Toronto Ontario Line 3 | ?m | ?s

WislaHD said:
I think so too. The purpose of this study was to study 'Yonge Line Relief' not to study the DRL. The Yonge Line Relief study unsurprisingly found that the DRL East/Long was the best option for relieving Yonge.

Maybe it is a mistake on our parts to be trying to make conclusions on DRL West from the study when that wasn't the purpose of the study. I guess it is up to the City of Toronto to study the benefits of the DRL West.
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Very true. The DRL East has a regional relief component, since a significant portion of Yonge's ridership comes from outside the City of Toronto, and is pretty directly tied to a subway extension to another municipality. The DRL West on the other hand, under most realistic configurations, is a 'local subway'. In effect, it's primary relief would be for the King and/or Queen Streetcars west of downtown. It wouldn't go north of Bloor, and even that is only is some configurations.
 
On whether SmartTrack or GO RER can take the role of DRL west, provide rapid transit access to the west side and relieve streetcars.

In my opinion it might if:

A. There are enough stops. At least one stop near Bathurst-Spadina (or one on each), and at least one stop at Liberty Village/Dufferin.
B. It's frequent enough, minimum every 10 min, preferably less during peak.
C. It's priced such that there's no financial penalty for switching to that transit line.

The other thing though is a tunnel could possibly be further north than the rail corridor, which may be more convenient.
 
ehlow said:
On whether SmartTrack or GO RER can take the role of DRL west, provide rapid transit access to the west side and relieve streetcars.

In my opinion it might if:

A. There are enough stops. At least one stop near Bathurst-Spadina (or one on each), and at least one stop at Liberty Village/Dufferin.
B. It's frequent enough, minimum every 10 min, preferably less during peak.
C. It's priced such that there's no financial penalty for switching to that transit line.

The other thing though is a tunnel could possibly be further north than the rail corridor, which may be more convenient.
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What I hope ends up happening is that SmartTrack runs in a tunnel under King, while GO RER continues to go into Union. The long haul commuters still have their semi-express access, while SmartTrack can function as an express subway in the suburbs, but have similar stop spacing to Bloor-Danforth once it gets south of Bloor.
 
gweed123 said:
Very true. The DRL East has a regional relief component, since a significant portion of Yonge's ridership comes from outside the City of Toronto, and is pretty directly tied to a subway extension to another municipality. The DRL West on the other hand, under most realistic configurations, is a 'local subway'. In effect, it's primary relief would be for the King and/or Queen Streetcars west of downtown. It wouldn't go north of Bloor, and even that is only is some configurations.
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I hope they do a complete study on the DRL West line. The TTC is shifting a significant amount of capacity onto the Eglinton line via various north-south bus lines (Dufferin to Jane). Right now these users get on the Bloor line and to get downtown most will transfer at St George. In the future they will get on the Eglinton line and can either go down University or down Yonge (even more capacity issues).

It will be interesting to see the hourly ridership (both peak and off-peak) on the DRL West and where it comes from. Depending on where it goes downtown (AM peak offloading is at St Andrew so I assume King/Wellington) I won't be surprised if it is as busy as the East section. And the West side is much more dense than the east in the downtown shoulders so there may be more brand new riders than in the east.
 
rbt said:
Right, with good reason. EA's are approved in whole; it's all or nothing.

If they did an EA to Sheppard, and someone took issue with their house being torn down near Sheppard and Don Mills, and appealed the result then the entire project would be delayed as none of it could be approved.
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Someone near the Danforth could also complain about their house being torn down, and that seems more likely than along Don Mills.

The cost of the EA is the same either way, but I'm not surprised they chose to study the shortest route possible. At the community meetings I attended this month, they seemed more intimidated by the DRL than excited. Didn't exactly fill me with confidence.
 
muller877 said:
The TTC is shifting a significant amount of capacity onto the Eglinton line via various north-south bus lines (Dufferin to Jane). Right now these users get on the Bloor line and to get downtown most will transfer at St George. In the future they will get on the Eglinton line and can either go down University or down Yonge (even more capacity issues).
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Eventually they will be able to grab a GO Train directly to downtown at Caledonia. (....fare integration......)

It will be interesting to see the hourly ridership (both peak and off-peak) on the DRL West and where it comes from. Depending on where it goes downtown (AM peak offloading is at St Andrew so I assume King/Wellington) I won't be surprised if it is as busy as the East section. And the West side is much more dense than the east in the downtown shoulders so there may be more brand new riders than in the east.
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As others noted, if they study the west leg, they ought to also study whether GO/RER could serve this purpose with some added stops. This might offer enough relief to avoid the cost of the full 'U'. Or, to turn the west leg towards Roncy/Sunnyside, which would bring a different ridership onto the line.

- Paul
 
drum118 said:
As for ATC and going to a 7th car, not going to come close to TTC numbers.
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Are you saying the TTC and Metrolinx are wrong? What are you going to tell me next? Those pretty pictures of fancy schmancy development in Richmond Hill (if only the subway would not be denied to York Region) might not come close to fruition?
 
Forgotten said:
Are you saying the TTC and Metrolinx are wrong?
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They are known to be incomplete. TTC has adjusted their expectations down a couple times and Steve continues to point out possible constraints which are not yet documented/measured to be okay. Finch, at very least, is probably going to restrict capacity below that advertised number.

Of course, Finch can be fixed by no longer being a terminus (see Spadina extension turnback plan and apply same to Yonge arm). Not the cheapest fix by far but the most politically acceptable.


Obviously signal upgrades are necessary whether capacity increases or not.
 
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