poomar
New Member
I wrote this letter 2 days ago and sent it to Giambrone, as well as John Barber at the G+M and the Star's city section. I was also thinking that it might be interesting to the NOW and EYE people.
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Dear Councillor Giambrone,
While I have never before written to a member of City Council, the extreme importance of the making the correct decision on the Sheppard East transit corridor has obliged me to raise my voice. As a life-long TTC rider and avid supporter and defender of the system, I have been following the development of the Transit City plan very closely. As such, I am deeply troubled by a number of significant logistical flaws in the program, to say little of the myopic planning for the Sheppard corridor.
Living in the Beaches for for more than 15 years has left me unsatisfied by the binary logistical operations that the TTC seems to oscillate between, specifically the dichotomy between streetcars and subways. The Queen streetcar covers a long distance in mixed, and very often, heavy traffic. The route is simply untenable for anyone not a captive rider. When given the choice between modes of private transport (car, bike, etc.) and the TTC, the time investment required to ride the route itself, conflated with the rapidly rising cost of fares and the route's general unreliability leaves much to be desired for the potential streetcar rider. The only other option to go downtown via TTC is by a bus connection followed by the Bloor-Danforth subway, a lengthy process roughly congruent with the time necessary to ride the 501/502.
I bring up the Queen car example specifically to provide a warning to a very real and significant problem that the TTC's seemingly fervent desire to place an LRT line on Sheppard East will result in. The current vision for the LRT has it running along the street but with no connexion to STC, a transit hub and massive employment centre. Not only does this actively contradict the stated goals of the TTC's RTES to provide subway service along the Sheppard corridor from Yonge to STC, but it also brings in a myriad of potential ridership problems stemming from the unfortunately reality of multiple, and absolutely unnecessary connexions.
For a potential TTC rider going downtown, originating near, but not within walking distance of the terminus of the new Sheppard LRT, will require a strenuous and time-costly series of useless connexions: a bus trip to the LRT, the LRT to the Sheppard subway, the Sheppard subway to the Yonge subway and the Yonge subway downtown. The combined travel time (and stress) for this absurd dance of modalities is so outrageously high that I would have an exceptionally difficult time envisaging someone voluntarily willing making the switch from a car to TTC, despite all the new higher order transit in their respective area.
This leads me to ask a very simple question: why is LRT being considered for Sheppard East, particularly if it is not being connected to STC, as per the original, and presumably still binding plans for the Sheppard subway? I cannot foresee any benefit to halting a partially completed subway in its tracks, particularly one which has attracted so much development in the corridor. Likewise, I cannot help but imagine that the development potential for Sheppard Ave. E. is lower with an LRT rather than a completed subway to STC, the latter forming a crucial backbone of Toronto's subway network.
Furthermore, I am very much worried that since the TTC has yet to release any details about the nature of these Transit City LRT lines that they will simply assume the shape and form of the city's previous LRT attempts, namely the Spadina and St. Clair W lines. If the design work starts in 2007, why haven't any details of the EA been made public? Most importantly, why has there been absolutely zero public consultation on the biggest plan to remake the city's public transit network in recent history.
It is my opinion that if the Transit City plans do not deviate in a significant fashion from these earlier models, Spadina and St. Clair, receptively, the entire vision will be a catastrophic failure. The TTC is attempting to replace what would previously have been considered suitable for subway modality with LRT, still replete, however, with the distances associated with that specific modality. If the new LRT lines cannot achieve a speed somewhat comparable to the Scarborough RT, a mode considered by the TTC to be an intermediate level of rapid transit, either through stops that are spaced further apart than traditional streetcar lines, or else by complete grade separation from traffic, then each of these lines will have been a colossal waste of time, effort and money.
While these concerns are directed towards the Transit City plan in general, I must reiterate my extreme opposition to the plan to effectively kill the Sheppard subway with the Sheppard East LRT. We are all painfully cognizant that the funding situation is not amenable for any kind of upgrade from a "pre-metro" to a bone fide subway line in Toronto; why not simply build the subway now with the incredible funding provided by MoveOntario 2020.
I sincerely hope that you will take these concerns into account seriously; they are shared by a substantial number of equally concerned citizens of Toronto. While council is not the most effective place for direct citizen input, the internet is heavy with concern for the Transit CIty project and it should be taken into account if the city is to achieve the truly magnificent.
xxxxx
----------
Dear Councillor Giambrone,
While I have never before written to a member of City Council, the extreme importance of the making the correct decision on the Sheppard East transit corridor has obliged me to raise my voice. As a life-long TTC rider and avid supporter and defender of the system, I have been following the development of the Transit City plan very closely. As such, I am deeply troubled by a number of significant logistical flaws in the program, to say little of the myopic planning for the Sheppard corridor.
Living in the Beaches for for more than 15 years has left me unsatisfied by the binary logistical operations that the TTC seems to oscillate between, specifically the dichotomy between streetcars and subways. The Queen streetcar covers a long distance in mixed, and very often, heavy traffic. The route is simply untenable for anyone not a captive rider. When given the choice between modes of private transport (car, bike, etc.) and the TTC, the time investment required to ride the route itself, conflated with the rapidly rising cost of fares and the route's general unreliability leaves much to be desired for the potential streetcar rider. The only other option to go downtown via TTC is by a bus connection followed by the Bloor-Danforth subway, a lengthy process roughly congruent with the time necessary to ride the 501/502.
I bring up the Queen car example specifically to provide a warning to a very real and significant problem that the TTC's seemingly fervent desire to place an LRT line on Sheppard East will result in. The current vision for the LRT has it running along the street but with no connexion to STC, a transit hub and massive employment centre. Not only does this actively contradict the stated goals of the TTC's RTES to provide subway service along the Sheppard corridor from Yonge to STC, but it also brings in a myriad of potential ridership problems stemming from the unfortunately reality of multiple, and absolutely unnecessary connexions.
For a potential TTC rider going downtown, originating near, but not within walking distance of the terminus of the new Sheppard LRT, will require a strenuous and time-costly series of useless connexions: a bus trip to the LRT, the LRT to the Sheppard subway, the Sheppard subway to the Yonge subway and the Yonge subway downtown. The combined travel time (and stress) for this absurd dance of modalities is so outrageously high that I would have an exceptionally difficult time envisaging someone voluntarily willing making the switch from a car to TTC, despite all the new higher order transit in their respective area.
This leads me to ask a very simple question: why is LRT being considered for Sheppard East, particularly if it is not being connected to STC, as per the original, and presumably still binding plans for the Sheppard subway? I cannot foresee any benefit to halting a partially completed subway in its tracks, particularly one which has attracted so much development in the corridor. Likewise, I cannot help but imagine that the development potential for Sheppard Ave. E. is lower with an LRT rather than a completed subway to STC, the latter forming a crucial backbone of Toronto's subway network.
Furthermore, I am very much worried that since the TTC has yet to release any details about the nature of these Transit City LRT lines that they will simply assume the shape and form of the city's previous LRT attempts, namely the Spadina and St. Clair W lines. If the design work starts in 2007, why haven't any details of the EA been made public? Most importantly, why has there been absolutely zero public consultation on the biggest plan to remake the city's public transit network in recent history.
It is my opinion that if the Transit City plans do not deviate in a significant fashion from these earlier models, Spadina and St. Clair, receptively, the entire vision will be a catastrophic failure. The TTC is attempting to replace what would previously have been considered suitable for subway modality with LRT, still replete, however, with the distances associated with that specific modality. If the new LRT lines cannot achieve a speed somewhat comparable to the Scarborough RT, a mode considered by the TTC to be an intermediate level of rapid transit, either through stops that are spaced further apart than traditional streetcar lines, or else by complete grade separation from traffic, then each of these lines will have been a colossal waste of time, effort and money.
While these concerns are directed towards the Transit City plan in general, I must reiterate my extreme opposition to the plan to effectively kill the Sheppard subway with the Sheppard East LRT. We are all painfully cognizant that the funding situation is not amenable for any kind of upgrade from a "pre-metro" to a bone fide subway line in Toronto; why not simply build the subway now with the incredible funding provided by MoveOntario 2020.
I sincerely hope that you will take these concerns into account seriously; they are shared by a substantial number of equally concerned citizens of Toronto. While council is not the most effective place for direct citizen input, the internet is heavy with concern for the Transit CIty project and it should be taken into account if the city is to achieve the truly magnificent.
xxxxx
