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Network 2011

SimonP

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I jut finished writing a Wikipedia article on Network 2011. It's the document that gave us the Sheppard subway, the Eglinton West line, and the DRL, and as such is the origin point for an awful lot of what we talk about here.

Many here know far more about these things than I, so let me know if there are any errors or omissions.

The other thing that would be very helpful for the article is a map. Here is one form the Star, but Wikipedia needs something usable under Creative Commons. If anyone has a quick way of making one, that'd be amazing.

5246929386_ca3df031d5_b.jpg


Reading about the origins of these routes does raise some interesting questions:
*If we'd listened to Steve Munro and Gord Perks 25 years ago and opted to uses CLRVs and ARLVs instead of subways on the routes, would more have been built?
*The plan was premised on creating suburban subcentres that would serve as mini-downtowns. Has this plan been a failure? 25 years later NYCC is thriving, but the number of workers at SCC and ECC are still minute compared to the core.
 
*If we'd listened to Steve Munro and Gord Perks 25 years ago and opted to uses CLRVs and ARLVs instead of subways on the routes, would more have been built?

If the money and construction enthusiasm were kept the same both phases of Sheppard would likely have been built in a single agreement. There was no real need for any of it to be underground except at Yonge intersection.

I think Eglinton still would have been cancelled as LRT just based on timing.
 
For interest, here are maps for the other grand transportation plans from that era:

GO-Urban - Davis Conservatives, 1972.
5246929176_3d33fdd2b6_b.jpg


Let's Move - Peterson Liberals, 1990
5246929258_4007be4447_b.jpg


Rapid Transit Expansion Program - Rae New Democrats, 1993.
5246929488_efd43eab61_z.jpg


The Scarborough RT was the only final product of the 1972 plan. The 1990 plan didn't lead to much of anything. The RTES of 1993 lead to the current Sheppard line and was the basis of the current Spadina extension.
 
It's interesting in how many of these comprehensive plans a single element will be the only thing built. Makes me wonder if in 30 years people will be wondering why the underground train on Eglinton uses different vehicles and an entirely different track gauge than every other transit line in the city.
 
It's interesting in how many of these comprehensive plans a single element will be the only thing built. Makes me wonder if in 30 years people will be wondering why the underground train on Eglinton uses different vehicles and an entirely different track gauge than every other transit line in the city.

It's quite possible that the Eglinton LRT and a B-D extension to STC will be the only two projects that will come from this round of transit funding. And in that case, yes I agree with you, that Eglinton will be viewed 30 years from now much the way the SRT is today (ie "why is it different than everything else?").
 
It's quite possible that the Eglinton LRT and a B-D extension to STC will be the only two projects that will come from this round of transit funding. And in that case, yes I agree with you, that Eglinton will be viewed 30 years from now much the way the SRT is today (ie "why is it different than everything else?").

Yet LRV/LRT is proven technology. Hmmmm....
 
Yeah, the vehicles will be very similar to the downtown streetcars so it won't have the same maintenance impact the orphan SRT does, but it could end up being one of those weird bits of TTC trivia people wonder about.

Not at all a reason not to build it as designed, of course. I think if anything this look at Network 2011 and other plans shows that we need to change the political and planning process for transit construction to something far more rigid and less malleable.
 
We will still have above ground lines using the same equipment on the legacy network, so it won't be quite so different. Just an extended version of the Queens Quay tunnel.

Another interesting map I ran across in my researches, a fanciful vision of Toronto in 2009 created in 1984:
5247342040_f8beace89e_b.jpg


Some things to note:
*Etobicoke City Centre will dwarf Yonge and Eglinton
*North of Steeles will be nothing but farmland and two giant domes
*North York will have a tower that rivals CN
*Southern Scarborough will be turned into a giant park
 
I'm not disputing that. I'm just saying, when everything else is subway, and we have 1 LRT line there, it may look out of place, much the way the SRT does today.

Oh, ok. My mistake.

Sure, it would certainly look odd, but at least Toronto wouldn't be hung out to dry because of an experimental technology.
 
That image is awesome. Island residents would be so pissed about the spaceships taking off from the waterfront, though.

Are there any drawings that show an overhead view of the city with the original expressway plan fully built out - Spadina, Scarborough, Crosstown, etc? Probably off-topic in this thread but would be very interesting.
 
The article looks quite good. I fixed a few little grammar things here and there, but the biggest thing missing is a picture. I could throw together a map, but I'm not a very skilled mapmaker. Yllianos made some excellent maps for some of the other TTC articles, so I know there are people out there who can do the job.

EDIT:

Also, is it worth noting the Spadina Extension? The map of Network 2011 has a Spadina extension, though it does have a different routing.
 
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