M II A II R II K
Senior Member
A 427 LRT from Long Branch to the Airport would be great also.
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WislaHD
Superstar
Etobicoke is weird. It's topology and natural barriers (including rail+highway+hydro corridors) indicate that travel should go east-west, yet the bus routes and commuting direction follow north-south.
I wonder if that commuting pattern would completely change with the Eglinton Crosstown and Finch West LRT, bringing true east-west travel corridors through central and northern Etobicoke.
I wonder if that commuting pattern would completely change with the Eglinton Crosstown and Finch West LRT, bringing true east-west travel corridors through central and northern Etobicoke.
Woodbridge_Heights
Senior Member
South of Eglinton the subway has so much attraction that it draws E-W travelers South to it. While North of Eglinton any natural E-W corridor (Sheppard, Wilson) is non contiguous until you get up to the Steeles/Finch area. So you have this swath of land 8 km wide where one would expect travel to be E-W that is forced into a N-S pattern.
jcam
Active Member
Brown's Line - Sherway - West Mall - Rathburn - Renforth instead?
BB ON
Active Member
I'd like to revive the original Etobicoke (L)RT plan which used the hydro corridor, but instead of sending it to the Airport, I'd send it up 27 instead, since Eglinton makes that connection redundant. Thinking out loud here, but maybe it would be useful to have a junction with select trips along Eglinton turning north or south here.
I'd keep the stretch along the hydro corridor at grade with prioritized crossings and stations at Bloor, Burnhamthorpe, Rathburn, Princess Margaret, Eglinton and Longbourne before flying it over the 401.
However a Highway 427 aligned RT would be faster and could serve all the way south to the lake. It might also be easier bureaucratically given Hydro One's track record regarding developments on their corridors. There would still be a branch along Dundas connecting to either a Highway 427 station or, preferably, given all the redevelopment between East Mall and Six Points, all the way to Kipling where that platform could be put to some use.
I'd keep the stretch along the hydro corridor at grade with prioritized crossings and stations at Bloor, Burnhamthorpe, Rathburn, Princess Margaret, Eglinton and Longbourne before flying it over the 401.
However a Highway 427 aligned RT would be faster and could serve all the way south to the lake. It might also be easier bureaucratically given Hydro One's track record regarding developments on their corridors. There would still be a branch along Dundas connecting to either a Highway 427 station or, preferably, given all the redevelopment between East Mall and Six Points, all the way to Kipling where that platform could be put to some use.
Hopkins123
Senior Member
A hybrid Highway 27-Kipling North BRT could make a lot of sense in the context of a subway extension to Sherway Gardens. Stops could be at:
Long Branch
Brown's Line/Horner
Brown's Line/Evans
Sherway Gardens Stn
Cloverdale Stn
Etobicoke Civic Centre
Renforth Gateway
Woodbine Centre
Humber College
27/Finch
Martin Grove/Finch
Albion/Finch
Albion Centre
Kipling/Panorama Ct
Kipling/Annabelle
Kipling/Beaconhill
Kipling/ Kidron Valley
Kipling/Steeles
TheTigerMaster
Superstar
Was the Etobicoke RT anything but arbitrary lines on a map drawn for political purposes?
aquateam
Active Member
You've just described the origin of almost every transit line in Toronto.
Leo_Chan
Senior Member
I thought it was the next phase of the Toronto RT plan? If the Scarborough RT was successful, then they would have proceeded with the Etobicoke RT.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
The idea was a quick connection from the subway to the airport, similar to the Scarborough RT being a quick connection to the STC. It was supposed to be a relatively cheap streetcar line running up a hydro corridor. I don't believe it was a political plan actually, but based in actual planning.
44 North
Senior Member
I'd say it's a fairly big step above that, but still in the realm of arbitrariness. The merit of building subway-like transit to serve large swaths of Metro was there, so it definitely wasn't political. And seeing that the concept of a light/intermediate line circling the city goes back to the late 60s, it wasn't a short-lived flavour-of-the-month concept either. Believe Kipling was designed in anticipation for it, so I guess there's some tangible aspects too.
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micheal_can
Senior Member
With all of the ideas for transit lines, if all were built, what would the city look like? I am not just talking the lines themselves, I mean the entire cityscape. What would Toronto look like with real transit?
Leo_Chan
Senior Member
WislaHD
Superstar
Not too different from today I reckon. It can take decades for land uses to catch up with transit lines and much of the suburbs would have already been built as sprawl prior to those lines, if those lines were even built.
The trend to build downtown would still happen, development of the raillands and the waterfront would still be happening, STC and other regional sub-centres will still be failures.
Important to note too that it is not like that the large sum of Toronto is a transit desert. It might not be rapid transit, but all those suburban arterials contain very frequent, well-used bus routes with more than decent ridership levels. Transit already does exist, it is just bus rather than LRT or subway.
OneCity
Senior Member
Hard to say. Parts of North Scarborough (Malvern), North York and North Etobicoke would have had better development as many areas have just become home to decay and low class developments that shouldn't be approved until we do bring transit as many developers have given up on since this plan was not seen thu. Until we do bring transit no low quality density hould be built. It would have accelerated the process of change. The complete loop around Finch would have prevented the SCC subway and Sheppard stubway to LRT debacle. As far as business goes the City needs to take a page from the 905 and offer incentives and competitive tax breaks for its suburban Centres. Otherwise business will go tot he 905 when looking for save investment away from downtown.
If the City was firmly committed to funding and building that old plan we would have prevented the more recent game changing lines which have heavily changed the perception and impacted of how people feel we need to integrate Scarborough. The RT, the Sheppard Stubway, the Subway to Vaughan are all game changers from this original plan. That is why the Sheppard subway and SSE are here to stay for the long haul in addition to a revised light rail plan for Scarborough. Its been an unofficial reality for some time and heavily supported by residents within even before it had been opportunistically brought political forefront nearly a decade ago.