The federal government, along with Ontario, is pledging money for new Toronto subway cars – Toronto

On December 1, 2024By Littum

After waiting more than a year, the City of Toronto has finally received confirmation from both the provincial and federal governments that they will help shoulder the enormous costs of replacing a fleet of subway trains.

On Friday, the federal government announced it will give Toronto $758 million to buy new subway cars, underscoring a commitment the provincial government made last year as part of its New Deal for Toronto.

“Our government knows that improving public transport is critical to ensuring our economy reaches its full potential,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement. “The TTC needs new subway cars to keep up with the growing transit demands of our growing city.”

The subway funding from Ottawa is part of a broader, long-term transit commitment.

Toronto has asked for help to buy a fleet of new subway trains to run on Line 2: Bloor-Danfoth as technical problems with the current fleet grew. However, the cost of buying new trains was something the city said it simply could not handle on its own.

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Last year, as part of a new deal with Toronto that also offloaded responsibility for the Gardiner Expressway to Queen’s Park, the provincial government promised it would help with the cost of 55 new subway cars — on the condition that Ottawa also chip in.

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With the $758 million confirmation from Ottawa, Queen’s Park said its identical funding will also flow.

“It’s almost 12 months to the day that the Government of Ontario reached a historic agreement with the City of Toronto to help ensure the city’s long-term financial stability,” Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said in a statement. “After months of uncertainty, we are pleased to see the federal government step up.”

Toronto’s current fleet of Line 2 trains is about 30 years old and is reaching the end of its useful life.

Over the past year, the TTC has notably increased its warnings about the condition of Line 2, which runs from Scarborough in the east to Etobicoke on Toronto’s western edge.

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow has been drumming up a deal to secure funding since her 2023 election.

“I am very concerned about the longevity of the Bloor subway cars, they are getting very old and it takes a while for us to get new ones and for new ones to be built,” she said last October.

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Chow said the city had to cancel plans to order new trains when no other levels of government came to the table with a secure funding plan.

“We have a third of the funding ready now,” Chow said at the time.

The TTC has suggested that it will take between three to four years to receive new subway cars, with some of the current fleet set to reach the end of its design life in 2026.

— with files from Global News’ Matthew Bingley