For Toronto's Portlands, Look to Amsterdam

February 24, 2025 - Toronto has embarked on an ambitious and region-defining project to redevelop the industrial land at the mouth of the Don River into a mixed-use high density neighbourhood. Dubbed 'The Portlands', the project is being constructed by Waterfront Toronto, a government-accountable agency which has been managing and designing the other excellent public spaces along Toronto's harbour. The project can be broken down into three components: the redevelopment of the islands into mixed-use towers, the Don River rerouting, and the streetcar network expansion into the neighbourhood. For this article, the focus will be on the third aspect - the transit access, and looking internationally to a similar project in Amsterdam to draw inspiration from.

There are a few key similarities between the IJburg development and the redevelopment in the Portlands. First of all, they are essentially projects built entirely from the ground up. While the Portlands is a brownfield redevelopment of a former industrial site compared to the reclaimed land island in Amsterdam, Waterfront Toronto has essentially leveled the entire area and will build the area new, including a new rivermouth of the Don River. The tram line serving IJburg in Amsterdam is twice the length of the Waterfront East LRT - the line that will serve the new Portlands Redevelopment - but otherwise, the tram technology itself is not that different. The top speed of Amsterdam's Siemens Combino trams is 80km/h, close to the top speed on Toronto's Bombardier Flexity Outlooks (70km/h). While Toronto readers may be questioning why that matters, "the TTC streetcars never go that fast", it is relevant because the IJtram route was designed specifically for speed. Both lines are also the main public transportation route between their city centres and the areas they serve, and both lines even make on-street loops to turn around on their respective 'islands'.

IJBURG, AMSTERDAM

Famous for its land reclamation, the Netherlands has been constructing various projects over hundreds of years on artificial islands. The IJburg project east of the city is no different. Sitting in the IJmeer, a lake next to Amsterdam, the artificial islands of IJburg started construction in the mid-90s and were completed in the 2000s. The plan for reclamation had been in place since the 1960s, but over the years the project shifted from a modernist, automobile oriented redevelopment to one specifically centred around a new tram line. This line - dubbed the IJtram - was to be different from the existing Amsterdam tram network. It would be almost entirely separated from traffic, built on a new high-speed alignment, and utilizing a brand new underwater tunnel.

The European Union's international body for sustainable development highlighted the IJtram as one of their projects following the best practices for new transit implementation. Some of their noted strengths were the high speed of the line: the end-to-end travel time is around 18 minutes, and the line itself is 8 kilometres long, over double the length of Toronto's Waterfront East LRT project. The compact urbanism and sustainable development model of the artificial island project in Amsterdam were highlights of best practices noted by Interreg Europe, but the high-quality transit link to the city center was the number one strength of the entire project. Which comes to the most important part of the IJtram and its implementation within the greenfield IJburg development - it was there from day one. In fact, the tram line was in place before many of the mixed-use buildings had finished construction on the island. As seen in the two images below, the tram was even running through the under construction areas.

In fact, it is this aspect that is the most consequential difference between the two projects. The Waterfront East LRT can be a typical TTC streetcar route and operate slowly, even though there is no reason to given that it is completely segregated from traffic as the IJtram is, but currently it is not slated to be operational when construction in the Portlands accelerates. The municipal government in Toronto is unfortunately unable to fully fund the project, and that is partly why construction has yet to start. The project was designed with a streetcar project built in from day one - and the right of way for the streetcar has already been set aside along the proposed route. But from there it becomes unclear. Without high-quality transit infrastructure operating from day one, the Portlands Redevelopment will suffer from traffic problems. Residents who are not attracted to a fast downtown link will turn to their cars, and the development itself is constrained by a few roads leading in and out - with only one two lane road leading directly to the core. A bus replacement is currently being proposed by the TTC - painting some bus lanes along the path of the Waterfront East LRT for who knows how long until it is built. But the bus is still at risk of getting stuck in traffic within the neighbourhood and cannot provide the same capacity per operator that a streetcar could, given that the City of Toronto is projecting a daily use of 50,000 people on the route.

As the Waterfront East LRT is still in the design phase, and no shovels are in the ground, it has already not fulfilled the first key to success of the IJtram - being open from day one. But because it is still in the design phase, those involved should look to the buildout of the IJtram and incorporate the strengths of high-speed operation, a completely segregated right-of-way and long stop spacing to maximize the utility of the already essential project. I will leave the audience with a video of the view from the cab of a tram making the journey from IJburg into central Amsterdam, to view the urban integration of the tramway and how fast it travels - as an urbanist, it is truly inspiring to watch a well-implemented tram do its thing.