DRL gets its own homepage

It's the most popular subway line that Toronto never built -- excluding Eglinton that is.

Now a Toronto Masters student, Phil Orr has built a website devoted to the downtown relief line.

The site is the major project for Orr's degree in Environmental Studies, which has been focused on urban planning.

"The focus keeps coming back to the fact that the Yonge line is overcrowded," he said of his research.

The idea of a relief line from the east end of the city that would connect to Queen St. or Union Station on the Yonge line dates back decades.

"Now there are actually places along the line that it would serve," said Orr, who figures if the TTC is going to spend billions expanding the capacity of the Yonge subway, it might as well build a whole new subway.

While Orr says the mayoral candidates' transit platforms all lack good planning principals, he thinks the run-up to the fall election is the perfect time to launch his site, which won't be graded by his York professors for a couple of months yet.

Meantime, the only piece of his Masters Orr, 25, has still to complete is a work placement.

"You'd be surprised at how difficult that is. No one wants someone to work for free," said the Etobicoke native.

But even when he finds a paying job, Orr expects to keep the site going, citing his personal interest in the subject.