{"id":701766,"date":"2026-05-29T15:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T15:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/701766\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T15:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T15:02:11","slug":"ttc-subway-station-barriers-arent-enough-to-keep-riders-safe-transit-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/701766\/","title":{"rendered":"TTC subway station barriers aren&#8217;t enough to keep riders safe: transit group"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">TORONTO \u2014 A transit advocacy group says the plan to install steel barriers along the subway platform at one downtown Toronto station is a step in the right direction but doesn\u2019t go far enough to keep transit riders truly safe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Mayor Olivia Chow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cp24.com\/local\/toronto\/2026\/05\/27\/barriers-to-be-installed-on-platform-at-toronto-subway-station-this-year-mayor-says\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.cp24.com\/local\/toronto\/2026\/05\/27\/barriers-to-be-installed-on-platform-at-toronto-subway-station-this-year-mayor-says\/\">announced the pilot project on Wednesday<\/a>, saying the new measures aim to prevent people from falling or jumping onto the tracks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">She says the barriers will be installed this year at TMU station, near busy Sankofa Square, and four more stations could get the same next year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">August Puranauth of advocacy group TTCriders praised the safety plan but said it stops short of providing what some transit riders have been calling for: platform edge doors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">For over a decade, the city and the TTC have been looking into installing platform edge doors, full-height barriers that automatically open once a train has stopped at a station platform.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">What\u2019s being proposed for TMU station this year are static steel barriers similar to what New York City recently implemented in its subway system, which leave gaps for train doors and only reach about as high as the train\u2019s window.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Puranuath says the barriers may stop some people from falling or being pushed onto the tracks, as a woman was at Bloor-Yonge station in 2022, but it won\u2019t stop all kinds of accidents or prevent people from jumping.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s not a permanent solution,\u201d Puranuath said on Thursday. \u201cBut platform edge doors would eliminate much of that entirely. So we really want to see the city go all the way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">A report outlining the steel barrier installation plan, set to go before the TTC board next week, acknowledges that platform edge doors offer the \u201chighest level of safety,\u201d but are also the most costly and complex to implement of all the safety measures the transit agency looked into.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Alongside the steel barriers, Chow announced an AI-assisted warning system will use cameras to detect when someone is on the track. The combination of the two measures offers a \u201clower\u2011cost, faster\u2011to\u2011implement option\u201d than full platform edge doors, according to a TTC report. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">A TTC study last year found platform edge doors would cost about $44 million to $55 million at each station but would also save the agency millions per year by avoiding injury and death and reducing passenger delays.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Meanwhile, the TTC says steel barriers only cost about $2 million per station.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Last year, TTC staff recommended installing platform edge doors at TMU station but the board\u2019s chair, Coun. Jamaal Myers, motioned to walk back that proposal over cost concerns. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">TMU station was identified as a front-runner for more safety measures because it\u2019s one of the busiest in the downtown core and the station had the highest number of incidents of people ending up on the tracks. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 28, 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Kathryn Mannie, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 A transit advocacy group says the plan to install steel barriers along the subway platform at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48,11867],"class_list":["post-701766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ontario-quebec"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}