Entire Toronto subway extension could get platform screen doors

Calls for platform barriers on the TTC reached a head in 2022 after a series of subway-pushing incidents, and it appears that a major subway extension project is considering implementing these much-discussed safety measures.

Construction is well underway on Metrolinx's controversial 7.8-kilometre-long Scarborough Subway Extension (SSE), a three-stop extension of Line 2 that will feature the widest subway tunnel in Toronto history.

And, it looks like the extension's stations could potentially be getting these much-discussed platform screen doors.

Toronto will see the first implementation of this safety measure — common in other transit systems around the world — a part of an enormous $1.5 billion expansion of Bloor-Yonge Station. These barriers are also planned for stations on the forthcoming Ontario Line, set to open in 2031.

It now appears that more stations are also due for these upgrades.

Metrolinx has released renderings of SSE stations that notably lack any visible evidence of these safety measures. However, plans filed with the City in 2023 reveal that there is indeed a proposal to include these features in the future.

U of T student and transit researcher Jack Tattersall is drawing attention to these documents, which show clearly-marked provisions for platform screen doors at all three of the SSE stations.

All of the stations have PSD provision (and the requisite back of house room for PSD control and electronics lest, God forbid, we throw the PSD controls in with the rest of the electrical).

— Jack Tattersall  (@JackTattTran) June 19, 2024

Plans show station platforms clearly marked with indicators for "future psd door provision" and associated back-of-house areas dedicated to the operation and control of said doors.

The wording on these plans makes it pretty clear that these doors are — at least for the time being — not planned as part of the extension's initial construction, and might not be present when the SSE opens in 2030.