It's encouraging to see that “Run 'surface subways' on GO lines” made the list of the Star’s top 35 Big Ideas for the future of Toronto, and that Star readers support the concept by a 3-to-1 margin.

But the accompanying explanatory statement — “Rather than build a Downtown Relief Line, Toronto should run a subway-like service on existing GO Transit lines to alleviate downtown congestion” — is a dangerous misinterpretation of the issues, the technological limitations and the seriousness of the crunch.

As pointed out by several people when Transport Action Ontario released its Regional Rapid Rail report last summer, an intelligently electrified GO rail system would only buy time. A new subway through the core — underground and with truly urban station frequency — will remain an urgent need.

Efficient electrification of GO corridors, which would require overhead power supply and electric-multiple-unit (EMU) trains, rather than the previously considered electric locomotives, can get people downtown from York Region and Scarborough faster than subways, with real capital and operational savings over the much-discussed Yonge and Bloor-Danforth extension plans. EMUs on GO corridors can also provide this service without aggravating the overcrowding on the inner-city subway. They can even allow us to add some stations without slowing GO service. But they cannot provide urban subway station spacing and the fine web of network connections to local transit that a Relief Line would offer.

Most new capacity available through an EMU conversion will be swallowed by ridership flowing onto the Yonge-University-Spadina line from the under-construction Eglinton-Crosstown LRT, not to mention the largely approved LRT lines on Sheppard and Finch. And don't forget that, in terms of combined residential and employment expansion, downtown is the fastest growing part of the entire GTA.

An EMU conversion on GO corridors can be operational years sooner than the Relief Line can be built, so it plays an important role in its own right with region-wide reach. But without an entirely new subway into the core, we cannot responsibly contemplate extensions of the Yonge line to Richmond Hill or the Bloor-Danforth to Scarborough Town Centre — no matter how urgent the SRT replacement is.

At present, we squeeze 420,000 daily passenger movements through Bloor-Yonge station on an average weekday. That's more than the combined total for Union Station (275,000 for GO rail and bus, TTC and VIA trains) and Pearson Airport (120,000 for record busy day). Even St. George handles nearly as many as Union.

And things will only get worse.

It's no longer just the Yonge line that needs relief. Downtown streetcars are jammed and often unusable for many inner-city residents. The westbound Bloor-Danforth east of Yonge has hit capacity in the morning rush. Just like North Toronto’s Yonge riders, east-enders now have difficulty getting onto Bloor-Danforth trains. Just one minor delay — not an uncommon occurrence — creates crowding that leaves many would-be riders on platforms at Woodbine, Coxwell and other stations towards Yonge.

As for Union and the central GO corridors, while there’s unused capacity, it too will be gone soon, likely before we can build a Relief Line — even if it's fast-tracked. A new subway is needed to provide hub and distributor functions for the GO system to take impending pressure off Union, and few of the biggest beneficiaries will be downtowners.

Yes, there’s opportunity in the GO corridors. An electrified GO service — properly integrated with local buses and TTC transfer accessibility — can become a useful workhorse for 416 and 905 relatively soon at a reasonable price. But view it as first aid in a serious emergency.

This is no either/or situation: We've dithered too long while the city and region boomed. We need to act fast on both.

Signatories:

Karl Junkin, senior researcher Transport Action Ontario

Stephen Wickens, transportation writer and researcher

Ed Levy, P.Eng, transportation planner, consultant and author of Rapid Transit in Toronto, A Century of Plans, Progress, Politics and Paralysis

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Dr. Richard Soberman transportation planner, consultant and former chair of University of Toronto’s Civil Engineering department.