Police at all transit stations and platform doors proposed amid safety concerns in Toronto

A Toronto City Councillor has tabled a motion to drastically overhaul public transit safety throughout the city.

Councillor Brad Bradford, representative for the Beaches-East York, is a municipal politician with a background in urban planning who took a run at the Toronto mayoral seat back in 2023.

While losing the big chair to current Mayor Olivia Chow, Bradford has remained active in council, having proposed a comprehensive list of recommendations at two City Council meetings this week, on March 25 and 26, respectively.

Based on a publicly released council report, Bradford tabled Safer Subways: Making Public Safety a Priority and Restoring Confidence to Toronto Transit Commission Riders Across Toronto — a list of amendments proposed with support from Toronto City Councillor James Pasternak.

The motion, based on its opening paragraph, is built on the premise that “The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) continues to experience one of the slowest transit recoveries in Canada, with ridership hovering around 80% of 2019 levels. Four in 10 Torontonians say they do not feel safe on transit, and many residents are choosing to ride less frequently or avoid the system altogether.”

As a result, Bradford has proposed sweeping amendments be made to increase TTC security to better enhance public safety.

Motions include incentives to deploy uniformed police officers across all subway stations, the construction of platform edge doors across the TTC subway system, updated cleanliness standards, and numerous policy updates to develop a more coherent communication throughline between TTC administration, law enforcement, and city policymakers.

Supplementary materials shared from council correspondence also indicated that if the platform safety strategy is given the green light, the total price tag will be $30 million over a two-year renovation period, based on internal assessments.

The motion concludes, stating, “City Hall must demonstrate a true commitment to improving public safety and restoring public confidence across the subway system.”