Network 2011

Network 2011 was a plan for transit expansion created in 1985 by the Toronto Transit Commission. It was centred on three proposed subway lines: the Downtown Relief Line, Eglinton West Line, and the Sheppard Line. Eventually only a portion of the Sheppard Line was built, while construction on the Eglinton line was started and then abandoned.

The 1970s had seen the end of new expressway construction in Toronto, and the preservation of the Downtown streetcar system. In 1972, while construction was underway on the Spadina Subway line, the provincial government of Bill Davis introduced the GO-Urban transit plan for the Toronto region. Rather than build either subways or light rail, the plan would build a network of innovative maglevs to ring Metro Toronto. The maglev project failed, and the province switched to supporting UTDC's Intermediate Capacity Transit System. An initial line was built, the Scarborough RT, but it went greatly over budget and no further lines were attempted.

Network 2011 was designed to meet the needs of a rapidly growing city where building new expressways was politically impossible. There was also strong resistance to further intensification of the downtown core. The same spirit of activism that had stopped the Spadina Expressway and saved the streetcars also blocked residential redevelopment projects such as the plans for Trefann Court and Kensington Market. Community activists also opposed more downtown office towers, and as a result the city plan called for the creation of three suburban "subcentres" that would become central business districts independent of the core: North York City Centre, Scarborough City Centre, and Etobicoke City Centre. Improving transit to these areas was a central focus of the plan.

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