The TTC wants to install suicide barriers on its subway platforms, possibly within three or four years at some stations.

Councillors on the transit commission recommended Wednesday that the barriers, known as platform screen doors, be added to the capital budget between 2011 and 2015.

But with the TTC anticipating a $1.5 billion capital shortfall by the end of the decade, the cost of up to $10 million per station has no funding yet.

“Anything that would add to the capital shortfall would be the responsibility of the province and the city to cover,” said TTC chair Adam Giambrone.

Platform screen doors are in use on subways around the world, including London, Paris, Barcelona, Hong Kong and Rome, according to a TTC report.

The platform doors must line up precisely with the train doors, something that can’t be done manually but will be possible once the TTC installs its new computerized signaling system, called automatic train control.

The first phase, from Eglinton to Union, won’t be complete until 2013, and it will be 2015 before it is installed all the way to Downsview.

As well as suicide and accident prevention, the barriers would permit trains to move faster, stop people from jamming the doors and keep garbage from falling to the tracks, where it sometimes catches fire and causes delays.

The TTC reported 18 suicide attempts last year, 77 incidents of unauthorized people going down to track level, and 14 accidental falls.

“Suicide is an illness and it is not something within the person’s control. Anything they can do to prevent suicide is going to save lives, and I think they have a responsibility to do that since the technology exists,” said barrier advocate Lindsay Hill, a lawyer, wife and mother who has personally suffered from mental illness. “Sometimes you walk down to the platform and you hear the silence and you hear the rushing wind, and that calls to you,” she told the commission.

TTC vice-chair Joe Mihevc said the commission will need mental health advocates to support the call for provincial and federal funds to pay for the barriers.

The TTC has an awareness program to help employees spot people who may be in distress on the system.