By Ben Spurr for the Toronto Star
June 24, 2020
Metrolinx is proposing an alternate alignment for the long-planned subway extension to Richmond Hill that would take the line east of Yonge Street and have it run above ground for a portion of its route, the Star has learned.
The alternate alignment for the Yonge North Subway Extension is one of three options included in a business case for the project that will be discussed during a closed-door session of the Metrolinx board Thursday, according to a senior provincial government source with knowledge of the plan.
The Yonge extension has been in the works for years and is politically charged. York Region’s elected leaders consider it their top transit priority, and it was one of four projects Premier Doug Ford included in the $28.5-billion overhaul of provincial rail plans he announced in April 2019.
According to previously released designs, the roughly seven-kilometre extension would run underground north from Toronto’s Finch station to Richmond Hill Centre, with as many as six new stations.
The senior government source, to whom the Star agreed to grant anonymity in order to discuss plans not yet made public, said two of the options in Metrolinx’s new report would keep the line underground. But under a third proposal, the extension would veer east of Yonge in the vicinity of Kirk Drive in Thornhill, and then run north above ground alongside the CN rail corridor that cuts through York Region.
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