The Waterfront East Light Rail Transit (WELRT), consisting of the Union Station to Queens Quay Link and the East Bayfront Light Rail Transit, is a City of Toronto priority transit project. According to growth projections, when fully built, the proposed 3.8-kilometre WELRT project will provide over 50,000 daily trips, bringing higher-order transit to support an estimated 100,000 residents and 50,000 jobs. The WELRT will also provide improved transit options to the Central Waterfront, Lower Yonge, East Bayfront, Quayside, Keating Precinct, Lower Don Lands, and the Port Lands communities and is an integral part of the future development of new communities on Villiers Island and the eastern waterfront. The WELRT is a substantial and critical project within the City’s broader 2018 Waterfront Transit Network Plan ( EX30.1 ). City staff last reported to City Council in 2022 under EX33.2 – Advancing City Priority Transit Expansion Projects – Eglinton East Light Rail Transit and Waterfront East Light Rail Transit and received direction to undertake a constructability review of the WELRT — report back on a recommended alignment and scope — and to provide an updated cost estimate along with a funding, financing and implementation strategy, including a phasing plan. City staff, in partnership with Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) and Waterfront Toronto (WT) staff, have advanced the project to 30% design and completed a preliminary design business case, constructability assessment, phasing plan and cost estimate. As part of the design process and the constructability review, City staff are working to coordinate construction planning with adjacent civil work, including, but not limited to: - GO Expansion — - Ontario Line — - Inner Harbour West Tunnel — - Villiers Island development — - Gardiner Expressway and Lake Shore Boulevard East Reconfiguration — and - Quayside Infrastructure and Public Realm. Balancing the City’s current financial pressures with City Council’s direction to expedite WELRT construction, the recommendations in this report provide an approach to advance the project while reducing immediate costs by phasing segments. To achieve this, City staff in consultation with the TTC and WT are recommending advancing design to 60% for the Queens Quay, Chery Street and Villiers Island segments of the alignment, as well as the Yonge Street Infill and Queens Quay East Extension early works. This report is also seeking authority to advance additional work, including a traffic management study, and design and scope coordination with other major infrastructure projects in the vicinity of the WELRT.
No projects traced to this item yet.