Ford, Carney and Chow are co-parenting a new streetcar line
Each are throwing in $1 billion
The Waterfront East LRT is finally happening, and all it took was three layers of government.
At a press conference today, Mayor Olivia Chow, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Premier Doug Ford shared the stage to announce a $3-billion investment into the long-planned transit line, which would extend the existing Queens Quay streetcar tracks east to the Port Lands and Cherry Street. Like the existing line to the west, this new streetcar would duck underground near the intersection of Queens Quay and Bay Street and turn north to connect to Union Station via a tunnel. East of Bay, it would travel along Queens Quay East on a dedicated right-of-way. (Notably, this would create a second tunnel for cars to potentially keep getting stuck in.)
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The city has been planning this line for over two years, but wasn’t able to scrounge up the cash to get it built. That changed today, as each government will throw in $1 billion, and it’s now expected to be finished by 2032—not exactly soon, but also not bad for an LRT project in Toronto.
The new line would serve a rapidly developing part of the city: the Eastern Waterfront is expected to house 100,000 people and host 50,000 jobs. Until recently, it was an industrial outskirt to downtown, and transit-wise, it can still feel that way: the bus that serves the line rumbles along a wide road, and both the Martin Goodman Trail and sidewalk feel squished to the side. Thankfully, the city intends to redevelop the entire streetscape for the project, plans that could even include a cruise ship terminal at the foot of Yonge Street.
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Transit is a game of connections, and this new link would create a direct route between Union Station and the 504 streetcar line at the foot of Cherry Street, offering another way for westbound commuters to get downtown. That could mean impacts beyond the immediate neighbourhood: speaking at the press conference today, Carney said it would allow for 75,000 new homes to be built in the east end.
More than a streetcar, the Queens Quay East line promises to open up a whole new district of our city. Let’s hope that three whole governments are enough to make it happen.
Anthony Milton is a freelance journalist based in Toronto specializing in long-form magazine writing. He previously worked as an assistant editor at Toronto Life, where he launched the Front Row newsletter. He regularly contributes all sorts of stories to the magazine, including deep dives on sports, business and housing as well as short-form commentary on our ever-changing city, from its obsession with cherry blossoms to its maddening NIMBYism. His work has also appeared in Maclean’s, Ricochet, TVO, the Trillium and more.
