Work on a pilot project at TMU Station is underway and the steel barriers at the centre of the safety initiative are already creating division.Toronto-St. Paul’s Councillor Josh Matlow, who previously called the waist-high barriers a “waste of money” doubled down on his stance last Friday, writing on social media that “Toronto can and must do better.”Reupping this. Toronto can and must do better. https://t.co/duyJObRbDv— Josh Matlow (@JoshMatlow) August 28, 2026 Toronto mayoral candidate Brad Bradford also expressed his disappointment in what he called “these half fences that you can walk right through.”“Obviously these little fences don’t prevent falls,” he said in a video message posted on X. “They don’t prevent delays, they don’t keep anybody safe … a little mini-fence with holes in it isn’t a safety plan.”The TTC says the barriers at TMU, which will line the subway platform with gaps between them, will be fully installed by the end of September.City Hall spent 16 years studying subway safety. Their big solution? A partial fence you can walk right through. Toronto deserves better. It deserves real platform edge doors. Sign if you’re ready for change at City Hall: https://t.co/hQa5EnJRC7 pic.twitter.com/akMqiJIKJp— Brad Bradford (@BradMBradford) August 29, 2026 Both Matlow and Bradford think the City should instead install Platform Edge Doors (PEDs), which act as a wall with doors that open and close as trains arrive and depart.PEDs, however, come with a comparatively huge price tag.The City says it aims to eventually install the safety barriers, along with artificial intelligence-powered track intrusion technology, at 10 high-priority stations, starting with TMU, at a cost of around $2 million per station.TTC spokesperson Stuart Green pegged the cost of the barrier installation at TMU at $850,000 “with design, fabrication and installation all being handled in-house by TTC staff.”Installing PEDs would jack the price to around $50 million per station, according to a City staff report.That report did say that PEDs would be the gold standard in terms of safety, but come with associated financial and logistical issues.“While PEDs offer the highest level of safety, they also present the greatest cost and implementation complexity,” the report states.“Though they do not fully prevent unauthorized track access, platform safety barriers enable faster implementation with minimal operational impact while enhancing customer perception of safety and confidence.”It also noted that “PED installation will result in significant service impacts, including extended station or line closures and station bypasses …”PEDs would require provincial, federal money: ChowWhen the TTC Board met to discuss TTC safety plans in June, Mayor Olivia Chow stressed that the funding for the barriers at TMU already existed, while finding it for a more complex PEDs project “would require money from elsewhere.”“There will be steel barriers in TMU, at that station, and we have the funding to do it,” she stressed.“The comprehensive system will need financial support from other levels of government.”At the time, Matlow, who is on the TTC Board, argued that the PEDs would be worth the cost.“These barriers that they are recommending are fences that do nothing but make people feel better and feel safer but don’t actually prevent things or individuals from going onto the tracks. I think it’s a waste of money,” he said.“[PEDs] might take a little longer because they are more expensive, but you get what you pay for.”A push for adding PEDs to stations stems from concerns about rider safety, suicide prevention, mischief, and debris falling onto the tracks, causing lengthy delays. A woman was pushed onto the tracks at a TTC subway station in 2022, renewing calls for installing safety measures. A short time later in the same year, a man died after allegedly being pushed off the platform at Bloor station. window.plugins = {"ima3":{"ad_server_url":"http:\/\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\/gampad\/ads?sz=640x360&iu=\/7326\/en.citynews_toronto.web\/video&ciu_szs=300x250&impl=s&gdfp_req=1&ad_rule=1&cmsid=1224&env=vp&output=xml_vast2&unviewed_position_start=1&url={window.location.href}&correlator={timestamp}&vid={mediainfo.id}&title={mediainfo.name}&referrer={document.referrer}&duration={mediainfo.duration}&description_url=toronto.citynews.ca","syndicated_enable":true,"index_bidding_ad_server_url_exchange":{"index_bidding_ad_exchange_site_id":{"preroll":{"1":{"1":{"siteID":191890},"2":{"siteID":192079}}}}}},"moat":{"partner_code":"rogersbrightcoveint878700116445"},"streamsense":{"ns_st_pu":"\"Rogers\"","c2":"3005682","c3":"\"CITYNEWS\"","ns_st_st":"\"CITYTV\"","ns_st_stc":"\"5193\""},"chartbeat":{"uid":"55711","domain":"toronto.citynews.ca"},"omniture":{"site_catalyst_account":"rogersrmiglobal","site_catalyst_brand":"citynews toronto"},"adtitle":{"advertisement_title":"Advertisement"}}The TTC says in the first four months of the year there were 199 trespass incidents, leading to more than 1,300 minutes of delays.TTC CEO, Mandeep Lali, previously told CityNews that the barriers, along with Artificial Intelligence, would help create a safer environment for riders. “]AI] takes the data in terms of track intrusions and then, over a period of time, builds an algorithm. The algorithm then predicts the probability of someone jumping onto the track,” he explained.The steel barriers currently being installed at TMU Station are similar to ones that have erected in New York City, where Lali previously worked as a transit executive. Barriers seen on the NYC subway system. Source: City of Toronto staff report.