News / City Hall

Is it time for Toronto to finally get cable?

Urban planner Steven Dale says cable cars, at street level or up in the air, can solve the city's transportation woes.

A gondola line over the Don Valley? Artist-designer and native Torontonian Steven Dale says it’s not as far-fetched as one might think.



Could the solution to Toronto's transit woes be hanging by a thread?

It might sound crazy, but one urban planner believes cable cars rather than streetcars are the answer to TTC hassles. And at least one politician believes planner-designer Steven Dale's idea merits further exploration.

The native Torontonian, who divides his time between Cabbagetown and Switzerland, thinks cable would be the better way on some TTC routes, such as the Scarborough RT.

Cable technology, which can be used above street level like a ski lift, or embedded under vehicles as with San Francisco's iconic cable cars, is greener, cheaper and faster than Toronto's streetcars, he argues.

"We've spent so long imagining our transit as what we have right now and there's a whole bunch of other ideas out there," he said. "Light rail, for me, is not the best technology.

"Light rail happens to be stuck between a technology we don't like – buses – and a technology we can't afford – subways."

If Dale is spinning a line, at least one politician is reaching for it.

"It can work in almost any urban fabric," says Glen Murray, the former mayor of Winnipeg, who plans to run as a Liberal in Toronto Centre in the next provincial election.

He is also chief executive of the Canadian Urban Institute in Toronto, which has funded some of Dale's research.

Gondolas, he says, can cross water or 400-series highways without the expense of bridges. They can run less frequently over low-density areas and more often in highly populated districts. They can be beautiful, don't take up much more space than a telephone pole or light standard, require limited land and don't conflict with traffic.

"It is really an interesting, emerging idea that I think has the potential to be the next generation of transit solutions for Canada," Murray said.

Toronto transit is already in the midst of its most costly expansion to date: A $2.4 billion extension of the Spadina subway line into York Region starts construction next year, and ground has been broken on the $950 million Sheppard LRT, the first of a 120-kilometre, seven-line light rail network that is expected to reach deep into the city's suburbs over the next two decades.

Dale says Ryerson University is considering a planning course that would look at how cable technology could be used in the Toronto region.

He blames a couple of common misconceptions for making cable a tough sell in North American cities.

"There's a general perception such systems are slow, which they're not, especially if you compare them with Toronto's streetcar system," Dale said.

"The streetcars we have are built to go 100 km/h but they average 12 km/h on the street," even on dedicated right-of-way routes such as Spadina Ave., he said.

"The other major issues are questions of capacity. People think (cable) can't carry enough. It can carry up to about 6,000 people per hour per direction," Dale said.

"We have no streetcar line in all of Toronto that goes above 2,000, and when they're talking about the Eglinton LRT line, they're only imagining it having about 5,000."

Cable systems don't have engines or motors on the vehicles. Many recharge off batteries when they're in the station, and some modern versions are equipped with solar panelling, Dale said.

"Because they're so lightweight, it takes a lot less energy to move them forward," he said.

TTC officials are skeptical.

"I don't know how fast cable cars go," said transit spokesman Brad Ross. "The TTC, of course, would never run a streetcar at 100 km/h.

"But it's not speed that makes dedicated rights-of-way (be it streetcar or other mode) so much better. It's reliability – they don't operate in mixed traffic and, therefore, are less likely to be delayed due to conditions beyond our control."

The TTC's new streetcars, he points out, will hold twice as many riders, about 260 each.

And Ross said TTC engineers disagree with Dale's assessment of the cost and efficiency of cable. Cable would be less efficient because of friction-related loss in the traction system and a lack of regenerative braking power, he said.

Cable also would be more expensive to build, maintain and operate, he added.

Dale, however, argues an under-car cable system would cost less than half the estimated $1.4 billion to renovate and convert the Scarborough Rapid Transit system to light rail so it matches up with the TTC's new Transit City network.

The SRT's dedicated right-of-way makes it a good starting place because there's no issue with running the cable through mixed traffic.

And Dale takes issue with the TTC's assertion that snow and ice would be a problem in the Toronto winter. In the 1880s, Chicago had a bottom-supported cable car system that ran efficiently year-round, and there was a lot more snow 120 years ago, he said.

"I would love to see a top-supported system (gondolas) run along the Don Valley or Humber Valley," said Dale.

"There's a system in Asia where one of the stations is located in a skyscraper. The technology is incredibly flexible."

With files from Vanessa Lu