AODA Alliance
Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance Update
United for a Barrier-Free Ontario for All People with Disabilities
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TTC Again Makes Riding Public Transit Harder for Passengers with Disabilities After it Violated the Disabilities Act’s 2025 Deadline for Becoming Accessible
April 16, 2025
SUMMARY
An April 9, 2025 Toronto Star report, set out below, shows that the Toronto Transit Commission is making it even harder for transit passengers with disabilities to ride the TTC well after it failed to meet the 2025 deadline for becoming accessible to people with disabilities. Years ago, the TTC publicly pledged to an audience of riders with disabilities that it would ensure that all subway stations are accessible by 2025, winning a hardy round of applause. Yet well into 2025, it still has some inaccessible subway stations. As this new Toronto Star report reveals, it has made the St. Lawrence subway station even more problematic for people with disabilities while it is doing renovations to install an elevator. The cruel irony of this is as obvious as it is inexcusable.
Meanwhile, the Ford Government continues to appear to be asleep at the switch. It has been sitting on recommendations to strengthen the weak Transportation Accessibility Standard that was enacted under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act for almost eight years. In the spring of 2018, the Ontario Government made public the final recommendations it had received from the Government-appointed Transportation Standards Development Committee to revise that accessibility standard. We have lots of constructive ideas on how to improve that accessibility standard, beyond the recommendations in the 2018 final report of the Transportation Standards Development Committee. However, the Ford Government has been totally inactive on this issue since it took office. A widely viewed 2018 AODA Alliance video reveals how Ontario continues to build new public transit stations with accessibility blunders.
Beyond that, the Ford Government has announced no comprehensive plan to strengthen or accelerate the AODA’s implementation or enforcement, either in the last election campaign or since it was re-elected. MPP Raymond Cho was re-appointed as the minister responsible for accessibility after having served in that role for almost eight years. He is the longest-serving minister in that role in Ontario history. He should therefore be able to move more quickly than any prior minister. Instead, the Ford Government appears to be in suspended animation in this area.
It has been 677 days since the Ford Government received the final report of the Government-appointed 4th Independent Review of the AODA conducted by Rich Donovan. That report declared that Ontario was in an accessibility crisis and needed a crisis response. The Ford Government has neither recognized that there is an accessibility crisis nor announced a comprehensive new plan to deal with it.
How You Can Help
- Contact your Ontario MPP and Premier Ford. Tell them to recognize that Ontario is in an accessibility crisis. Press them to strengthen and speed up the AODA’s implementation and enforcement. You can write Premier Ford at premier@ontario.ca
- Get friends and family to sign up to get AODA Alliance Updates. Tell them to visit the AODA Alliance website’s home page to sign up.
More details
Toronto Star April 9, 2025
Originally posted at https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/the-ttc-is-trying-to-make-this-station-accessible-construction-is-making-it-less-so/article_f2092c3e-4cc2-4e88-a0eb-c7ae13fe2e08.html
The TTC is trying to make this station accessible. Construction is making it less so — and delays are mounting
Seniors, the disabled and people going to Sunnybrook are affected as transferring between the Lawrence Station subway and buses gets harder.
April 9, 2025
The bus platform and main entrances at Lawrence Station are closed so elevators can be installed, making the station more accessible, but in the meantime, passengers who need to transfer to bus service have to walk a few blocks to board.
By Serena AustinStaff Reporter
A TTC construction project intended to make Lawrence Station more accessible is having the opposite effect for many riders — especially seniors, people with mobility issues, and those who rely on the 124 Sunnybrook bus.
Krushnaa Sankhe, who commutes through Lawrence Station daily to get to her job at Sunnybrook hospital, says the project has disrupted her routine and made life noticeably harder for fellow commuters. “I do commend the TTC for making stations more accessible,” she said. “But what about the people who need it right now?”
Where riders could previously access the station’s bus platform level from the subway by stairs or escalator, since the bus platform closed for construction, transferring between subway and bus service has become rife with obstacles.
Initially, riders could at least wait for their buses inside the station, sheltered from the weather. But with the closure of the station’s main entrances last summer, commuters must now navigate two flights of stairs to exit via the north end, then walk down Yonge Street to board buses outside. That four-minute walk for an able-bodied person can take much longer — or be impossible — for others.
“I do see people with walkers, canes, and seniors,” said Sankhe. “Seniors who can walk, yes, but it’s quite a walk and they’re climbing up and down those stairs,” often taking one step at a time.
The inconvenience is compounded by repeated delays. A notice from November 2023 said the bus platform would reopen by fall 2024, but signs now say the full “Easier Access” project won’t be completed until mid-2026 — nearly two years after it was originally scheduled to be complete, by the end of 2024.
That’s especially troubling given the deadline of Jan. 1, 2025, set by the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act to make facilities and services within the province fully accessible. The TTC has known since 2023 it wouldn’t meet the province’s deadline.
“These delays are really unacceptable from my perspective,” said Sophia Chapman, a member of the transit advocacy group TTC Riders. “These stations should have been accessible a long time ago.”
Chapman, who also commutes through Lawrence Station, said the entrance closure has added up to 10 minutes to her trip and made it difficult to carry groceries. “For riders who are elderly or have physical disabilities, it takes even longer,” she said. “It’s a real challenge, and I see it in my community.”
Beyond the physical strain, Chapman said unclear signage has left many riders disoriented. “There are often people standing around at Yonge and Lawrence trying to figure out how to get into the station.”
On a recent visit to the station the Star saw groups of seniors, parents with strollers, and others navigating the temporary route, with some asking for directions after mistakenly approaching the sealed-off main entrance.
A look at TTC accessibility through the eyes of a rider who uses two canes
City Hall
A look at TTC accessibility through the eyes of a rider who uses two canes
A TTC report from December 2024 lists Lawrence among the stations most affected by unexpected construction issues, including the discovery of asbestos and the need for design changes, which has contributed to the slow progress. The project, which includes the installation of two elevators, accessible doors and upgraded way-finding signage, is currently over 68 per cent complete.
TTC spokesperson Stuart Green said the agency understands riders’ frustrations, the importance of ensuring accessible transit service “particularly along routes serving health-care institutions like Sunnybrook hospital,” and remains “fully committed” to accessibility. The main entrances are still expected to reopen in 2025, with the full project finishing by mid-2026.
“We’ve tried to minimize the impact as best we could,” said Green. He advised riders needing accessible alternatives to use nearby accessible stations like Eglinton or York Mills to connect to Lawrence Avenue via the 97 Yonge bus, or to use Wheel-Trans.
But for many riders like Sankhe and Chapman, that’s cold comfort.
“It would be much more reliable and quicker to use the subway,” said Chapman, “but that’s the situation people are in.”
Correction – April 9, 2025
Serena Austin
Serena Austin is a Toronto-based general assignment reporter at the Star. Reach her via email: serenaaustin@thestar.ca