GO Transit: 50 Possible Sites for new Stations

[drum118]

Time to put Sunnyside Station back where it belongs as well a new Park lawn.

Planners and thinkers are out to lunch trying to maintain equal spacing and move toward some of Smarttrack thinking for stations.

I said in 2007 when asked by Metrolinx if I saw a need for more stations on line and said yes. Not only will you need more stations without parking at most of them, you need a number of different type of service to service them.

 

[44 North]

Looks like it's zone 'O' for Open Space, but 'O' space can be used for "Park, Public Utility or Transportation Use'. Interesting.

Interesting indeed. I think what smallspy wrote, and what you've reinforced by checking its land use is enough evidence for me to know that a Leaside Spur reactivation is much more plausible than many have claimed. And it makes sense too that the city would leave its future as a transport corridor open. Although we've pulled some serious boners in the past, letting something like that go would've been an egregious mistake tantamount to throwing good money down the drain. Those numbers from the 1986 RH report, LRT options shown in early and recent YRNS reports, Metrolinx's new station analysis, and just today the 407 "Missing Link"... all make note about this critical corridor. Clearly it's useful, and its reactivation necessary.

 

[andrewpmk]

Interesting indeed. I think what smallspy wrote, and what you've reinforced by checking its land use is enough evidence for me to know that a Leaside Spur reactivation is much more plausible than many have claimed. And it makes sense too that the city would leave its future as a transport corridor open. Although we've pulled some serious boners in the past, letting something like that go would've been an egregious mistake tantamount to throwing good money down the drain. Those numbers from the 1986 RH report, LRT options shown in early and recent YRNS reports, Metrolinx's new station analysis, and just today the 407 "Missing Link"... all make note about this critical corridor. Clearly it's useful, and its reactivation necessary.

This will never happen. This is a wealthy neighbourhood and it would be political suicide to reactivate the Leaside spur.

The only long term solution is to build a subway along Don Mills Road to Don Mills & Finch.

 

[AlbertHWagstaff]

The old Parkdale station was at Jameson and Springhurst, but closed in 1911 with the opening of Sunnyside station at Queen and King. What killed Sunnyside (in the 1970s) is that GO chose not to stop there.

Yes, dismantling of the Sunnyside Station began within days of GO starting operations in May 1967. There was no consideration to keeping it once GO started operating.

 

[flyinggoats]

Metrolinx just released a report detailing potential new station locations across the entire GO network. I'd say this is a pretty huge development. http://www.metrolinx.com/en/docs/pd...20150922_BoardMtg_New_Station_Analysis_EN.pdf

Slide 32 lists the assumptions made for analyzing the performance of the potential new stations. The assumptions are:

– Today’s land use
– Today’s fare structure
– Today’s service structure (mostly)
– Single station analysis
– Coarse grain ridership estimates

These assumptions are a major flaw in the study. Realistically, we will have RER service and a new fare structure by the time any new station is approved, designed, tendered, and built. Therefore, the analysis of new stations must take fare integration and RER service structure (including the separation of local & express services on lines other than lake shore). Evaluating stations in isolation of other ongoing programs (such as RER) will lead to recommendations that are out of touch with reality.

 

[Adjei]

Slide 32 lists the assumptions made for analyzing the performance of the potential new stations. The assumptions are:


These assumptions are a major flaw in the study. Realistically, we will have RER service and a new fare structure by the time any new station is approved, designed, tendered, and built. Therefore, the analysis of new stations must take fare integration and RER service structure (including the separation of local & express services on lines other than lake shore). Evaluating stations in isolation of other ongoing programs (such as RER) will lead to recommendations that are out of touch with reality.

I agree with you. I don't know why these aren't taking into consideration and seems like a big omission considering the fact that these new stations are being considered due to RER.

 

[Filip]

Yes, dismantling of the Sunnyside Station began within days of GO starting operations in May 1967. There was no consideration to keeping it once GO started operating.

I keep hearing Mimico is too close to Park Lawn for a station - yet isn't Sunnyside just as close to Exhibition?

GO will have to make a decision about express/local service in order to implement these stations. LSW has this nailed down during rush hour, but it'll have to consider off peak express trains as well. Otherwise, with all these extra stations, not even electrification could make up for the milk runs.

 

[44 North]

This will never happen. This is a wealthy neighbourhood and it would be political suicide to reactivate the Leaside spur.

The only long term solution is to build a subway along Don Mills Road to Don Mills & Finch.

Do you mean having the RH line run in this Don Mills tunnel along with the DRL? Or just for the DRL - while leaving the RH line in its current valley alignment? And I definitely get what you're saying, reactivation wouldn't be like flipping a switch. But I think its strategic importance is too great, that even if the public ROW that is the Leaside Spur were to be followed - but trenched or cut/covered instead of using the surface - it would still be worth it. It's not like we're talking about the Belt Line here. This corridor was only deactivated recently, relatively speaking.

 

[nfitz]

I keep hearing Mimico is too close to Park Lawn for a station - yet isn't Sunnyside just as close to Exhibition?

It's about 1.5 km from Mimico to Park Lawn. And at least double that to Sunnyside.

Whether 3 km is too short is another question. But they aren't the same distance.

 

[Filip]

It's about 1.5 km from Mimico to Park Lawn. And at least double that to Sunnyside.

Whether 3 km is too short is another question. But they aren't the same distance.

But doesn't that depend on where the station is?

At Roncy, the railroad curves to go around Humber Bay, which according to Metrolinx's new station building guidelines, prevents it from being built; so the station would have to go further east (putting it very close to Exhibition).

 

[gweed123]

It's about 1.5 km from Mimico to Park Lawn. And at least double that to Sunnyside.

Whether 3 km is too short is another question. But they aren't the same distance.

If GO is running a local RER service within Toronto and the inner 905, and as long as the 905 RER trains can bypass those stations, then stop spacing shouldn't be too much of an issue. For Toronto GO RER, stop spacing similar to suburban subway stop spacing shouldn't be a problem.

 

[nfitz]

But doesn't that depend on where the station is?

I was measuring from the location of Sunnyside station. You can still see the separation between the tracks where the platform used to be.

At Roncy, the railroad curves to go around Humber Bay, which according to Metrolinx's new station building guidelines, prevents it from being built; so the station would have to go further east (putting it very close to Exhibition).

There's plenty of stations on curves world-wide. Including GO stations like Danforth. Note that when they extended the Danforth platforms recently they had the choice of extending them to the east, and moving the existing platform a couple of car-lengths so it was no longer on the curve. They actually did the opposite and extended the platforms west further into the curve.

This is just an excuse by Metrolinx. It's something they ignore when it's convenient for them.

 

[ShonTron]

Acton station - the second-newest GO Station - is on a curve. It's resolved with closed-circuit cameras and monitors where the accessible car is located. The "Customer Service Ambassador" can see every door this way when he or she is closing them at the stop. Newmarket has a similar arrangement.

 

[Filip]

My worry is Metrolinx will decide Sunnyside is worthy of a station (even though the neighbourhood has stellar transit access) and it'll screw over chances for a station that should've been there for the last 20 years (Park Lawn).

It's very sad that transit here is a zero-sum game, but I've seen way too many critical projects get pushed back for some pet project that isn't necessary.

 

[nfitz]

Not sure why building a station at Sunnyside would preclude shifting the Mimico platform 900 metres further east so that it's east end is near Parklawn - though wouldn't the optimal location be just the other side of the Gardiner, so that it serves Humber loop and is walking distance from all those condos near Humber Bay Shores?