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Fate of the SRT

What do you believe should be done about the SRT?


  • Total voters
    190
... it doesn't look good for federal support for MoveOntario.
Given that what stopped the Tories from getting a majority was weak 905/416 support and no additional support in Quebec, then I'm sure that they will quite happily run a deficit if they can buy some northern Toronto and southern 905 seats. Besides, they can make the promises in a year or so, and the cash wouldn't begin to flow for 3-4 years, by which point, the recession would have passed.
 
I am still skeptical about the platform upgrades at Kennedy. Although it'll improve usability, I really doubt that it'll add a 100% capacity increase through improved headways. And I really don't believe the extra 2 cars, although a 50% increase in capacity will be enough to handle rush hour loads. The SRT is full going westbound after two stops (McCowan, STC) during rush hour. How full do you think it'll be once it is extended to Malvern (especially with Malvern becoming a local bus hub funneling riders down the SRT)? All the upgrades, might handle the projected ridership increase but will probably leave the SRT just as crowded as it is today in a few years after the refurbished lines open. Splitting the project up into a subway and LRT is really the only effective solution.

The existing peak headway on the SRT is 3'30" (and that is only if they can manage to get all six trains out of the yard). The system can handle less that half that headway, so its not impossible to double the number of trains with a double track terminal.

I don't think the SRT would be full coming out of Malvern, that is where the biggest chunk of riders already come from (by bus). The upgrade should easily be able to handle twice the projected demand.

But I don't want the SRT to be rebuilt, as I said before I want it gone. If they did build a subway then I would certainly not be complaining about it.
 
No, it won't be anywhere near full coming from Malvern because Malvern accounts for only a fraction of the total ridership.

4% use Ellesmere, 8% use Midland, 11% use McCowan, and 21% use Lawrence East...that's about 44% and we haven't even added STC yet. 63.5% use STC (note: totals reach 200% when you also include the 92% that also uses Kennedy...there's about 3000 trips a day made on the SRT that do not begin/end at Kennedy, and most of these 3000 are to/from STC). Subtracting those 3000 gets STC down to 57% of the total, in line with the 44% from the other stations (not rounding would have resulted in an almost perfect 100% combined figure).

So, 57%, or about 25,000 riders, use STC station to get to Kennedy every day. The 131/132/133/134 combined see a daily ridership of 26,500, but the 21/129/130/38, the other main routes feeding STC, see a daily ridership of 32,900. Right off the bat, we know that less than half the bus patrons filling the SRT are from where the extension would run. However, we need to lower the feeder buses' share even further because STC itself generates many trips. Add, say, 5000 trips from the mall/offices/condos and you get feeder bus ridership of 20,000, of which maybe 9000, per day, comes from Malvern. That's 20.5%, lower than Lawrence East. 20% of existing riders will supposedly benefit from the extension.

Extending *anything* beyond STC basically just replaces the Progress bus, which only has 8100 riders a day. Extending whatever is done with the SRT to Malvern punishes the rest of Scarborough...and there's higher ridership bases already existing on McCowan and Ellesmere.
 
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I never said the SRT would be full coming out of Malvern. I said that a large chunk of the increased capacity will be eaten up by the ridership out of Malvern. 131/132/133/134 will all be re-organized once the SRT is extended to MTC. At that point, much of that ridership will be embarking the SRT at MTC not STC. Additional riders will probably get on at any Sheppard SRT station as well (that's why I favour an SRT corridor extension (using light rail technology) over a Sheppard E LRT). And Malvern is still growing....new condos at Markham/Sheppard So with much of that additional capacity being taken up by riders from MTC, and with ridership at STC still growing the SRT will still be packed from day one from STC onwards. All the upgrades will be accomodating, IMHO is the increased ridership from the extension, not really the current crush of persons on the system.....
 
A revamped SRT could very well still be overcrowded, but Malvern will do little to fill the increased capacity...keep in mind that if modal share growth occurs, Malvern may only be responsible for roughly 20% of it (the SRT is simply not an alluring choice). Initially, there will actually be a moderate decline in how much an extension might be expected to be filled by feeder bus riders from those Malvern routes because they will be rerouted. For example, no one that uses the Neilson bus south of Sheppard will be using an extended SRT, and some of the Nugget bus' ridership also won't switch over to the extension. All that will be accomplished is moving some riders from the STC platform to the MTC platform...how does eat up increased capacity on a revamped SRT?
 
SRT extention to College and hospital

SRT should extend to College, this WILL generate traffic the TTC wants/NEEDS.

Extend That to the Hospital. that will generate new classes for the college(s) and improve traffic in and out of the hospital.

these two very short stops will be inexpensive and will reduce congestion significantly in the area.

not to mention partially resolve the 401 issue that is the progress on ramp to nelson off ramp.
 
Metrolinx SRT Benefits Case Analysis

http://www.metrolinx.com/Docs/general/Benefits_Case_SRT_v6.pdf

Options Presented...

-Base Case (refurbished)

-Upgrade and Extend SRT to Malvern

-Extend SRT and Connect with Sheppard East LRT

-Segregated LRT Kennedy Station to Malvern Town Centre

-Segregated LRT Kennedy Station to McCowan, At-Grade LRT to Malvern Town Centre


It appears no choice has been made yet.
 
Good to see that they are keeping their minds open. Now if only they can separate each of these options to create two cases: Kennedy-STC, STC-MTC.

Then they will finally reach the right conclusion: extend the BD line to STC and build an LRT line from STC to MTC.

I fear though that option 1 probably looks tempting because of the cost and the short length of the closure.
 
How do you figure? The paper made no mention of replacement with subway to STC, which is undeniably the most preferred option by those that use the line.
 
How do you figure? The paper made no mention of replacement with subway to STC, which is undeniably the most preferred option by those that use the line.

I said if only they would go one step further and split the current route in two....so that they did an analysis on both portions separately.

I meant that the fact they are considering LRT is a good start to at least abandoning the orphan ART system.
 
I said if only they would go one step further and split the current route in two....so that they did an analysis on both portions separately.

I meant that the fact they are considering LRT is a good start to at least abandoning the orphan ART system.

Ohhh I see your point. I agree with you. They should split it in two.
 
After reading their assesements, it is remarkable that they don't reach the obvious conclusion that STC-Kennedy should be a subway. Every metric of theirs proves that point. We need to start a campaign to get them to do a separate analysis for Kennedy to STC.
 
My favourite part of this silly SRT report is when they note each option will have a "modest improvement" on health but don't bother to study the effect of closing the line for up to 3 years during construction.

The inclusion of a subway option in this study was unlikely because that would have meant some fragment of admission that people other than those in Malvern (travelling not to downtown but to STC or Kennedy station itself) use the SRT. And the world would surely implode if reality like that sunk in.
 

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