The downtown relief subway line should not be an issue in Toronto’s 2014 municipal election campaign, mayoral candidate Olivia Chow says.

During a morning radio interview, Chow was asked about her commitment to building the subway line. Critics have accused her of waffling on her position since launching her campaign last month.

Chow said while she supports the line, she noted it is not projected to open until 2031, 17 years from now.

“Can we do it faster? Maybe, but it’s $8 billion, a lot of money, so we need to negotiate with the federal and provincial government on how we are going to do this,” she said in the interview on CIUT 89.5 FM.

“We need to determine what route and which alignment, which we’ll do this late spring and early summer, so once we have that, then we can begin to negotiate. But I don’t think it should be an election issue because . . . nothing is going to break ground for another four, five years, six years, because the study itself will take that long.”

Environment assessments and engineering studies would have to be done before construction could start.

Mayoral candidate John Tory has made building a downtown relief line, which he calls the Yonge Street relief line, a key part of his platform.

Tory says that by 2031, Toronto will have “added between 1.5 and 2 million people in that period of time.”

“I said at my launch I would make the Yonge Street Relief Line priority number one. And I meant it,” he said. In a statement released Wednesday, Tory said Torontonians have “a very clear choice between Ms Chow and I,” as he is the candidate who “can get action on Yonge Street Relief Line.”

In an email, Jamey Heath, Chow’s communications director, questioned how Tory can make that claim when so far he’s outlined “no plan, no partnerships, no timeline and no tax pledge beyond ‘low.’ ”

The city and TTC are currently evaluating route and station options for a new rapid transit line connecting downtown Toronto to the Bloor-Danforth subway line west of the Don River. Public meetings begin Saturday.

Radio host Edward Keenan told Chow some of her opponents and transit watchers are concerned that if the relief line doesn’t seem like a high priority, 2031 could become 2040 or beyond.

“It is identified as a top priority for TTC and Metrolinx, and I take it all the time,” she responded. She then described her own TTC experience a day earlier, when she tried to get on the subway at Yonge and College Sts. when it was already packed at 3 p.m.

“Of course it is a priority, of course the TTC has said we have to do that; in fact I think (TTC CEO) Andy Byford said, ‘Yeah, that’s a higher priority than the Scarborough one,’” she said.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Chow has promised to cancel the Scarborough subway if she’s elected mayor and replace it with an above-ground rail line that she says would be built four years sooner, with four more stops and for $1 billion less.

Chow said her recent announcement about expanding bus service in Toronto by 10 per cent addresses transit crowding while waiting for the relief line to be built.

Read more about: