Bradford Pushes for Subway Safety Doors

0:00It's March 24. This is Toronto News Today, powered by AI. Toronto City Councilor and Mayoral candidate Brad Bradford is pushing for platform-edge doors on the TTC subway system to boost safety. He's brought a motion to City Council calling for a pilot project at high priority stations, aiming to start construction by the end of next year. These doors would block access to the tracks and prevent falls or trespassing, and ideas studied since the 1990s. TTC staff have looked into the doors before, but massive costs have stalled progress. Installing them at one station could run $44 to $55 million, with a full rollout across key lines hitting $4.1 billion. Dollars. Still, they could save the agency $16 million a year by cutting delays from track intruders, which already caused 90 hours of. Disruptions in 2024. And violence on the system, like a stabbing a young Bloor station and another after a bus fight, has ramped up the urgency.

1:01TTC board members like Josh Matlow support the goal, but stress the need for a clear funding plan. Staff argue that basic infrastructure maintenance should come first over such big projects. Bradford plans to seek money from federal and provincial governments and include the doors and upcoming Bloor Young Station renovations. TTC groups back the idea too, as long as higher levels of government chip in to avoid fair hikes. While transit safety heats up ahead of the October mayoral election, the TTC union warns against short-term fixes tied to politics, pushing instead, for lasting improvements that respect long-term riders.