# The $70BN Plan to Fix Toronto ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto.webp]] **Creator:** The B1M · **Published:** 2026-05-20 · **Length:** 19:46 · [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VMiargwCyg) > Caption source: YouTube English (United Kingdom) manual captions via TubeAlfred (`en-GB`, kind=manual) after yt-dlp returned HTTP 429 on subs. Extra figures and spellings (Ontario Line **15.6 km** / **15 stations**; **230,000** people within walking distance; **~400,000** daily boardings; **28,000** fewer car trips; budget **$10.9B → $27B CAD**; civil works into the early **2030s**) cross-checked with The B1M's companion article, [Is Canada Set to Fail on Yet Another Rail Project?](https://theb1m.com/video/is-canada-set-to-fail-on-yet-another-rail-project) (James Rabey, 20 May 2026). YouTube chapters used for section headings; they line up with the captions. Screenshots from the 720p stream (format 136). Host **Fred Mills**. Contains paid promotion for Gamma. Additional footage and images credited to CBC, Transitthinker, Breakfast Television, Global News, urbanplannie, CP24, Doly Begum, CityNews, Camilo Calderón, BruceK, apertur 2.8, CTV News, Marit Stiles, The Canadian Press, Sky's Trains, Jean-Paul Around, KAC35, Legislative Assembly of Ontario, cpac, ITV News and Joey Coleman (see description). ## Outline ### 0:00 Intro - **0:00** Opens with a GTA San Andreas / Carl Johnson riff — then Fred cuts to the real pitch: a big, expensive new subway through Downtown Toronto, with the original Ontario Line budget already a "faint glimmer" in the rearview. Are Torontonians staring down yet another construction nightmare? ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t0005.webp]] ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t0025.webp]] ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t0050.webp]] ### 1:05 Toronto's travel problem - **1:05** Toronto is Ontario's capital and a core Canadian economy engine — and one of the most congested cities on Earth. Infrastructure needs a modernisation push; the **Ontario Line** is pitched as a game-changer (short of making every Maple Leafs game day a national holiday). Locals still remember how the last wave of rail announcements went. - **2:00** Population: about **six million** today → **ten million** by **2050** — among the fastest-growing metros in North America. Hundreds of thousands commute from sprawling suburbs each day. Old housing rules limited upward growth on the outskirts, so single-use sprawl ran for miles while jobs stayed downtown; car-heavy commuting plus thin historic rail investment equals chaos. ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t0080.webp]] ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t0120.webp]] ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t0160.webp]] - **2:55** Public transport lags global peers — and **Chris Hume** (Toronto journalist) frames it as a national pattern: a 19th-century legislative system that "handcuffs" cities, while most Canadians live in metros, not the Great White North. - **3:27** Local governments own ~**60%** of core infrastructure but get only **8–10 cents** of every tax dollar → national infrastructure deficit **$110B–$270B CAD**. Fragmented governance and slow process drag development. - **3:53** Transport Canada (as of the prior year): **$284B CAD** needed to upgrade rail by **2070**; **$3.3T CAD** for new roads/highways. Against that backdrop, Ontario is committing **$70B CAD** to what it calls the largest public-transit expansion in North America — multiple new subway and LRT lines, with the Ontario Line the largest. ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t0200.webp]] ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t0240.webp]] ### 4:16 Ontario Line - **4:30** Route: **15.6 km** through Downtown; **15 stations**; mix of underground, at-grade and elevated track. Promised impacts: **230,000** people within walking distance of transit; nearly **400,000** daily boardings; travel times cut by more than half on some segments; **~28,000** fewer car trips per day. ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t0280.webp]] - **5:18** Sponsor break: Fred plugs **Gamma** (now with ChatGPT) — goal visualisation / presentation tool used as a planning metaphor for megaproject prep (workout-plan gag included). QR / link CTA. ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t0320.webp]] ### 6:44 Building the Ontario Line - **6:45** More than half the route is underground through dense areas. Mixed ground and sensitive surface structures → **earth pressure balance (EPB)** TBMs rather than hard-rock machines: control face pressure, limit settlement, drive twin bores. ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t0370.webp]] ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t0420.webp]] - **7:14** About **3 km** of **elevated guideways**, trains up to **14 m** above street. Surface/elevated work cuts geotech study load — especially through the challenging **Don Valley**. Metrolinx: tunnelling Minton Place → Don Valley Station would put stations ~**70 m** deep vs **~30–40 m** elsewhere; elevated is cheaper and generally easier. - **8:11** Elevated method: drill-rig **piling** → reinforced concrete **piers** → horizontal beams → **girders** → poured concrete deck → rail. ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t0470.webp]] ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t0520.webp]] - **8:40** Stations: **six interchanges** — GO Transit at Exhibition and East Harbour; subway **Line 1** at Queen and Osgoode; **Line 2** at Pape; **Eglinton Crosstown LRT** at Don Valley. Five existing stations expanded; new deep stations include Queen-Spadina, King-Bathurst, Moss Park, Corktown, Cosburn (**30–40 m**); new above-ground / elevated: East Harbour, Riverside-Leslieville, Gerrard, Thorncliffe Park, Flemingdon Park. - **9:32** At existing underground stations: access shafts for lifts/stairs either side of the old structure, then new platform **caverns** underneath. ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t0560.webp]] ### 9:53 The original plan - **10:02** Hume: the first version — the **Downtown Relief Line** — was proposed by a New York consulting firm in **1910**. The point is adding **capacity**, not just ridership: "It will be transformative." - **10:34** More recently the **Toronto Transit Commission** (with Ontario support) spent millions planning a shorter Relief Line — **eight stations**, target open **2029**, costs from ~**$6.8B** up toward **$8.3B CAD** (officials hinted those would rise). - **11:18** In **2018** former Toronto councillor **Doug Ford** became Premier; by **2019** the province replaced the Relief Line with the Ontario Line under **Metrolinx**. ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t0610.webp]] - **11:36** Mid-video book plug: Fred's **Mega Builds: Ten Colossal Construction Projects That Will Change Our World** is out (online and bookshops) — glossy plates, maps, behind-the-scenes megaproject stories. ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t0660.webp]] ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t0720.webp]] ### 13:13 Delays and budget overruns - **13:22** Hume on the provincial takeover: the province and Metrolinx (beholden to the province, not the city) face deep local animosity — historically money went to the city to deliver; "that's not what's happening now." - **14:06** Ground broken **2022**. Longer than the TTC plan (**seven more stations**); original pitch ~**$10.9B CAD** open by **2027**. By **2026**: civil infrastructure pushed into the early **2030s** (plus testing/commissioning after), budget reported at **$27B CAD** — and no firm passenger opening date. ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t0780.webp]] ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t0820.webp]] - **14:55** Metrolinx credit is low. **Finch Line** opened late **2025**, over budget, then immediate switch failures and other bugs — Hume recounts a jogger who raced the new LRT end-to-end and won by **18 minutes**. - **15:58** **Eglinton Crosstown** opened **six years late** and far over budget, but has had a smoother start and some commuter praise. - **16:14** NDP leader **Marit Stiles** warns the Ontario Line could become a "boondoggle" with costs with no end in sight. In February, Metrolinx president/CEO **Michael Lindsay** said lessons are being applied and construction is on schedule — "the new schedule." He frames cost blowouts as an English-speaking-world problem, not Ontario-only. ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t0880.webp]] ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t0940.webp]] ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t1000.webp]] ### 17:10 A disruptive process - **17:10** Local worries beyond money: noisy elevated trains, round-the-clock construction, road closures — all legitimate life-disrupting impacts. Fred notes that urban rail work anywhere comes with disruption (even if Doug Ford's phrasing isn't the model), without giving the project a free pass on delays or long-term harm. ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t1050.webp]] ### 18:02 Silver linings - **18:02** Silver lining: work is actually underway. Hume (east-end resident) takes the long view: Yonge Street's first subway was ruinously disruptive, yet now the city couldn't function without it — in **20 years** people may ask what they did before the Ontario Line. - **18:45** Fred closes: minimising disruption while modernising urban rail is a global hard problem; the reward is a transformed Toronto transit system for generations. Sponsor wrap for Gamma; subscribe CTA. ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t1100.webp]] ![[images/The-70BN-Plan-to-Fix-Toronto-t1150.webp]] ## Things mentioned ### Projects and lines - Ontario Line (15.6 km; 15 stations; ground broken 2022; original ~$10.9B CAD / 2027; reported ~$27B CAD; civil works early 2030s) - Downtown Relief Line (1910 proposal; later TTC plan: 8 stations, ~$6.8–8.3B CAD, target 2029; replaced 2019) - Finch Line / Finch West LRT (opened late 2025; over budget; early operational failures) - Eglinton Crosstown LRT (six years late; over budget; smoother post-opening than Finch; joins Ontario Line at Don Valley) - Ontario $70B CAD "largest expansion of public transit in North America" package - Yonge Street subway (historic first line; disruptive build, now indispensable) ### Engineering and method - Earth pressure balance (EPB) TBMs / twin-bore tunnels - Elevated guideways (~3 km; up to 14 m; piling, piers, beams, girders, concrete deck) - Don Valley / Minton Place depth contrast (~70 m if tunnelled vs ~30–40 m elsewhere) - Station caverns and lateral access shafts at existing underground stops ### Stations and connections (named) - Interchanges: Exhibition, East Harbour (GO); Queen, Osgoode (Line 1); Pape (Line 2); Don Valley (Eglinton Crosstown) - New deep: Queen-Spadina, King-Bathurst, Moss Park, Corktown, Cosburn - New elevated / at-grade: East Harbour, Riverside-Leslieville, Gerrard, Thorncliffe Park, Flemingdon Park ### Places - Toronto / Downtown Toronto; Don Valley; Greater Toronto Area suburbs - Ontario; Canada (national infrastructure deficit framing) ### Organisations and politics - Metrolinx (provincial delivery agency) - Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) - Transport Canada ($284B rail / $3.3T roads figures) - Doug Ford (Premier of Ontario from 2018; former Toronto city councillor) - Marit Stiles (Ontario NDP leader) - Michael Lindsay (President & CEO, Metrolinx) - Gamma (paid promotion; ChatGPT-integrated presentations / planning tool) - Mega Builds book (Fred Mills; Ten Colossal Construction Projects That Will Change Our World) ### Figures (CAD unless noted) - Population 6M → 10M by 2050 - Local gov share of infrastructure ~60%; tax share 8–10 cents/$ - Infrastructure deficit $110B–$270B - Ontario Line impacts: 230,000 walkable; ~400,000 daily boardings; 28,000 fewer car trips/day - Budget path: Relief Line ~$6.8–8.3B → Ontario Line $10.9B → reported $27B ## Biographies ### Fred Mills Founder and on-camera host of **The B1M**. Frames Toronto's congestion crisis and the Ontario Line build (EPB tunnels, elevated guideways, station typology), runs the Gamma sponsor segment and Mega Builds book launch mid-video, then weighs Metrolinx/Ford delivery politics, Finch and Crosstown precedents, and the disruption-versus-long-view trade-off. ### Chris Hume Toronto journalist interviewed throughout. Argues Canadian cities are "handcuffed" by outdated legislative structures; recounts the 1910 Downtown Relief Line idea and capacity-vs-ridership case for the Ontario Line; criticises the provincial/Metrolinx takeover of what historically would have been a city-led build; describes Finch Line teething failures (including the jogger-vs-LRT anecdote); and takes the long view that Torontonians will eventually wonder how they managed without the line — as with Yonge Street. ### Doug Ford Premier of Ontario (from 2018); former Toronto city councillor. His government replaced the TTC Downtown Relief Line plan with the longer Ontario Line under Metrolinx in 2019, pitching speed and cost control — the video notes that move looks bold in hindsight as timelines and budgets slipped. ### Michael Lindsay President and CEO of **Metrolinx**. In February remarks cited in the video, says lessons from past projects are being applied and Ontario Line construction is on the (revised) schedule; attributes soaring costs to a broader English-speaking-world infrastructure pattern, not Ontario alone. ### Marit Stiles Leader of Ontario's **New Democratic Party**. Voices worry that the Ontario Line risks becoming a cost-escalating "boondoggle," reflecting broader public skepticism after Finch and Eglinton Crosstown. ### James Rabey Author of The B1M companion article *[Is Canada Set to Fail on Yet Another Rail Project?](https://theb1m.com/video/is-canada-set-to-fail-on-yet-another-rail-project)* (20 May 2026), used to cross-check route stats, budget figures, and quote attributions for this note.