Sheppard started construction about 13 years ago. Construction inflation rate has been about 6% or more since then. Sheppard would cost over $2 billion now.
But $2 billion is only the rough estimate from Yonge Street to Pape station. That's what is need to avert the Bloor-Yonge rebuild. I'm sure that extensions would follow sooner, or later.
It's not that difficult; the Fulton Street station rebuild in New York City is estimated to cost US$1.2 billion - and that started in 2005. Over CAN$1.5 billion with a bit of inflation. And they are just starting the rebuild of Tottenham Court Road tube station in London, with a budget of £1-billion - so that's about CAN$1.6-billion after the collapse of the pound (CAN$2.2-billion not many months ago).
Council wants the DRL fast tack and put into Metrolinx 15 year plan.
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/...g-fast-tracking-the-downtown-relief-line.aspx
The cost to do Core to Coxwell to Eglinton is $2.3B
It shows what a few ppl can do before TTC commissioners and I was one of them.
I prefer to see the line go to Jane and Bloor, It would tie in the Jane line and part of my U that I saw before Transit City came along.
It shows some of the old thinking within TTC is getting push off to the side.
Council considering fast-tracking the downtown relief line
Posted: January 28, 2009, 1:06 PM by Allison Hanes
TTC, downtown relief line
Momentum may be building today for fast tracking the downtown relief line, as Toronto council mulls a new condition for supporting the extension of the Yonge Subway into Richmond Hill.
The so-called downtown relief line would be a new U-shaped subway linking the east and west ends of the Bloor line by swooping through the city core. One proposed route would see the line start at Pape Station and plunge south through Riverdale and Leslieville before turning west to the Distillery District and running through downtown along Wellington St. It would then link up Liberty Village and swoop north to Dufferin Station.
But Councillor Adam Giambrone (Davenport), chair of the Toronto Transit Commission, said the route is still-to-be determined and could be more feasible running from Donlands Station and up Roncesvalles St. in the west.
Mr. Giambrone said the sudden interest in the downtown relief line is being driven by the need to overhaul Yonge-Bloor Station to accommodate new traffic on the already over-crowded Yonge Line from the north. Such work would be costly and extremely disruptive to passengers.
Mr. Giambrone said if the cost of that project was almost $1 billion and the cost of a whole new line that would alleviate the pressure were $2 billion, a brand-new subway might be a better use of funds.
Also, it could kill several birds with one stone, not only taking pressure off the Yonge line, but offering a new route into downtown from under-serviced Scarborough and relieving the heavily traveled, problematic street car lines on King and Queen Sts.
Several amendments to a report outlining Toronto’s conditions for supporting extending the subway to Richmond Hill are being debated at council today. One, proposed by councillor Michael Thompson (Scarborough Centre), suggests getting regional transit agency Metrolinx to put the downtown relief line in its 15-year plan and another forthcoming from councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong (Don Valley East) calling for a feasibility study that would get the ball rolling.
Mr. Giambrone said support is building across the political spectrum for getting moving on the alternative subway line.
