TTC backs away from platform edge door pilot project at Dundas station

CBC

5 days ago

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The TTC is backing away from a pilot project that would see platform doors installed at Dundas station next year, saying it will instead ask a committee to consider the measure as part of its 2026 budget priorities.
Platform edge doors are barriers and doors separating platforms from train tracks. When a train stops at a station, the doors open, allowing riders inside, and prevent people, animals and objects from falling onto the tracks.
The TTC has been studying platform edge doors for years.
The capital cost of a platform edge door system for Lines 1, 2 and 4 is estimated at $4.1 billion, according to a report that went to the TTC board at a meeting on Monday. The report says the average costs of the doors for two platforms at one station would be $44 million to $55 million.
"Platform Edge Doors (PEDs) improve subway safety and service by preventing track access, thus reducing injuries, fatalities, staff trauma, and service disruptions," the report says.
The board decided its strategic planning committee should look at the idea of platform edge doors and the estimated cost as part of next year's budget submission.
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At the meeting, the TTC board also decided that it will direct staff to look at the costs and benefits of "technically feasible options" to detect or discourage what the TTC calls "track-level intrusions" at subway stations.
TTC spokesperson Stuart Green said intrusions are incidents in which "people are involved at track level and there's a delay to service, whether it be someone jumping down to retrieve a lost item or someone suffering a mental health episode."
Doors 'very expensive undertaking,' chair says
Coun. Jamaal Myers, chair of the board, moved a motion to delete a staff recommendation to launch the pilot project, saying platform edge doors would be a "very expensive undertaking at this point."
Myers said there may be a less expensive option to the doors and the board needs more information.
"As chair, I get the emails, probably once every couple of weeks, of priority one, of someone who has [died by] suicide on the tracks. Obviously, it's very tragic for their family and whoever has done it. But it's also incredibly traumatic for the employees who are driving the trains at this time," Myers said.
"We do have an obligation to move forward with this and to make a decision and to see where this fits in the priorities of the TTC."
According to the report, the pilot project would have helped to identify challenges in implementing the doors, including cost, risks, timing, constraints and feedback.
"In addition, this will validate operations and maintenance impacts and generate public interest and support before planning and budgeting for the remaining stations across the system," the report says.
'I don't want this to be sidelined,' councillor says
Coun. Josh Matlow, a board member, said during the debate that referring the item back to committee means the board is delaying a decision on the platform edge doors.
"I get that we need to set priorities and we struggle between them, but I don't want this to die. I don't want this to just disappear. I don't want this to be sidelined. I don't want this to be studied into non-existence. And I fear that that's where we're going if we're just sending this off to a committee," Matlow said.
Matlow said he would have liked the TTC to proceed with a pilot project at a station.
"I'd like it to eventually roll out to many more where the data demonstrates that we are having the most issues with trespassing," he added.