Line 1 Yonge–University no relation Union Station
Construction
During World War II, workers travelling from their homes in "northern Toronto" (which would now be considered the downtown core) to the industrial areas to the east and west of the downtown area on Yonge seriously strained the existing road and streetcar networks. There was concern that the expected post-war boom in car ownership would choke the city with traffic. The scheme was first proposed by Toronto Transportation Commission in 1942 to relieve congestion, which was delaying their bus and tram services. The TTC formed a Rapid Transit Department and studied various solutions between 1942 and 1945.
A plan was put to the voters on January 1, 1946. The plan had two parts. First, it featured a "rapid transit subway" operated with subway trains from Eglinton Avenue to the north as far as College Street to the south. The line would continue directly under Yonge and Front Streets to Union Station. Second would be a "surface car subway", diverting streetcar services off Queen Street and Dundas Street. This would run mostly along Queen Street, with each end angling north to reach Dundas Street west of Trinity Park and Gerrard Street at Pape Avenue. The route would run directly under Queen Street from University Avenue to Church Street, with the rest off-street. The vote was overwhelmingly in favour, and Toronto City Council approved construction four months later.
The plebiscite contained the condition that the federal government would subsidize 20 percent of the project. The federal Minister of Reconstruction, C.D. Howe, promised federal support in an October 3, 1945, letter. However, the funding fell through over a disagreement about the details of the employment arrangements. A scaled down proposal, about 20 perent smaller, was agreed to in its place. The work along Queen Street was abandoned temporarily, and the original $42.3 million ($651 million in 2021) was reduced to $28.9 million ($445 million in 2021) plus $3.5 million ($53.9 million in 2021) for rolling stock. After a two-year delay due to postwar labour shortages, construction on the new subway did not start until September 8, 1949. A total of 1.3 million cubic metres (1.7 million cubic yards) of material was removed and some 12,700 tonnes (14,000 tons) of reinforcing steel and 1.4 million bags of cement were put into place. A roughed-in station was constructed below Queen station for a proposed Queen line, but that line was never built.Automatic train control
The TTC converted its block signal system to automatic train control (ATC) on Line 1 Yonge–University at a cost of $562.3 million. With ATC, the TTC will be able to reduce the headway between trains on Line 1 from 2 minutes and 30 seconds to 2 minutes during rush hours, and allow a 25 percent increase in the number of trains operating on Line 1. ATC was introduced to Line 1 in phases. It was first introduced with the opening of the TYSSE on December 17, 2017, between Vaughan and Sheppard West stations.There were delays on the project. Deadlines for the complete conversion of Line 1 were pushed back to 2016, then to 2018, to 2019,
and finally to 2022. ATC conversion was completed to Finch station on September 24, 2022.On November 4, 2017, the TTC successfully completed a 13-day test of ATC with trains using it in regular service between Dupont and Yorkdale stations. At the conclusion of the test, the feature was turned off between these two stations to allow installation of ATC through the interchange special work at the Wilson Yard. ATC was permanently extended south to Dupont station on December 3, 2018; to St. Patrick station on May 12, 2019; to Queen station on February 24, 2020; to Rosedale station on November 21, 2020, to Eglinton station in October 2021, and finally to Finch station on September 24, 2022. However, there will be a phase 6 for fixes, improvements and enhancements to be completed by the second quarter of 2023. Also as part of phase 6, ATC will need to be adjusted at Eglinton station to accommodate the shifting of the Line 1 platform north by 24 metres (79 ft).: 8–9 Prior to September 2022, ATC was operating on 79 percent of Line 1, and the partial implementation of ATC had resulted in improvements. Trains travel between Vaughan Metropolitan Centre and Rosedale stations 3.5 minutes faster. Just prior to 2020, ATC allowed for an 8 percent increase in trains per hour, and the number of trains scheduled in southbound service in the morning peak at Bloor–Yonge station increased from 22 to 25.5 trains per hour. Signal violations decreased by approximately 50 percent from 2017 to 2020.: 7 Converting all of Line 1 to ATC required the installation of 2,000 beacons, 256 signals, and more than one million feet of cable.As of 24 September 2022, the timetable for ATC conversion on Line 1 is:: 8
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