The rail lines that would be used in John Tory's SmartTrack Line. Mr. Tory’s plan that calls for a new rail spur along or under Eglinton Avenue in the west.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
The province is moving to expand capacity on a Toronto-area GO rail corridor crucial to Mayor John Tory's transit plans.
The request for proposal (RFP), quietly posted on a government procurement site on Wednesday, calls for bids on adding a second set of tracks along five kilometres of the Stouffville line, which leads into the downtown from Markham to the northeast.
Preliminary work would begin this spring and shovels would go into the ground sometime in 2016. It's small but tangible evidence of transit progress in a region often criticized for spending more time talking than building.
The track work is officially part of the province's plans to enhance GO rail service. The Ontario Liberals ran last year on a pledge to electrify all of GO Train and move to 15-minute service across the network within a decade. The pledge has since been watered down to providing such service only in the busiest areas, but even that will require hundreds of kilometres of new track.
As it happens, that work is now moving ahead on a corridor that Mr. Tory needs to get his signature transit plan off the ground. The mayor campaigned on a promise of surface transit running every 15 minutes, calling his proposal SmartTrack and saying he can do it within seven years. Although Mr. Tory's plan runs mostly on existing GO corridors, track-capacity shortages on the Stouffville line make this one of the areas where new rails will be needed.
The RFP is a boost to Mr. Tory, whose transit timeline depends on his being able to persuade the province to prioritize electrification and track expansion on the corridors he needs.
The rail work being tendered is expected to be the first part of a multiyear effort to add a second set of track along 17 kilometres of the Stouffville line. The first phase will run from just north of Sheppard Avenue to around Steeles Avenue. The whole double-tracking project eventually will extend from Unionville to Scarborough Junction, where the Stouffville and Lakeshore East GO rail lines come together.
"The new track construction will require grading, drainage, upgrades to and shifting of existing track, installation of a new track, relocation of an existing spur, modification/relocation of signal and communications system," according to the RFP.
It also specifies fibre-optic relocation, laying the foundation for an overhead power supply to the train and work on seven places where the rail line crosses roads. Prospective companies are required to submit their bid by March 12 with a $1-million deposit.
The mayor got another boost this week, when council overwhelmingly voted for $1.65-million in additional funding to study Mr. Tory's plan. At city hall there has emerged broad agreement among councillors that expanded service on existing GO lines is a worthwhile goal.
The debate leading up to the vote offered a hint of looming hurdles, though, as some councillors voiced concerns over the part of Mr. Tory's plan that calls for a new rail spur along or under Eglinton Avenue in the west. That part of the line is the most controversial, with questions about how much tunnelling will be required and local fears about the impact on the neighbourhood. It would also run along the same route as a previously studied extension of the Eglinton Crosstown light-rail line.
Oliver Moore