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With the transit issue settled on Sheppard Avenue, although not according to the Mayor, the TTC’s new boss is urging elected leaders to turn their attention to a downtown relief line that takes the pressure off the packed Yonge-University-Spadina subway.

The Toronto Transit Commission is coping as it can with ballooning ridership, rolling out new trains that carry more people and changing its signalling system to help the subway run more smoothly, said Andy Byford, the recently appointed chief executive officer. But there are limits.

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“Fundamentally, there will come a point with the city’s population increasing exponentially where we do need that new capacity,” Mr. Byford said following a speech at the Toronto Board of Trade. “The downtown relief line has got to be looked at and has got to be talked about right now.”

An object of desire for downtown dwellers cramming into overstuffed streetcars and subway trains, a downtown relief line was proposed in the mid 1980s as a way to deal with anticipated overcrowding at Yonge and Bloor.