The Sheppard Line is the newest subway line in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission. It currently has five stations and is 5.5 kilometres long. It opened on 24 November 2002.

History

Plans were developed in the early 1990s to build new subway lines along Eglinton and Sheppard Avenues. However, with the election of the Progressive Conservative provincial government in 1995, work on the Eglinton Line was stopped.

When the Sheppard Line opened in 2002, it was the city's first new subway line in decades. It is shorter than originally planned, going from Yonge Street (at Sheppard-Yonge station) east to Don Mills Road, and will only be extended with substantial government funding.

It cost just under $1 billion and took 8 years to build. It is the first subway line in Canada to be built with a tunnel-boring machine. (All stations are in cut-and-cover tunnel.)

The stations are built to eventually take the TTC's standard subway trains of six 23 m (75-foot) cars, but part of each platform has been blocked off since only 4-car trains are needed with the line in its present form. The line is designed so that it can be extended at both ends, running west at least as far as Downsview Station, and east and somewhat south to reach Scarborough Town Centre. The TTC still hopes to extend the line to Scarborough Town Centre, but the westward extension is no longer a priority.

Stations

The entire line runs under or near Sheppard Avenue East. All of its stations, whether by transfer or fare-paid terminal, connect to surface TTC bus routes. All stations have elevators for wheelchair access, and public art is present in every station.

External Links

Transit Toronto -- The Sheppard subway