History

This History section and all of its pages outlines historical transportation projects in Toronto. This in no way indicates support by the 'Get Toronto Moving' transportation plan for revival of these projects. The information contained in these pages is purely for an understanding of past transportation planning to learn from the best and never repeat the worst.

Important Transportation Opening Dates in Toronto

Expressway construction in Toronto

While the Provincial Government of Ontario built the 400-series freeways, Metropolitan Toronto (known as Metro), since its incorporation in 1954, until 1969, provided an expressway network which proceeded continuously with the completion of the Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway to Leslie Street, the Don Valley Parkway between the lakeshore and Sheppard Avenue and the Spadina Expressway north from Lawrence Avenue – a total of 32 kilometres (20 miles) of new expressways.


Toronto constructed three expressways in the late 1950's and through the 1960's, but none since then.
Gardiner Expressway (left), Don Valley Parkway (centre), and Allen (formerly Spadina) Expressway (right)
Plans for additional expressways including Crosstown, Scarborough and 400 Extension routes were cancelled. 

By 1969, construction of the Spadina Expressway between Lawrence and Eglinton Avenues was nearing completion. In that year, the Spadina Expressway was renamed as the William R. Allen Expressway. The capital budget at that time provided for construction of the Willam R. Allen Expressway to Bloor Street by 1975 and extension of the Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway through the east end of the city into Scarborough after 1975. 

After two years of protest from area residents, further construction of the William R. Allen Expressway was cancelled in 1971 leaving the section between Lawrence and Eglinton Avenues unfinished. After a report showed little need for it at that time, the extension of the Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway into Scarborough was shelved in 1974, though Metro retained the lands acquired along the route. In 1976, the William R. Allen Expressway was completed to Eglinton Avenue as the William R. Allen Road. 

In 1982, a four-lane extension of Highway 400 to Weston Road known as Black Creek Drive was built by the Provincial Government and transferred to Metro. In 1997, three more Provincial highways were transferred to Metro. The Queen Elizabeth Way east of Highway 427 to the Humber River became part of Metro’s Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway and Highway 27 and Highway 2A were also transferred to Metro. Metro became the amalgamated City of Toronto in 1998. With these transfers, the City of Toronto now owned 48 kilometres (30 miles) of expressways. However, all 400-series highways remained under Provincial control.

In 2001, the Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway from east of the Don Valley Parkway to Leslie Street was demolished and replaced with a new eastern terminus west of Carlaw Avenue. Environmental assessments on demolishing more of the Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway and on reconfiguring the William R. Allen Road began in 2009, but these remain uncertain.



Click on the image below for a detailed history of Toronto's expressways system



Subway construction in Toronto

The provision of a subway network by the Toronto Transit Commission was approved in a referendum in 1946 and construction began soon after, continuing today. At the time of the incorporation of Metro Toronto in 1954, Canada’s first subway, the Yonge line, opened from Eglinton to Union Station and a short unfinished streetcar subway tunnel had been provided for a future Queen Street line. By 1963, the University extension of the now Yonge-University line had been completed to St. George, and by 1968, the Bloor-Danforth line had been completed between Islington and Warden. 

In 1974, the Yonge line had been extended north to Finch and the proposed Queen Street line was shelved in favour of new subways in the suburbs. 

By 1980, the Spadina extension of the now Yonge-University-Spadina line had been completed to Wilson and the Bloor-Danforth line had been extended west to Kipling and east to Kennedy. The smaller Scarborough rapid transit line was opened in 1985 connecting the east end of the Bloor-Danforth line northeasterly to McCowan.

A 1985 report recommended construction of new subways along Eglinton Avenue West and Sheppard Avenue East and a new Downtown Relief Line from Pape to Union Station, to be built by 2011. Construction of the Eglinton West line was cancelled in 1995 after a brief start, but the Yonge-University-Spadina line was extended from Wilson to Downsview in 1996 and the Sheppard line was completed from Yonge to Don Mills in 2002. By then, Toronto had 70 kilometres (43 miles) of subway with 69 stations. 


Toronto has constructed three subways from the 1950's to the present, continuously extending them.
Yonge-University-Spadina line (left), Bloor-Danforth line (centre) and Sheppard line (right)
Plans for a longer Sheppard line and Eginton and Queen lines have not yet materialized

Metro became the amalgamated City of Toronto in 1998 but this did not affect the Toronto Transit Commission which had always operated on a Metro-wide basis since 1954, except for fare zones which had been abolished in 1973.

Between 2003 and 2010, no new subway construction took place due to rising costs and a network of eight surface light rail lines along arterial roads called ‘Transit City’ with a short tunnelled section under part of Eglinton Avenue was proposed instead. A northern extension of the Spadina line to Vaughan was the only subway to be built with construction beginning in 2009. 

By 2010, due to public protest against the light rail proposal on arterial roads, subway construction resumed. Plans were approved for completion of the Sheppard line west to Downsview and east to the Scarborough Town Centre and extension of the Yonge line north to Richmond Hill. A now completely underground Eglinton-Crosstown light rail line would be built like a mini-subway from Black Creek to Kennedy, and extending northeasterly as a replacement of the Scarborough rapid transit line on the surface to McCowan, joining the extended Sheppard line. A Downtown Relief line remains proposed for the long-term future, but the route remains uncertain.



Click on the image below for a detailed history of Toronto's transit system

 

Link to Transit Toronto web site for detailed information on Toronto's transit system