Plan to increase trains 10-fold through east Toronto will harm residents' health, says report

After 19 years living within metres of the Lakeshore East train tracks, Amanda Bankier is used to hearing the rumble and clatter of passenger and freight cars passing by about every seven minutes.

The noise is loud enough to stop conversations mid-sentence with friends in the garden of her affordable-housing building on Queen Street East, but only for a moment before she carries on. But a train speeding past every 45 seconds? The thought makes her shudder. 

"It would certainly prevent me from living," said Bankier, 70, sitting outside her Riverside home, her walker sitting nearby. 

That's what the provincial transit agency for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, Metrolinx, is planning. It's adding more frequent GO train service and aims to run the Ontario Line subway along 1.5 kilometres of the above-ground tracks in Bankier's east-end neighbourhood.

Much of the Ontario Line, a 15.6-kilometre, 15-stop subway line from Exhibition Place to the Ontario Science Centre, will be built underground. But Metrolinx has already decided burying this part of the route is not an option.

Trains will increase more than 10-fold by 2030, from about 150 a day to 1,821 through the primarily residential area, according to Metrolinx's own estimate.

For those living nearby like Bankier, the frequency of trains seems unfathomable. She's coping with diabetes and related peripheral neuropathy and anticipates the noise and vibration will increase her stress, decrease her sleep and worsen her health overall. 

"I cannot see going through months or years of construction here and then permanent rapid transit at rush hour continuously and the rest of the time pretty frequently," Bankier said. "It seems unlikely that I could get though that." 

Noise barrier planned

Mark Clancy, senior manager of community engagement for the Ontario Line, acknowledged the trains are "quite loud" but that will be mitigated when Metrolinx builds noise barrier walls along each side of the above-ground section.

"The sound will be equivalent to what you hear today or it will be even quieter," Clancy said. "It'll be more consistent, but again, you have the noise walls to buffer that sound from the community." 

The noise will be further reduced when Metrolinx converts to electric trains on those lines, but it won't have a timeline available until late next year, a spokesperson said. 

A recent study looked at the anticipated impacts of the Ontario Line on nearby residents' health, running above ground versus below. Two organizations commissioned the report, the South Riverdale Community Health Centre and Save Jimmie Simpson —  a citizen's group campaigning against building the line aboveground in the Riverside neighbourhood

The study determined running that part of the transit route above ground would cause far more disturbances during construction and operation on surrounding homes, schools and businesses. It will also result in significantly more noise and trees being cut down. 

Underground section ruled out

Noise and vibration can cause sleep disturbances and annoyance, which are both detrimental to health and well-being, wrote the report's author Ronald Macfarlane, who worked in the environmental field for more than 40 years and did similar assessments at Toronto Public Health. 

"Overall, it clearly seemed to point to the fact the underground option would likely cause fewer negative impacts on health than the above-ground option," Macfarlane told CBC News.

"I do think Metrolinx should be looking at the underground option more seriously than it is." 

Clancy told CBC News Metrolinx considered burying that part of the line, but determined it would be too difficult and costly because of existing utility infrastructure underground, plus it would take longer to dig the tunnel. 

"The construction impacts would be much more significant," he said. "And because we're already expanding the GO portion of the line here, it makes sense for us to utilize the space for the Ontario Line." 

The line will be expanded from three to six tracks plus a noise wall, which means most of the existing tree canopy along the corridor will be removed, Clancy said. Metrolinx has committed to replanting three trees for every tree cut down and adding green space once the Ontario LIne is complete.

But Eon Song, a resident with Save Jimmie Simpson, said the transit agency is ignoring the immediate and longer-term impacts on the community without adequate public consultation.

He noted Metrolinx has not completed its environmental assessment before deciding to go with the aboveground line and beginning early work.

"That's what's astonishing to us — that they can proceed with this kind of large infrastructure project without due diligence," Song said. "The route that Metrolinx is pursuing compromises community health and safety."

Metrolinx has accepted public comments on its initial reports, and will do the same when its environmental assessment is released next year, a spokesperson said.