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Gordon Chong: A complete transit plan for Toronto must include a Queen Street subway

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Gordon Chong: A complete transit plan for Toronto must include a Queen Street subway


August 27, 2014

By Gordon Joseph Chong

Read More: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com...r-toronto-must-include-a-queen-street-subway/


Over the last few decades, all of the efforts aimed at improving Toronto’s congested road and transit networks have been informed primarily by short-term electoral interests. What’s needed is something different: big, far-sighted investment that proceeds according to a 100-year time horizon. It will be expensive, and not for the faint of heart. But our children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and future migrants to the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) will be grateful for the legacy we leave.

- Rather than allowing Toronto’s existing Sheppard “stubway†to languish because it goes nowhere (and thus attracts poor ridership), it should be extended east immediately to meet the proposed Downtown Relief Line. Eventually, it also should be extended west to meet the University/Spadina subway being extended up into Vaughan to close the loop and create a larger network. --- This is what engineers call “essential redundancyâ€: It provides an alternative during the inevitable breakdowns and closures for scheduled maintenance. But more would be needed. The under-construction Eglinton Crosstown LRT — along with an LRT on Steeles — would create an efficient cross-linked transit system to serve the central GTA for decades to come.

- Looking beyond John Tory’s SmartTrack proposal to electrify an existing GO Transit Corridor, and provide east-west service to Union Station, city planners should consider the benefits of a completely new east-west subway line under Queen Street. This idea was proposed by the Toronto Transit Commission in the 1960s, along with a streetcar elimination program. However, a vocal and well-organized group known as “Streetcars for Toronto†managed to kill the idea. These hippies are responsible for much of today’s mobility challenges and downtown traffic chaos.

- Transit lines could be located more uniformly between Bloor and the waterfront, decongest current flow patterns and deconcentrate the current development in the financial district to locations north of the existing core. A Queen line would better serve the retail, healthcare (four major hospitals are located between Queen Street and College Street) and the university district. Farther along Queen at Bathurst, Toronto Western Hospital is located at Dundas and Bathurst. A Queen line extending farther east and west could take the pressure off both the Yonge/University/Spadina line and the Bloor/Danforth line.

- Queen Street between Bay Street and York could be closed, and the existing Nathan Philips Square could be extended to encompass Queen Street and create a large, friendly, attractive urban meeting place. The Queen subway stations extending west from Yonge and east from University could be connected by an underground tunnel and mall with an iconic pavilion in front of City Hall. Bringing light down into the station and connection would create an engaging, people-friendly space above and below ground similar to the transit pavilion at the new World Trade Centre in New York.

- The Queen line should be extended east to Woodbine/Kingston Rd. and then up Victoria Park to meet the Sheppard East extension. The Queen line also should be extended west to the Queensway through Parkdale and up Keele St. Thus, a continuous subway loop would be created (once Sheppard is extended west), which in turn would act as the anchor and link for the other lines — similar to systems in Paris and other European cities.

- The controversial extension of the Bloor/Danforth subway, if the subway option prevails, should be extended from Kennedy Station to McCowan Road. The subway would then extend up McCowan to the Scarborough Town Centre, run parallel to Highway 401 to Centennial College, then up McCowan Road to a terminal station at Steeles Avenue, where it would connect with the Steeles LRT line. This alignment would allow continued operation of the current Scarborough Rapid Transit system during periods of construction, and integrate well with the proposed subway line along Victoria Park to provide acceptable transit coverage to Scarborough.

.....





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Great, yet more money spent on latte-sipping downtown elites, just like the downtown relief line!
 
+3

I was interested up until the phrase "Streetcars for Toronto...these hippies" appeared.

Notwithstanding that;

Item 1 makes perfect sense. It's just that there are a few other projects that need to be funded first, including item 6.

Item 2. People keep claiming it's some brilliant new idea. GO have been working on electrify lines for a while now.

Item 3 makes perfect sense. It's just that there are a few other projects that need to be funded first including item 1 & 6.

Item 4. Queen Street should be closed between Spadina and Church except to local traffic.

Item 5 makes perfect sense. It's just that there are a few other projects that need to be funded first including item 1, 3 & 6.

Item 6. If we had stuck with the LRT you would have that by 2020. As a subway it will be 2030 before people are even getting to the STC, let alone beyond.


In other words, unless the Government drops billions and billions of dollars into transit for the GTA most of this is just a pipe dream.
 
No, unless Toronto decides that it may have to actually contribute billions and billions from it's own purse {like the rest of the planet or rest of the province for that matter} this is just a pipe dream.
 
^except, you know, it is. The TTCs general capital budget is almost entirely funded by the city, along with a significant portion of the spadina and Scarborough subway extensions.
 
Though he might be right about the streetcar car crowd being "vocal".
If this was put out two decades ago, people would praise the plan.
 
Great, yet more money spent on latte-sipping downtown elites, just like the downtown relief line!

downtown has as many poor students, homeless and people in social housing as the latte-sipping elites. I don't know why people get this idea that downtown dwellers are richer. The fact is, most wealthy Torontonians don't reside south of Bloor.

Plus, how does his proposal just serve downtown, when it is clear the line goes well beyond downtown boundary, all the way to Parkdale and connects with the Sheppard line? I don't necessarily think the Queen line should go that far, but who do you think will benefit more from the proposed Queen line, those like me who live 5 minutes away from City Hall and walk to work, shops all the time, or all those living in the suburbs who come to Yonge/Queen frequently?

It just boggles my mind that people like you think a transit line completely in the suburbs such as Finch ave serves the suburbs better than one that bring people directly down to their workplace. Honestly, how many people actually take the Finch, Sheppard buses and just terminate their trip somewhere north of Eglinton instead of transferring to Yonge and come down to the city?

Admit it or not, Toronto is very downtown heavy. We are not Los Angeles which is composed of dozens of self-sufficient sub-centers. So unless the vast area of North York, Etobicoke and Scarborough can function independently and those who live there can work, shop and play nearby instead of making frequent downtown trips, it makes a lot more sense to follow the Chicago style everything-converges-DT plan than building all the random lines in low density suburbs which eventually transfer southward anyway. I am against any new line north of Eglinton that feeds into Yonge subway, let it be a bus or LRT or subway.

As to the "hippies" comment, I think it is totally valid. Queen and King traffic is a mess, and wouldn't it be better if we did have a subway along the corridor? I know many love the streetcars, I do too. But the fact is the streetcars simply can't handle the traffic on King and Queen. It is more appropriate for College and St Clair. Why are we always driven by ideologies (streetcars = good, subways= Ford) instead of the actual need? I'd say not building a Queen subway was one of the biggest mistake in Toronto's transit history. It would precede whatever is been built or proposed now, let it be Eglinton, or Finch or Sheppard.
 
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downtown has as many poor students, homeless and people in social housing as the latte-sipping elites. I don't know why people get this idea that downtown dwellers are richer. The fact is, most wealthy Torontonians don't reside south of Bloor.

Plus, how does his proposal just serve downtown, when it is clear the line goes well beyond downtown boundary, all the way to Parkdale and connects with the Sheppard line? I don't necessarily think the Queen line should go that far, but who do you think will benefit more from the proposed Queen line, those like me who live 5 minutes away from City Hall and walk to work, shops all the time, or all those living in the suburbs who come to Yonge/Queen frequently?

It just boggles my mind that people like you think a transit line completely in the suburbs such as Finch ave serves the suburbs better than one that bring people directly down to their workplace. Honestly, how many people actually take the Finch, Sheppard buses and just terminate their trip somewhere north of Eglinton instead of transferring to Yonge and come down to the city?

Admit it or not, Toronto is very downtown heavy. We are not Los Angeles which is composed of dozens of self-sufficient sub-centers. So unless the vast area of North York, Etobicoke and Scarborough can function independently and those who live there can work, shop and play nearby instead of making frequent downtown trips, it makes a lot more sense to follow the Chicago style everything-converges-DT plan than building all the random lines in low density suburbs which eventually transfer southward anyway. I am against any new line north of Eglinton that feeds into Yonge subway, let it be a bus or LRT or subway.

As to the "hippies" comment, I think it is totally valid. Queen and King traffic is a mess, and wouldn't it be better if we did have a subway along the corridor? I know many love the streetcars, I do too. But the fact is the streetcars simply can't handle the traffic on King and Queen. It is more appropriate for College and St Clair. Why are we always driven by ideologies (streetcars = good, subways= Ford) instead of the actual need? I'd say not building a Queen subway was one of the biggest mistake in Toronto's transit history. It would precede whatever is been built or proposed now, let it be Eglinton, or Finch or Sheppard.

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