Pape Ave. favoured route for Downtown Relief Line

Courtesy TTC

Plans for downtown Toronto’s first subway in decades are taking shape, with city planners revealing what they say is the favoured alignment for the relief line. And it will have a major impact on the city's east end, especially for Pape Ave.

Heading downtown, the route would run south from Danforth Ave. beneath Pape Ave., turn west and run underneath Eastern Ave. until a point west of the Don River, where it would turn north and run beneath Queen St.

The entire route will run underground in both directions, with several stops along the way. Eight stations have been proposed, including transfer points at Pape Station on Line 2, and Osgoode and Queen Stations on Line 1. There would also be new stations at Queen and Sherbourne, King and Sumach, Queen and Pape, and connections to future SmartTrack stations at Eastern and Broadview and Gerrard and Pape.

Although the line is badly needed to relieve Toronto's congested transit system, residents of Pape Ave. naturally have concerns about the potential for heavy disruption during the construction phase and the new route running directly under their homes.

According to the CBC, chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat says there won't be housing expropriations along Pape as the relief line planning moves forward. Part of the planning process includes how to maintain healthy neighbourhoods, such as looking at how deep the subway could go so as not to disrupt the houses above.