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Mayoral-hopeful Coun. Brad Bradford is calling for a host of safety measures across Toronto’s subway system, including a specific focus on platform edge doors, with a motion before city council this week.
TTC staff are already looking into the doors, with their cost being a significant roadblock to any installation attempts made over the years. How Bradford intends to overcome that issue is still unclear.
The idea of platform edge doors is not new: speaking to reporters Monday, Bradford said it’s been studied since the 1990s, and with good reason. In 2024, trespassers on TTC tracks caused 90 hours of subway delays.
An attempt to pilot the doors at TMU Station didn’t work out in 2025; there was hope they could be installed as part of renovations to Bloor-Yonge station but the work remains unfunded, according to the TTC website.
Bradford’s motion calls for a pilot project with doors at “high-priority” stations.
In a report on the 2026 TTC budget, staff wrote that spending money on infrastructure maintenance is the priority over putting it towards “aspirational initiatives” like the doors.
“My motion calls for the mayor and city hall to put their money where their mouth is and commit to starting construction on the first platform edge doors by the end of next year,” Bradford said Monday. He said his motion comes after someone was stabbed at Yonge-Bloor station last week, a day after a fight on a North York bus resulted in a stabbing on the street.
WATCH | TTC special constables could be given powers to arrest drug users:
TTC special constables could be given powers to arrest drug users
Proposed new legislation being considered by Ontario would allow special constables working on transit to direct people to stop using illegal drugs in a public space, as well as arrest and charge people who don’t and take the illicit substances.
A report from last year pegged the cost of doors at one station at $44 to $55 million, which would rise to $4.1 billion across all stations on Lines 1, 2 and 4. But the doors would also have financial benefits: a report last year found barriers at all platforms would save the agency $16 million annually by reducing delays.
“It would be nice to live in a world of limitless money and then we could do platform edge doors tomorrow. But that’s not the real world,” said Joe Mihevc, a member of the TTC board.
Feds, province non-committal when asked about costs
Asked how he intends to pay for them, Bradford said that will have to be a discussion with the federal and provincial governments.
His motion calls for city and TTC staff to develop a funding plan for a multi-station platform door pilot project, which would include adding them to the Bloor-Yonge renovation plans.
Coun. Josh Matlow, another TTC board member, said he agrees with the intent of Bradford’s motion. He said he’s also been frustrated that a pilot project hasn’t been able to move forward.
“That being said though,” Matlow added, “it’s not responsible to simply say go do something if you don’t know how to pay for it.”
WATCH | TTC getting new trains mostly made in Canada to help replace aging fleet :
TTC getting new trains mostly made in Canada to help replace aging fleet
The federal and provincial governments will spend an additional $400M on a major Toronto subway train order. They say it’s part of a plan to keep spending local as a trade war rages on with the US. Queen’s Park reporter Shawn Jeffords has more on the plan to replace the aging Line 2 trains.
In Toronto last Wednesday, Housing and Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson was non-committal when asked about funding the doors.
“Those decisions are made at the local level,” Robertson said in response to the question.
When asked about the doors, spokesperson for the provincial Ministry of Transportation Dakota Brasier cited the 2023 new deal between Ontario and Toronto, which provided funding for some subway initiatives.
“It is up to the city and the TTC to demonstrate how proposals like platform edge doors fit within their existing resources and deliver value for money for taxpayers,” said Brasier.
Transit safety not a ‘political football,’ TTC union head
Bradford, the only person at city hall who’s declared they’re running for mayor in October, has made clear transit safety will be a focus of his campaign when the contest kicks off later this year. He wouldn’t definitively say Monday if he’d consider raising TTC fares to pay for platform edge doors.
Andrew Pulsifer, executive director of advocacy organization TTCriders, says platform edge doors are a good idea, but he hopes higher levels of government will pitch in money for them.
“Every fare increase leads to somebody making the decision not to take transit,” he said.
Bradford spoke to reporters about his motion at a campaign-style media event outside St. Patrick station Monday.
Coun. Brad Bradford, the only declared mayoral candidate at city hall, spoke about his motion at a campaign-style event Monday. (Spencer Gallichan-Lowe/CBC)
“I’m going to go out and campaign on this,” Bradford said of the platform edge doors.
Marvin Alfred, president of the union representing about 12,500 TTC employees, says TTC safety should not simply be a “political football.”
“I think we all know what’s happening towards the end of the year,” Alfred said, with Torontonians set to vote on a new mayor Oct. 26.
“Our workers are here sometimes 20, 25, 30 years. We don’t want solutions that are reflective of an election cycle. We want solutions that are sustainable and the respect and dignity that the service needs.”