Transit Fantasy Maps

UPX corridor for SmartTrack instead of Eglinton, Eglinton LRT extended west towards Pearson would be the obvious suggestion.

50-100 years from now I would hope we took advantage of the great development opportunity that is the Queensway along Etobicoke. Rapid Transit line along that route would be a great catalyst for development.

WislaHD said:

UPX corridor for SmartTrack instead of Eglinton, Eglinton LRT extended west towards Pearson would be the obvious suggestion.

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Obvious to anyone other than Tory ...

Ignoring the GO RER plan while including Smart Track is to not understand much of what's actually going to be built, and the importance of GO RER once it is operational. It will change the way people travel around this city in general, so that any subway map without it will only be showing a subset of the system.

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interchange42 said:

Ignoring the GO RER plan while including Smart Track is to not understand much of what's actually going to be built, and the importance of GO RER once it is operational. It will change the way people travel around this city in general, so that any subway map without it will only be showing a subset of the system.

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Indeed. SmartTrack is really only a subset of the GO RER system that will be operating in this city (God willing) at some point anyhow, and we'd do well to remember that.

I like the addition of the Queensway alignment for the DRL; it helps become a sort of WWLRT in that manner, though I hesitate to wonder if subway (as I'm assuming the DRL will be) is the best fit for that corridor, considering the high-quality Queensway ROW that is already in place and could make for a good in-median LRT solution. This being said, the demand for the western half of the DRL has always been projected to be lower than the east, and frequent RER service on the Kitchener Line from Bloor Station (including fare integration of course) will take care of that ridership, allowing the DRL itself to swing further south.

As stated above, no heavy rail service should - or even can, save a billions-of-dollars tunnel - serve the Eglinton West corridor. Keep RER / SmartTrack to the established Kitchener rail corridor, and extend the Crosstown westwards to Pearson (in-median, I would assume; though given the fantasy aspect of this thread I would propose expropriation & demolition of the ridiculous townhouses in the Richview Corridor for use as a trenched grade-separated ROW) in its place. The ridership projections are more than sufficient, and any express Pearson-to-downtown ridership can be handled by the UPX.

A through-routed Sheppard-Finch rapid transit line (in my opinion, should be LRT using a converted tunnel section where the subway exists now) has long been a favourite of mine.

Also, service to Malvern and Morningside Heights is a noble goal but would be better served by GO RER than subway anyways. I wouldn't mind seeing the extension of the Crosstown to UTSC, but service to Malvern and beyond is probably better suited for a Seaton GO RER line. Same in the west end: extending BD to Square One takes it through a lot of low-density area not really suitable for subway, and the travel times would almost make the Hurontario-QEW-Gardiner GO bus (Milton route, 21P) from Square One to Union faster.

Good map anyhow!

I'm not opposed to subway extension to Malvern. Not everyone's destination is downtown, so GO RER doesn't help them.

However, I'm unsure how effective going from Malvern to say NYCC would be via LRT. Sheppard LRT will have so many stops that it must be a fairly slow trip.

How about a GO RER Midtown Line? edit: I just checked the Seaton line, is that what we are calling Midtown nowadays? Or is Seaton a new thing? Forgive me, I don't follow GO projects as closely.

WislaHD said:

I'm not opposed to subway extension to Malvern. Not everyone's destination is downtown, so GO RER doesn't help them.

However, I'm unsure how effective going from Malvern to say NYCC would be via LRT. Sheppard LRT will have so many stops that it must be a fairly slow trip.

How about a GO RER Midtown Line? edit: I just checked the Seaton line, is that what we are calling Midtown nowadays? Or is Seaton a new thing? Forgive me, I don't follow GO projects as closely.

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The Seaton GO RER line, well in some way or another it would use the CP Belleville Subdivision through Malvern and Morningside Heights eastward towards a terminus at the planned community of Seaton in norther Pickering. It could either use a Midtown line routing, cutting across Scarborough and hitting a Summerhill / North Toronto station, or (as Gweed's map has it planned) it could follow the SRT extension ROW through Malvern and down to STC, then to Union along the path of the Stouffville line down to Lakeshore East.

The advantage of an STC routing is that it would completely make the Scarborough extension to the BD line unnecessary. Riders from Malvern and Morningside Heights heading elsewhere in the city could transfer from GO RER to the BD subway at Kennedy Station. Similarly, I would still support the full build-out of the Sheppard East LRT out to Meadowvale, so those riders could also use that route to hit destinations more northerly in the city. The full trip on the SELRT would not be the fastest, but given what we know about the existing Sheppard subway, it's unlikely that we'll be getting anything more for that route

Why not extend the sheppard line to Malvern or Eglinton instead of Blooor Danforth? People have mentioned Eglinton West. People have spoken on Eglinton West. I'm really interested on what software you use Hopkins. Great map.

MrsNesbitt said:

The Seaton GO RER line, well in some way or another it would use the CP Belleville Subdivision through Malvern and Morningside Heights eastward towards a terminus at the planned community of Seaton in norther Pickering. It could either use a Midtown line routing, cutting across Scarborough and hitting a Summerhill / North Toronto station, or (as Gweed's map has it planned) it could follow the SRT extension ROW through Malvern and down to STC, then to Union along the path of the Stouffville line down to Lakeshore East.

The advantage of an STC routing is that it would completely make the Scarborough extension to the BD line unnecessary. Riders from Malvern and Morningside Heights heading elsewhere in the city could transfer from GO RER to the BD subway at Kennedy Station. Similarly, I would still support the full build-out of the Sheppard East LRT out to Meadowvale, so those riders could also use that route to hit destinations more northerly in the city. The full trip on the SELRT would not be the fastest, but given what we know about the existing Sheppard subway, it's unlikely that we'll be getting anything more for that route

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I'm not going to disagree with that, hahaha. And yes, even with the added cost of using GO RER instead of ICTS or LRT along the SRT and SRT extension ROW, it would still likely be significantly less than the cost of the subway extension. It would also get Scarberians downtown a heck of a lot faster. For those going someplace other than downtown, like you mentioned, there's the option of using the Sheppard LRT or the Bloor-Danforth Subway to connect to wherever you want to go.

However, I do think that if that configuration is what's chosen, the Sheppard LRT is going to need a branch to STC via McCowan or something similar in order to truly create a transit hub at STC.

denfromoakvillemilton said:

Why not extend the sheppard line to Malvern or Eglinton instead of Blooor Danforth? People have mentioned Eglinton West. People have spoken on Eglinton West. I'm really interested on what software you use Hopkins. Great map.

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Thanks for the feedback. I was actually thinking of interlining the Bloor-Danforth and Sheppard Lines east of McCowan to Morningside Hts but thought it might be overkill. I don't care one way or the other whether it is SmartTrack or the Crosstown that is routed through the Richview corridor so long as it's grade-separated and has fewer stops (stops at all the midblocks which the 32 bus typically just flies by without stopping seems like a waste of resources and time IMO).

Oh and I just used Google Earth and MS Paint.

BlogTO: Toronto Subway Stops That Will Never Happen

salsa said:

BlogTO: Toronto Subway Stops That Will Never Happen

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Ah, cool. For my DRL proposal I added station names, and felt it more fitting to go with more obscure choices for naming. As opposed to simply the major street it's near, or choosing one neighbourhood out of several. IMO it's more of a humble approach and gives the opportunity to acknowledge things like an area's heritage.

I also adjusted the map so that the differences between elevated, underground, and surface portions is more evident.

Nice map! Only thing that I would add is a station at or between Bay and York. However, that can also be done by building the King DRL platform with Yonge at one end at Bay at the other.

This DRL proposal would definitely be significantly less expensive than the "traditional" alignment, and would adequately address all of the issues that the traditional alignment addresses as well.

Like I've voiced in the past, I want phase 1 to go all the way to Spadina or Bathurst.

I know this is not the preferred trajectory since we are missing out on East York, but since the proper DRL seems so costly and so technically challenging and like something that will open in 2035 if we are fortunate, this might not be a bad alternative.

That being said, I don't like missing out on Flemingdon Park and the Thorncliffe station being so far away from where people live in Thorncliffe park.

I like your Don Valley alignment. My only nitpick is, I think Eglinton should be orange

That Leaside Laird area would sure get a huge amount of rapid transit with your alignment.

WislaHD said:

Like I've voiced in the past, I want phase 1 to go all the way to Spadina or Bathurst.

I know this is not the preferred trajectory since we are missing out on East York, but since the proper DRL seems so costly and so technically challenging and like something that will open in 2035 if we are fortunate, this might not be a bad alternative.

That being said, I don't like missing out on Flemingdon Park and the Thorncliffe station being so far away from where people live in Thorncliffe park.

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Is this more what you had in mind?