Transit City Plan

[SD2]

Re: Plan calls for light rail network

^What ROW in Toronto have you taken that is usally pretty quick?

Spadina.

It's not always "pretty quick" of course - it can slow down during rush hour due to volume. I usually find it to be a pretty pleasant and quick ride though.

I think it should also be kept in mind that these new streetcar lines will use next generation streetcars which are closer to the ground, faster loading and longer than current cars, all of which should speed things up noticeably.

 

[unimaginative2]

Re: Plan calls for light rail network

That must be a different Spadina from the one I ride every day. Even off peak, it takes at least 20 minutes to go from Bloor to Front, a distance of 2.7 kilometres. At that rate, an average speed of 9km/h, a trip from Bloor to Finch would take over an hour and a half. During peak periods, that trip can take well over half an hour, and that doesn't count waits at the Front Street stop that can exceed 20 minutes as the streetcars are bunched in groups of four or five.

 

[Darkstar416]

Re: Plan calls for light rail network

With this Transit City plan, I'm thinking that the we'll only see one new subway line in our lives. Sure, some of the existing lines will be extended in the next 25+ years:

1. Spadina to VCC
2. Yonge to Thornhill/407
3. Bloor to Sherway/427/Dixie-GO
4. Sheppard west to Downsview and East to STC
5. SRT replacement with subway to STC (it'll happen eventually).

However, the only completely "new" line I can actually envision happening if Transit City is built full-out would be a downtown portion of the DRL. I'm not complaining about this either, I just find it interesting that we'll likely be a three-four subway-line city for the next 75 years.

 

[Twisted Son of Gumby]

Re: Plan calls for light rail network

Just my point of view, but I really do think the TTC should at least consider redesigning the Sheppard East subway line to accommodate light rail, and then incorporate it with its proposed Sheppard LRT. This is the only major point of contention I personally have with the Transit City plan.

The Sheppard East corridor simply does not have, nor in the near future will it have, the ridership potential to support a subway line anyways. Besides, the extra train sets can potentially be used for a little extra capacity in the rest of the subway system. Again, just an opinion.

 

[SD2]

Re: Plan calls for light rail network

That must be a different Spadina from the one I ride every day. Even off peak, it takes at least 20 minutes to go from Bloor to Front, a distance of 2.7 kilometres. At that rate, an average speed of 9km/h, a trip from Bloor to Finch would take over an hour and a half. During peak periods, that trip can take well over half an hour, and that doesn't count waits at the Front Street stop that can exceed 20 minutes as the streetcars are bunched in groups of four or five.

Maybe I'm too busy enjoying the ride to notice. There have been instances where the time it took to get to a particular stop irritated me, but for the most part I don't have a problem with it.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

"The Sheppard East corridor simply does not have, nor in the near future will it have, the ridership potential to support a subway line anyways."

Most "busy" suburban corridors are really just quirks dependant on how and where buses funnel into stations - such as Dundas west of Kipling, Yonge north of Finch, Eglinton East, etc. - but Sheppard is much more of a self-contained route with pure potential (and really, Agincourt is already well-developed, much more so than any previous comparable suburban subway extensions). The Sheppard subway corridor, from York U to STC, will soon be continuously lined with towers, yet everyone assumes that the current Sheppard line ridership numbers would stay exactly the same even if extended east and west, which is, of course, poppycock.

 

[yinyang41]

Re: Plan calls for light rail network

With this Transit City plan, I'm thinking that the we'll only see one new subway line in our lives. Sure, some of the existing lines will be extended in the next 25+ years:

1. Spadina to VCC
2. Yonge to Thornhill/407
3. Bloor to Sherway/427/Dixie-GO
4. Sheppard west to Downsview and East to STC
5. SRT replacement with subway to STC (it'll happen eventually).

However, the only completely "new" line I can actually envision happening if Transit City is built full-out would be a downtown portion of the DRL. I'm not complaining about this either, I just find it interesting that we'll likely be a three-four subway-line city for the next 75 years.

all those are pretty logical and will probably happen soon enough...but looking 75 years down the road is a bit much. who knows, in 25 years a certain amount of money has to be dedicated to public transit because of global warming, social change, politicians, ect...but then again maybe everyone will be driving pollution-free cars.

p.s. "dark star crashes, pouring it's light into ashes" if there is one thing i like more than urban planning it's...well, you know. :smokin

 

[doady]

Re: Plan calls for light rail network

Pollution-free cars does not congestion-free roads, so I don't see the need for public transit being reduced because of this.

 

[Twisted Son of Gumby]

Re: Plan calls for light rail network

The Sheppard subway corridor, from York U to STC, will soon be continuously lined with towers, yet everyone assumes that the current Sheppard line ridership numbers would stay exactly the same even if extended east and west, which is, of course, poppycock.

Very good point, especially considering how the Sheppard LRT would even further catalyze development in the corridor. The TTC should, however, consider temporarily "LRT-izing" the Sheppard subway in the meantime, since the subway obviously isn't going to be extended for a while anyways.

Mind you, I suppose it would depend on the amount of ridership gained from eliminating the extra transfer in determining if such a modification is practical to begin with.

 

[dashingdan]

Re: Plan calls for light rail network

I don't know when the last time people visited the TransitCity.ca website, but I found the results from the poll to be quite informative. Here they are:

We want to hear from you! Where will you Ride the new Rocket?

Eglinton Crosstown LRT________11090________83.2% &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp
Sheppard East LRT_____________681__________5.1% &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp
Scarborough Malvern LRT________391__________2.9% &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp
Waterfront West LRT____________368__________2.8% &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp
Don Mills LRT__________________347__________2.6% &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp
Etobicoke Finch West LRT________258__________1.9% &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp
Jane LRT_____________________199__________1.5%

Eglinton Crosstown is the undisputed champion, with over 83% of the vote. Whether the polling is accurate or not is debatable. But it clearly shows a preference for an Eglinton line, and kinda shows what a mistake it was to kill the Eglinton subway.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

^ I wonder what a 'none of these' option would have done.

 

[Brighter Hell]

or an "other".

 

[cdl42]

I think people in Toronto have gotten pretty sick of having "none of the above" for most of the past 30 years.

 

[dashingdan]

Well what "other" options are there, really?

 

[unimaginative2]

A different technology, at least one line serving downtown...