Women’s Post publisher and mayoral candidate Sarah Thomson unveiled the first portion of her transit plan for Toronto Thursday on CP24 with Rena Heer calling for road tolls to pay for the Yonge Street Relief Line, her intrepretation of the Downtown Relief line, also known as DRL, that transit experts have deemed necessary for years.
“My Yonge Street Relief Line plan will bring more jobs to the city today and help unlock the gridlock that is slowing our productivity. We need real ideas, real solutions, real change,” said Thomson in a press release where she also calls for a comprehensive transit plan to combat the estimated $6 billion dollars lost in gridlock.
The Relief Line is intended to take the stress off of the downtown portion of the Line 1, formerly known as theYonge-University-Spadina Line, in particular the congestion at Bloor-Yonge station.
Thomson’s plan estimates that, at $5 tolls revenue for transit projects can be raised at an estimate of $370 million annually.
“Since 2010, I have advocated for the Yonge Street Relief Line, which is now on the current Metrolinx and TTC plans. My commitment is to get down to work, to accelerate the plan in Toronto by taking the first and most vital step forward, and to provide a fully-funded plan to make the Relief Line a reality.”
Thomson ran on a transit based platform in 2010 and helped to raise awareness about Toronto’s need for a relief subway line to ease congestion on the TTC in the core of the city.
