Ontario Line subway system will get protective platform doors as TTC continues mulling move

The new Ontario Line will include protective barriers at all stations to separate platforms from the tracks, something the Toronto Transit Commission has been considering adding to its subway system for years.

"Platform edge doors" will be a part of all 15 stations on the 15.6-kilometre downtown subway line, slated to open in 2031, city staff said at a budget meeting Wednesday. The doors are transparent barriers that open to allow riders inside when trains roll in, but otherwise keep people, animals and debris off the tracks.

The TTC has been studying the possibility of retro-fitting existing subway stations for more than 15 years.

Toronto Public Health recommended the platform barrier system in 2014 as part of a larger report on suicide prevention. Advocates have also been asking for them for years to protect commuters.

“It's a huge safety improvement," said Chloe Tangpongprush, a spokesperson with transit advocacy group TTCRiders. "It prevents debris from falling onto the tracks, causing delays. It prevents people being pushed or falling onto the tracks.”

TTCRiders would like to see platform edge doors across the subway system eventually, Tangpongprush said.

A TTC report last year found installing barriers at all platforms would save the agency $16 million annually by reducing delays, and $92 million in the social cost of injuries and deaths.

On average, one to two people go onto transit tracks each day, TTC spokesperson Stuart Green said in an email.

The transit agency announced in 2023 that platform edge doors would be installed at Bloor-Yonge as part of a major overhaul, but there's currently no funding to add them. The TTC also recently backed away from a pilot project for platform edge doors at TMU Station, formerly Dundas Station.

The issue became prominent in 2018 after a 56-year-old man pushed a 73-year-old man onto the tracks in front of a moving train at Toronto's busy Bloor-Yonge Station, and calls for barriers have renewed with subsequent pushing incidents.

But adding platform barriers to Lines 1, 2 and 4 would cost an estimated $4.1 billion, according to a report that went to the TTC board last year. The report said the average costs of the doors for two platforms at one station would be $44 million to $55 million.

TTC board chair and city councillor Jamaal Myers said the TTC is reviewing that estimate as some councillors and people in the industry have questioned it, and the city may look at gradually retrofitting stations one at a time to spread out the cost over time.

"There's definitely momentum to start that work just because it's so important in terms of improving reliability and also to protecting the public and protecting the drivers," he said.

Myers said the TTC is looking at how retrofits elsewhere were done and whether Toronto could learn from those projects.