Sheppard Line - Criticism

Criticism

The line has been derided as a “subway to nowhere” or a “stubway”. Apart from the Sheppard–Yonge and Don Mills terminals, its stations have received relatively little use, even during rush hour. The total ridership on the Sheppard subway line is approximately 46,000 per average weekday, similar to a few of the TTC's busiest streetcar and bus routes, though these routes are generally much longer than Sheppard's 5.5-kilometre (3.4 mi) length. One significant problem is that the Sheppard line feeds into the already overcrowded Yonge segment of the Yonge–University–Spadina subway line, since the Sheppard line does not have its own train yard and does not continue west to the Spadina segment of the line. During the City of Toronto's 2008 budget crisis, the TTC considered shutting the line down on weekends or entirely.