* Ontario Highway 407
Costa Rica
* National Route 407
Iceland
* Route 407 (Iceland)
Italy
* State road 407
Japan
* Japa ...
, and facilitate transfers to the Eglinton Crosstown line, Line 4 Sheppard
Line 4 Sheppard is the newest and shortest subway line of the Toronto subway system, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It opened on November 22, 2002, and has five stations along of track, which is built without any open section ...
, the Sheppard East LRT, an LRT or BRT line on Steeles, the 407 Transitway, and the Highway 7 Rapidway.
Relief Line
The Don Mills LRT is proposed to connect to the Relief Line (formerly Downtown Relief Line) at Line 2, which is proposed to help reduce current and projected congestion in downtown Toronto. Metrolinx, the City of Toronto, York Region and the TTC partnered on the Yonge Relief Network Study (YRNS) in 2015, which examined options for providing relief on the Yonge line. This included three different versions of the Relief Line, and a surface LRT similar to the Don Mills LRT. The YRNS found that a subway between downtown and Sheppard Avenue would provide the most effective relief on the Yonge line. Pursuing this option would truncate the LRT south of Sheppard, and replace it with a subway.
References
External links
Don Mills Road Transit Improvements Individual Environmental Assessment
{{DEFAULTSORT:Don Mills Lrt (Ttc)
Toronto streetcar system
Proposed Toronto rapid transit projects
The Big Move projects