How will the Provincial Liberals and John Tory win their respective elections in 2018? By promising the Downtown Relief Line through SmartTrack. And here's how:
The Richmond Hill GO line was one of the few GO lines that has not received funding for corridor electrification and GO-RER. I believe this is because Metrolinx are looking to create a new alignment (
Don Branch Alignment pg-9) for the Richmond Hill GO line south of Eglinton as the present alignment is impractical, prone to flooding and not worth maintaining. However, being one of the main GO routes, an upgrade is inevitable and the 2018 election cycle is as good of a time to promise it as any.
Toronto has needed a Downtown Relief Line for ages, a downtown subway has literally been talked about for a century now. York Region needs the DRL to be built so construction can commence on the Yonge North line and intensification of their city centres can continue.
By 2018, John Tory will want to have his SmartTrack along the Stouffville corridor already underway. Using funds freed up from the conversion of the Scarborough Subway Extension (over $4 Billion projected with non-McCowen alignment) to an above-ground spur of SmartTrack (and hopefully from dropping the Eglinton West spur), he will be looking for a new project to champion in the 2018 election cycle. A Downtown Relief Line seems important but John Tory is already the champion of SmartTrack. So how about a second SmartTrack line?
Here is how it would work:
- The Richmond Hill corridor would be converted to a shared GO-RER and SmartTrack corridor just like the Stouffville corridor in Scarborough. Except rather than using the long, elongated route along the Don River, it will enter a Don Mills tunnel just north of Lawrence. To save costs I think Don Mills is wide enough for cut+cover.
- From there, the line takes the traditional DRL alignment through Thorncliffe Park and down Pape to Pape Station on Line 2. This gives us interchanges with the Eglinton Crosstown and the Danforth Subway that were not previously present.
- At Gerrard Square in East York, the Richmond Hill line meets with Scarborough SmartTrack. The two lines merge and head west towards a downtown tunnel along Queen street. While the Richmond Hill, Stouffville, Seaton and Lakeshore East GO-RER trains head south to Union Station.
Inside the Downtown Tunnel, the two SmartTrack lines together will provide subway-like frequencies of less than 2.5 minutes. Here is the rough breakdown:
Downtown Tunnel
10 Trains per Hour from Langstaff
10 Trains per Hour from Markham
5 Trains per Hour from Malvern
total = 25 Trains per Hour or 2.4 minute frequency
If we have 10 trains coming from Malvern, we achieve a flat 2 minute frequency.
From there, they emerge out of the downtown tunnel at Queen West and continue along the corridor to Mount Dennis on the Eglinton Crosstown, interchanging with Line 2 again at Dundas West on the way. At Mount Dennis, it may either continue along Eglinton to Airport Corporate Centre (and Mississauga?) or along the Kitchener Corridor to Woodbine (detour to Pearson along UPX corridor?). My personal preference is that the Eglinton West spur gets cut from the SmartTrack plan and the Kitchener Corridor is used.
There you have it, the solution to Toronto's transit problems by 2030. GO-RER on all corridors minus Barrie and Milton, a SmartTrack that acts as both a Downtown Subway and as a Relief Line, and it is possible to build as for the first time Toronto's history, various interests can align in the 2018 Election cycle to build this downtown line.
Critique away.
