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TTC: St. Clair Streetcar Right Of Way

junctionist said:
There is indeed enough space on both sides, except for the auto repair shop--an small, cheap and expendable building. It's a little tricky at Old Weston Road with the historic Heydon House on the northwest corner, but the roadway could shift slightly to the south. Alternately, an additional lane could be built where the existing sidewalk is (up to almost the facade of the building), with an arcade built through the Heydon House for pedestrians. The arcade would open up onto the sidewalk continuing west of the building.
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Something like this:
sidewalk_path.jpg


Could work, as a plan B. Though sifting the roadway south should be part of plan A.
 
I said before posting the photos you will have to shift St Clair south including the ROW if you want 4 lanes of traffic here. It also require buying the land on the south side.

To maintain the north side as is, you are shifting the south end of the bridge 25'+

There is enough land in front of the Dealt Bingo Hall for most of the widening of the road, but will have a few issues for getting out onto St Clair.

The ROW will have to be rebuilt 100% as it will have to be moved 14'(?) south of the current location as well the intersection at Old Weston Rd and Keele St to get that nice bend in for the shifting.

If you think there is enough room for this change, take a tape measure out and mark off what you think needs to happen and you will be surprise of the out come.

Those building on the south side will have to go as well the coffee place at Old Weston Rd and part of MC. New retaining wall in front of the townhouse.

I still say it not the worth the money to do it and time to cut down on traffic doing the short cut.

If you want to spend the money, tear down the townhouse and get rid of the Keele Jog. That will deal with traffic a hell a lot better than this idea.
 
drum118 said:
I said before posting the photos you will have to shift St Clair south including the ROW if you want 4 lanes of traffic here. It also require buying the land on the south side.

To maintain the north side as is, you are shifting the south end of the bridge 25'+

There is enough land in front of the Dealt Bingo Hall for most of the widening of the road, but will have a few issues for getting out onto St Clair.

The ROW will have to be rebuilt 100% as it will have to be moved 14'(?) south of the current location as well the intersection at Old Weston Rd and Keele St to get that nice bend in for the shifting.

If you think there is enough room for this change, take a tape measure out and mark off what you think needs to happen and you will be surprise of the out come.

Those building on the south side will have to go as well the coffee place at Old Weston Rd and part of MC. New retaining wall in front of the townhouse.

I still say it not the worth the money to do it and time to cut down on traffic doing the short cut.

If you want to spend the money, tear down the townhouse and get rid of the Keele Jog. That will deal with traffic a hell a lot better than this idea.
Click to expand...

That townhouse development really screwed up traffic patterns for the future. Keele Street should have been extended over/under the railway tracks, instead we have the jam on Weston, Old Weston and Rogers Road. As well, they took space away to allow for expanding the St. Clair Avenue roadway northward, east of Keele Street and west of the railway. Now we're having to discuss alternatives.
 
W. K. Lis said:
That townhouse development really screwed up traffic patterns for the future. Keele Street should have been extended over/under the railway tracks, instead we have the jam on Weston, Old Weston and Rogers Road.
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Agreed. But I think there's is an alternative. Extend Gunns Road under the tracks and join it with Keele (north). You could even curve Weston Road onto that new alignment, and effectively join Keele.

W. K. Lis said:
As well, they took space away to allow for expanding the St. Clair Avenue roadway northward, east of Keele Street and west of the railway.
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The roadway width doesn't look overly compromised, compared to the rest of the street. They did leave some space near the tracks that would allow for the construction of the overpass.
 
Does anyone know if the St. Clair Street car ROW has crossover tracks anywhere along it? (This is useful because if one streetcar breaks down it doesn't stop service, just may slow it down).
 
In4matt said:
Does anyone know if the St. Clair Street car ROW has crossover tracks anywhere along it? (This is useful because if one streetcar breaks down it doesn't stop service, just may slow it down).
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Do you mean for wrong-way operation? Wouldn't you also need some sort of signalling infrastructure then? I can see them being used during track replacement. Cf the comments on "California switches" in this page re track work on kingston: http://stevemunro.ca/?p=7997
 
In4matt said:
Does anyone know if the St. Clair Street car ROW has crossover tracks anywhere along it? (This is useful because if one streetcar breaks down it doesn't stop service, just may slow it down).
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Not that I know off. Only loops. They should add sidetracks at the St. Clair station. As well, they should add crossover tracks in the St. Clair West station to separate the westbound and eastbound streetcars.
 
In4matt said:
Does anyone know if the St. Clair Street car ROW has crossover tracks anywhere along it? (This is useful because if one streetcar breaks down it doesn't stop service, just may slow it down).
Click to expand...

That certainly would be useful in that scenario and also near the end of a line instead of using a loop (I believe Melbourne has this type of crossover), but since the entire system to date has been predicated on unidirectionally operated streetcars, no crossovers exist that I know of.

I hope the idea is at least considered for any new trackage that is installed (Cherry St?).

Does anyone know if the LRT lines currently planned/under construction include crossovers?
 
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the lemur said:
That certainly would be useful in that scenario and also near the end of a line instead of using a loop (I believe Melbourne has this type of crossover), but since the entire system to date has been predicated on unidirectionally operated streetcars, no crossovers exist that I know of.

I hope the idea is at least considered for any new trackage that is installed (Cherry St?).

Does anyone know if the LRT lines currently planned/under construction include crossovers?
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Cherry Street track is just about finished so it won't be there and with 204 single-end cars on order it seems a waste anywhere.
 
nfitz said:
Agreed. But I think there's is an alternative. Extend Gunns Road under the tracks and join it with Keele (north). You could even curve Weston Road onto that new alignment, and effectively join Keele.
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That's an interesting idea. You should really pitch it to City Hall
 
Juan_Lennon416 said:
That's an interesting idea. You should really pitch it to City Hall
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You think that Traffic Services hasn't thought about that?

They have probably 25 or 30 road sections that they would like to have built that would all improve the traffic situation of the City. The issue is funding - there is only so much money to go around, and so they have to pick the ones which would bring the biggest benefit. That's why it took almost 80 years to connect the two halves of Dufferin.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.
 
smallspy said:
You think that Traffic Services hasn't thought about that?

They have probably 25 or 30 road sections that they would like to have built that would all improve the traffic situation of the City. The issue is funding - there is only so much money to go around, and so they have to pick the ones which would bring the biggest benefit. That's why it took almost 80 years to connect the two halves of Dufferin.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.
Click to expand...

I imagine the operator of the rail line there (CP?) would object, as usual, and maybe also the company that runs the scrapyard on Union St.
 
smallspy said:
You think that Traffic Services hasn't thought about that?

They have probably 25 or 30 road sections that they would like to have built that would all improve the traffic situation of the City. The issue is funding - there is only so much money to go around, and so they have to pick the ones which would bring the biggest benefit. That's why it took almost 80 years to connect the two halves of Dufferin.
Click to expand...
Shame we didn't have some kind of charge on cars that would pay for such type of schemes ...
 
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