Toronto Ontario Line 3 | ?m | ?s

Just going west to Spadina makes the line even more useful. Tons of people would use it to go west instead of the streetcar.

Lots of jobs are at Spadina between Queen and King. You can obviously walk from University or take the streetcar but the subway would make it way easier. Even if you're going to Bathurst, you might go to Spadina station and walk from there.
 
And given the amount of development that will be going into that stretch, going to Spadina is pretty much a must. We really have to get away from the idea that this is about relieve Yonge (a useful purpose) and more about this being the new line that will basically link up multiple nodes and frame the pattern of future development.

AoD
 
That would be hugely expensive.

How much did the first tunnelling contract for ECLRT cost - about $50M per km. That included tunnel liners and station headwalls. Why not spend the $200M now and then avoid disruption costs later.
 
How about start tunnelling at Pape and don't stop until they hit Dundas West? The part from Yonge to Dundas West could be built slowly but continuously over time.
 
Just going west to Spadina makes the line even more useful. Tons of people would use it to go west instead of the streetcar.

Lots of jobs are at Spadina between Queen and King. You can obviously walk from University or take the streetcar but the subway would make it way easier. Even if you're going to Bathurst, you might go to Spadina station and walk from there.

I agree 100%. It's a bonehead move to dice up the relief line like this, it's like Gardiner East all over again; some things don't make sense for such a small stretch. Planning should be for wherever it will cross the Don Valley to Dundas West. Build as far as possible, cutting down on your overall fixed costs.
 
It can be met half way. Parliament and Sherbourne are close enough to share a station between them, and have a station that connects with the RH Line, and Broadview Ave. and the Lakeshore Line could share a station between them as well.

West of Osgoode the line could veer slightly southward to Richmond and Adelaide to avoid the added cost and disruption of Queen West.
 
I agree 100%. It's a bonehead move to dice up the relief line like this, it's like Gardiner East all over again; some things don't make sense for such a small stretch. Planning should be for wherever it will cross the Don Valley to Dundas West. Build as far as possible, cutting down on your overall fixed costs.

I don't think this is a good example. Building halfway from Union to Pape as a stage would obviously make no sense, but once you link downtown to the Danforth, you've built the most important missing link, which will relieve pressure elsewhere in the system. Every bit built west from downtown draws riders south rather than north, relieving the subway on Bloor, University, and Yonge. There is no point saying nothing should be built until it's all built, if that leads to nothing being built ever. Planning the whole thing, fine, but it is OK to build this in stages.
 
The DRL or Yonge Relief Line must provide an alternative route to downtown from both east and west. While the University leg of Line 1 could be used, its age is only about a decade younger than the Yonge leg, it will get overcrowded in case of an emergency (as we have seen recently).
 
I would not mind building the DRL in stages. Open it to Spadina in phase 1, 2 years later have Bathurst open, another 2 years have it open to Queen West, another 3 years after that to Dundas West (or Sunnyside). So long as it actually happens.

Unfortunately with our political system, it makes opening things in stages like that politically challenging.
 
I would not mind building the DRL in stages. Open it to Spadina in phase 1, 2 years later have Bathurst open, another 2 years have it open to Queen West, another 3 years after that to Dundas West (or Sunnyside). So long as it actually happens.

Unfortunately with our political system, it makes opening things in stages like that politically challenging.
Well, I think there are also financial and technical challenges to opening a station every year or 2.

On the financial side, I don't think tunnel boring machines are cheap, and you can't just have them sitting around...then again, I think Metrolinx owns the ones involved in the Eglinton project. There's also a lot of overhead to these projects..lots of specialized managers, engineers, operators that you wouldn't want to have working less than full time.

On the technical side, there are certain turn-back requirements and probably other requirements at a terminus station. Either in front of or behind each station there has to be a track crossover to get the trains to the right side at a minimum. I think there's also usually a bit more dispatching infrastructure at terminii.

Now, I definitely wholeheartedly support making the push all the way to Spadina in the first go. Totally fine with the western half of the line coming sometime after that.
 
Now, I definitely wholeheartedly support making the push all the way to Spadina in the first go. Totally fine with the western half of the line coming sometime after that.

Hard to say exactly, given the alignment is not at all clear - but I'd say all the way to LV instead.

AoD
 
Hard to say exactly, given the alignment is not at all clear - but I'd say all the way to LV instead.

AoD

To me relieving & providing an alternative to the streetcars for east-west travel and making areas east & west of the core accessible to rapid transit is just as important as the whole relief of Yonge-Bloor objective.

Hypothetically imagine a subway somewhere near King with stops at Yonge/University, Spadina, Bathurst, Liberty Village only. That short route alone seems like it would be justifiable for a subway, due to the sheer density of jobs and residential along the corridor and the overwhelmed King streetcar, even though it wouldn't relieve Yonge-Bloor at all.
 
With Smart Track hogging up all the funding for the foreseeable future, this project gets pushed further to the background.
 
When the Eglinton LRT was NOT grade-separated to Don Millls, that really sent the message that the DRL is not in the plans.
 

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