The TTC held an opening ceremony to mark Donlands station becoming an accessible facility, but after decades of work to make the subway network barrier-free it’s expected to take at least two more years to finish the job.
Dignitaries held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the station Wednesday afternoon to mark the completion of installing elevators that operate between street level and platform level, sliding doors, tactile wayfinding and increased signage.
The station building on the west side of Donlands Avenue just north of Danforth Avenue had to be expanded to accommodate the elevator that services the eastbound Line 2 Bloor-Danforth platform. A secondary entrance on Dewhurst Boulevard was also added.
“This moment is an important step forward in ensuring every customer, regardless of physical ability, can navigate our city’s transit system with ease, dignity and independence,” Betty Rivington-Law, co-vice-chair of the TTC Advisory Committee on Accessible Transit (ACAT), said during the ceremony.
“However, for far too long, many individuals — especially individuals with mobility challenges, seniors and parents with strollers — have faced barriers that limit their ability to use transit reliably. Today we break down one of those barriers.”
Donlands became the 55th accessible TTC subway station, and later in 2024 Castle Frank and Glencairn stations are expected to also become barrier-free.
While work to make the subway system accessible began in 1990, efforts ramped up after the Ontario government enacted the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities (AODA) Act in 2005. When it became law, it mandated that all major services and facilities become accessible by Jan. 1.
The TTC fleet of buses, streetcars and subway trains are accessible, but work to make many of the facilities the vehicles operate in barrier-free is ongoing.
Based on a 2023 TTC board report, the remaining subway stations all have seen construction-related delays. Donlands was supposed to be done a year earlier while Castle Frank and Glencairn stations are months behind.
At the time, eight stations were set to see accessibility upgrades completed in 2025: Summerhill, Greenwood, Rosedale, College, Lawrence, Christie and Museum.
King station, which was set to be done by the end of 2024, has been pushed back by two years. The addition of barrier-free upgrades at Warden and Islington stations are tied to broader redevelopment projects and are expected to be in place in 2026.
Meanwhile, land expropriation issues have bogged down plans to upgrade Old Mill station. The report didn’t have a projected opening time.
During Wednesday’s event, CityNews asked officials about the delays in making the entire TTC subway system accessible.
Greg Percy, the TTC’s new interim CEO, said with many decades-old stations, accessibility wasn’t at the forefront of planning.
“It is now,” he said.
“We’re shoehorning in the accessible features whether it’s secondary access, elevators, whatever it is depending on the station because you have to custom-design, custom-build accessibility into a given station, so it does take time.”
Percy said the TTC “prioritized funding over time” and money wasn’t an issue. He added the complexity of projects at certain stations and the availability of contractors also factored into delays.
“It’s easy to buy new buses that are accessible, it’s easy to buy streetcars that are accessible … but it’s not so easy to take an existing station and the tracks, and you can’t close the station down and do the work. You have to do it around it,” Ward 14 Toronto-Danforth Coun. Paula Fletcher added.
“Technically, it’s a very different job than making other parts of the TTC accessible … we’d like it to go faster, this is how it’s going.”