The Ontario Line will have protective barriers installed on its platforms
The upcoming downtown transit route is set to launch in 2031
Toronto’s forthcoming Ontario Line, a 15.6-kilometre downtown transit route set to launch in 2031, will have protective barriers installed at its stations, according to CBC.
The Toronto Transit Commission has been considering the implementation of protective doors since 2014, when a Toronto Public Health report recommended them as a suicide prevention strategy. There have also been several instances of riders being pushed onto tracks from subway platforms, which the barriers would prevent. Other cities around the world that have protective barriers on its transit systems include Copenhagen, Hong Kong, Paris, Seoul and Singapore.
Related: The bone-rattling reality of Ontario Line construction
Back in 2023, the TTC announced that protective barriers would be added at Bloor-Yonge station, but due to funding limitations, they were never built. The transit agency also reneged on the installation of barriers at TMU Station (formerly known as Dundas Station), due to a lack of funds—according to a previous CBC report, adding protective barriers for Lines 1, 2 and 4 would cost $4.1 billion.
Transit safety advocate Chloe Tangpongprus told CBC that the Ontario Line’s protective barriers will be “a huge safety improvement,” but reiterated that they should be installed at every station.
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Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
