Plans

1966 Metropolitan Toronto Transportation Plan

The first draft transportation plan for the Toronto area, showing new highways and rapid transit, was drawn up in 1943. However, serious planning for the Toronto area took place after the creation of Metropolitan Toronto in 1953, resulting in a Draft Official Plan in 1959, which showed new expressways and subways. This was refined into a second Draft Official Plan in 1964, and finally adopted as the Official Plan in 1966.

The 1966 Official Plan called for a balanced transportation system of roads and transit. It included making the arterial road system continuous by filling in missing links and the construction of a grid system of expressways to take through traffic off local streets. It also included new subways in the higher density areas, mostly in the central city, and lakeshore commuter rail. The expressway system included the Provincial Highways, run by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, which included Highways 400, 401, 27 (later 427) and the Queen Elizabeth Way. It was later expanded to include Highways 409, 404, 407, 410 and 403. Municipal Expressways included the Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway, the Don Valley Parkway and the Spadina Expressway. Plans called for the Spadina Expressway (renamed William R. Allen Expressway in 1969) to be extended south into downtown Toronto, the Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway to be extended through the east end of the City and across Scarborough to join Highway 401 (the extension was referred to as the Scarborough Expressway). These would be followed by the Highway 400 Extension south to the Gardiner Expressway, and the Crosstown Expressway and the Richview Expressway across the middle of the city. Extensions of the Yonge and Bloor subways were planned and Queen and Spadina subways were planned also. A lakeshore commuter rail line, known as GO transit, was also introduced.

Details of the expressway and transit proposals in the 1966 Official Plan can be found on the Spadina Expressway, Scarborough Expressway, Crosstown Expressway and Queen Street Subway links on this site.



After construction was scheduled and begun, a huge protest against the further extension of the Spadina (William R. Allen) Expressway, led by urban sociologist Jane Jacobs, resulted in the Province intervening and cancelling further construction of the expressway in 1971. This led to the downfall of the 1966 transportation plan. A Transportation Plan Review was set up in 1972 and presented its recommendations for a revised plan in 1975. Metropolitan Toronto then tried to proceed with construction of the Scarborough Expressway (F.G. Gardiner Expressway extension), but this met with similar opposition. The Gardiner extension (Scarborough Expressway) was shelved by the city in 1974, though lands for it continued to be held. In 1972, the Provincial Government adopted a plan for intermediate capacity transit lines across Toronto, the forerunner to today's Transit City streetcar LRT plan, in an effort to reduce automobile use in the city.



Revised Plans of 1980, 1994 and 2002

A new Official Plan was adopted in 1980, which contained a clause stating that construction of new expressways was no longer supported by Metropolitan Toronto. The proposed expressways from the 1966 Plan were deleted. This new 1980 Plan shifted the emphasis from a balanced form of transportation to one based solely on public transit. No new major roads would be planned and Toronto would now only have public transit plans. The Queen Street Subway was deleted in favour of the development of suburban transit development, and the Crosstown Expressway was deleted. The Spadina Expressway would stop permanently at Eglinton Avenue West; the Highway 400 Extension was shrunk down to an arterial road, known as Black Creek Drive, and the Scarborough and Richview Expressways became undefined transportation corridors. Many new GO commuter rail lines were added and light rail transit was built in Scarborough from the east end of the Bloor-Danforth subway line. A plan for an extensive expansion of the subway system was adopted in 1985 called 'Network 2011' which called for new subways along Sheppard Avenue East, Eglinton Avenue West and a Downtown Relief line along Front Street through Union Station. All that materialized of this was a short section of the Sheppard Subway line from Yonge to Don Mills completed by 2002. The remainder of this proposed system was cancelled due to alleged high costs. The Downtown Relief line remains considered for construction after the year 2020.



A further new Official Plan was adopted in 1994, and the undefined transportation corridors along the former Scarborough and Richview Expressways were deleted, finally bringing those routes to an end. An expansive transit plan was adopted. This was the last Official Plan for the then Metropolitan Toronto. After amalgamation into the new City of Toronto, a new Official Plan was adopted in 2002 with a policy of 'Building A Transit City' explicitly meaning discouraging automobile use and encouraging transit, cycling and walking.  A network of streetcar LRT's replaced the subway expansion approved in the 1980's with surface  routes along Sheppard Avenue East, Finch Avenue West, Eglinton Avenue, Jane Street, Don Mills Road, Morningside Avenue and replacing the Scarborough RT line extended to Malvern. The plan also called for intensification of the city allowing for one million more people to live in the city by 2030. All that materialized of this LRT plan was the first lines built along Spadina, Harbourfront and St. Clair West, completed between 1995 and 2009 and built before this plan was finalized. Provincial funding cutbacks also reduced the number of lines by delaying the Jane and Don Mills LRT lines and the Eglinton line west of Jane Street.

 
An LRT line along Sheppard East was due to be the next one to be built and construction was started in 2010, but after a poor experience with the St. Clair West route which went way over budget and caused businesses to move, a revolt against the Sheppard LRT line by local residents and businesses occurred, causing construction to be halted and the entire 'Transit City' plan to be scrapped. The people on Sheppard wanted the original full subway proposed in 1985.

The election of Mayor Rob Ford in 2010 brought about a new transit plan for Toronto. This one honoured the wishes of the people who fought the Sheppard East LRT plan. The new plan was part of a proposed new balanced transportation plan, based on this 'Get Toronto Moving' plan called 'Transportation City'. The transit part of this plan was announced in 2011, with the roads and bicycle trails to follow later. The transit plan resurrected the full Sheppard Subway from the 1985 plan between Downsview and the Scarborough Town Centre and proposed an underground LRT, which would be a mini-subway, under Eglinton Avenue running from Black Creek Drive in the west to Kennedy in the east, continuing north-east as a surface replacement of the Scarborough RT line to McCowan. The northern extension of the Spadina subway line to Vaughan was now under construction and a northern extension of the Yonge subway line to Richmond Hill was proposed also. A plan for roads, the first since 1966, and bicycles also along the lines of this 'Get Toronto Moving' plan was yet to be put together. A new Official Plan for the city was also promised.