page_title: Relief Line (Toronto)
section_title: Purpose
hierarchical_section_title: Relief Line (Toronto) / Purpose
caption_attribution_description: English: Bloor-Yonge station during a service disruption on Line 1 in the AM rush.
context_page_description: The Relief Line was a proposed rapid transit line for the Toronto subway system, intended to provide capacity relief to the Yonge segment of Line 1 and Bloor–Yonge station and extend subway service coverage in the city's east end in the first phase.
  In April 2019, the Government of Ontario under Doug Ford announced that a new Ontario Line would be built instead of the Relief Line. Thus, in June 2019, TTC and City staff suspended further planning work on the Relief Line.
  Several plans for an east–west downtown subway date back to the early 20th century, most of which ran along Queen Street. Since the early 21st century, studies propose a line that would run south from Line 2 Bloor–Danforth at a point east of the Don River, before bending westward along Queen Street into Downtown Toronto.
  The Relief Line is included in the regional transportation plan The Big Move and is one of Metrolinx's top 15 transit priorities. In August 2018, an alignment was approved by the Ontario Ministry of Environment, Conservation, and Parks.
  In October 2019, Toronto City Council voted 22–3 to support the Ontario Line plan in place of the Relief Line, effectively cancelling it.
context_section_description: The purpose of the Relief Line is to help reduce current and projected congestion in downtown Toronto. In 2012, it was becoming apparent to the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) and Metrolinx that even with proposed improvements, Line 1 Yonge–University – and particularly Bloor–Yonge station, the main interchange with Line 2 Bloor–Danforth – were facing significant capacity constraints. In 2011, Line 1 was officially over capacity between St. Clair and College stations. After fully converting the line's fleet to higher capacity Toronto Rocket trains the section between St. Clair and Bloor–Yonge stations was no longer officially over capacity. However, since 2015, Line 1 still operates 11% over its capacity south of Line 2 during the morning rush hour. The future implementation of automatic train control will help further increase the capacity of Line 1 to 33,000 ppl/hr/dir. Other factors are expected to reduce demand such as the extension of the University portion of Line 1 into Vaughan, and other local transit improvements. However, after factoring in population and employment growth and the proposed extension of Line 1 north into Richmond Hill, Metrolinx projects it will be at 96% of its capacity by 2031 even with committed improvements. The Relief Line will provide an alternate route for commuters heading downtown by allowing them to bypass the most congested segment of Line 1 and avoid transferring at Bloor–Yonge Station.
  Significant growth is also planned adjacent to the downtown core and throughout the Greater Toronto Area. Population and employment in Toronto's downtown core are projected to increase by 83% and 28%, respectively, by 2031. This is expected to increase future transit demand into the downtown core by 55%. On top of the projected congestion on Line 1 and at Bloor–Yonge station, the increase in the downtown population will put pressure on the congested 504 King and 501 Queen streetcars (two of the TTC's busiest surface transit routes). Metrolinx in a separate report projects that with the implementation of GO Transit's Regional Express Rail service, passenger traffic at Union Station will double or triple 2005 volumes by 2031. This could lead to a significant capacity shortfall for Union Station beyond 2031, potentially requiring a modified Relief Line with connections to auxiliary GO Transit stations to "offload" demand at Union Station.
caption: Bloor–Yonge station during a service disruption on Line 1 Yonge–University
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