Finch West Line 6 LRT

[BrenWilson]

Has he approved any *transit* project that hasn't already been studied for ages? Maybe SSE was the biggest shake up but that entire project was a failure at multiple levels.

 

[nfitz]

Has he approved any *transit* project that hasn't already been studied for ages? Maybe SSE was the biggest shake up but that entire project was a failure at multiple levels.

The alignment and station locations for that follow the long-existing TTC plans - which was already approved, financed, and close to being tendered when the province took over and delayed the project from the planned 2027 opening date.

I think the Downtown Relief line is the biggest tweak, with the alignment changes, and the technology change and extension east of University (and the delay in the 2029 opening date). Part of the justification of this, is Ford's promise that with the changes, it would open in 2027.

 

[duty free]

Without getting overly excited; I believe Finch LRT is a useful line to build.

1. The right-of-way will speed up the travel during the peak periods, when the street is congested. And, will hopefully make the headways more even.

2. The capacity limit is higher than what can be achieved with buses (even if buses are given dedicated lanes, like YRT's VIVA); the fixed wheel advantage enables longer vehicles.

3. The cost is high, but that reflects the general inflation of construction costs. Surface light rail is still cheaper than subways. Once we get the final per-km costs of the OL, SSE, Yonge North subways, they will end up being 3-5 times greater than the per-km cost of Finch LRT.

However, I don't really like it when Finch LRT is marketed as "rapid transit"; that's misleading, and could lead to negative public sentiments once the actual travel times are known from the line's operation. I would stick to "improved, high-capacity local transit" instead of "rapid".

Or, if anyone insists on calling Finch LRT "rapid transit", then we should call TTC's express buses "rapid transit" as well, since they operate at a similar speed.

100%.

I absolutely hate the naming convention used here.

It shouldn't be called Line 6. It should be called T1 or L1, which is common elsewhere. Then the other ROW streetcar lines could be grouped together with it. The Finch LRT is more similar to 512 than Line 1.

 

[chrisw]

He also showed that you don't need to study something for 2 decades to build a line. Yet this city is still studying (I mean stalling) on the Eglinton East LRT.

The Sheppard study has been moving at quite the snail pace.

 

[dowlingm]

You're right. All you need is some hired hack to show you something shiny and new, and he'll approve it. All of the old studies be damned.

Dan

If the City had decided to build a subway from Eglinton to downtown without interconnecting with Line 2/Greenwood, as DRL was supposed to, they would have been crucified on here for failure to link up the lines and maximise economies in work vehicles, permit branching of Line 2 etc.

More so if they used standard gauge OHLE rolling stock - SRT all over again, why wouldn't we use the Thunder Bay subway manufacturing line and 3rd rail so that economies in parts and training could accrue even if the trains couldn't move between the lines.

Plenty would have been said about the dipsy doodle to Unilever and back up to Queen (handout to property developers), and the diagonal tunnel across downtown blocks deemed an attempt to collapse buildings.

Only Nixon could go to China, or something.

 

[drum118]

Sept 26
Waste my time driving over to Finch today to do some videos shooting. Finch a single lane in both direction between Martin Gove to Albion as curb are being rebuilding at each catch basin with cycling close east of hwy 27.

No clue what scheduleing the Lrv;s are supoosed to be at between cars, but it was 2-18 minutes withj all different intervals, If they are supposed to run at 60km why were they getting past by buses??/

Where I wanted to shot video from was the walkway over Finich and it is wrap and close to the public. Don't know if it is close or work being done for the ramps.

Seeing there no real in service testing after an hour, call it a day and went to shot something else. Never made it to the 400 area and may do that on Monday as I head out of town

 

[nfitz]

... and the diagonal tunnel across downtown blocks deemed an attempt to collapse buildings.

Why let science get in the way of a good rant.

I'd be more worried about a kilometres-long trench's impacts on adjacent structures.

 

[Steve X]

The Sheppard study has been moving at quite the snail pace.

I think they are out of funds now.

 

[jmi22]

Plenty would have been said about the dipsy doodle to Unilever and back up to Queen (handout to property developers),

Here we see one of the earliest evil developer handouts, the construction of the 7 train to Flushing, Queens in the 1910's. It famously did nothing good for the City of New York, and the city would soon thereafter fall into decline as it foolishly built rapid transit infrastructure to lands set to see a massive influx of population.

the diagonal tunnel across downtown blocks deemed an attempt to collapse buildings.

And of course here we see Rome's Line A brutally crossing under dozens of centuries (or millennia) old buildings, all of which have of course collapsed since the lines construction in 1980. Perhaps one day human civilization will discover the far off art of "underpinning". We can only hope....

On a serious note: Ford's "backroom crayoning" resulted in a better subway plan for Toronto than has been produced in decades precisely because it did not include the input of our most enlightened denizens, who seemingly have a toddlers understanding of how a building remains erect.

 

[stevensontransit]

y

Here we see one of the earliest evil developer handouts, the construction of the 7 train to Flushing, Queens in the 1910's. It famously did nothing good for the City of New York, and the city would soon thereafter fall into decline as it foolishly built rapid transit infrastructure to lands set to see a massive influx of population.
View attachment 684293


And of course here we see Rome's Line A brutally crossing under dozens of centuries (or millennia) old buildings, all of which have of course collapsed since the lines construction in 1980. Perhaps one day human civilization will discover the far off art of "underpinning". We can only hope....
View attachment 684294

On a serious note: Ford's "backroom crayoning" resulted in a better subway plan for Toronto than has been produced in decades precisely because it did not include the input of our most enlightened denizens, who seemingly have a toddlers understanding of how a building remains erect.

yeah so why new york back then likes to build subway lines in lands that hasnt been developed yet?

 

[jmi22]

y

yeah so why new york back then likes to build subway lines in lands that hasnt been developed yet?

Manhattan was very overcrowded and NYC was booming in population, so planners and the companies that built subways at the time knew the ongoing construction of rail and road crossings of the East River would result in a deluge of population into the largely rural Queens County. Essentially, it was common knowledge that demand for the land would jump once access to the amenities/economy of the CBD was improved with infrastructure projects.

 

[Monarch Butterfly]

Here we see one of the earliest evil developer handouts, the construction of the 7 train to Flushing, Queens in the 1910's. It famously did nothing good for the City of New York, and the city would soon thereafter fall into decline as it foolishly built rapid transit infrastructure to lands set to see a massive influx of population.
View attachment 684293


And of course here we see Rome's Line A brutally crossing under dozens of centuries (or millennia) old buildings, all of which have of course collapsed since the lines construction in 1980. Perhaps one day human civilization will discover the far off art of "underpinning". We can only hope....
View attachment 684294

On a serious note: Ford's "backroom crayoning" resulted in a better subway plan for Toronto than has been produced in decades precisely because it did not include the input of our most enlightened denizens, who seemingly have a toddlers understanding of how a building remains erect.

New York City originally was just the Island of Manhattan until 1898. Manhattan used to have the largest population, now Brooklyn does. Wonder what the old cities of pre-amalgamation Toronto is currently?

 

[T3G]

Here we see one of the earliest evil developer handouts, the construction of the 7 train to Flushing, Queens in the 1910's. It famously did nothing good for the City of New York, and the city would soon thereafter fall into decline as it foolishly built rapid transit infrastructure to lands set to see a massive influx of population.

Cool story, now tell us about the massive density that sprung up around Kennedy, or Warden. According to your logic, the presence of those subway lines should have resulted in Queens-like density, no?

 

[dowlingm]

A slow order appears to have been imposed on the portal to Finch West station

august 🍂 (@auguststreet.ca)

painful to see slow zones on the finch west LRT before it even opens. this portal has been speed limited to 10 km/h. thanks to unplanned slow zones and weak, passive signal priority, trains are taking longer to complete trips, and gaps are wider. multiple cases of 12-15 min waits on line 6 😒😒

bsky.app

 

[Bojaxs]

A slow order appears to have been imposed on the portal to Finch West station

august 🍂 (@auguststreet.ca)

painful to see slow zones on the finch west LRT before it even opens. this portal has been speed limited to 10 km/h. thanks to unplanned slow zones and weak, passive signal priority, trains are taking longer to complete trips, and gaps are wider. multiple cases of 12-15 min waits on line 6 😒😒

bsky.app

What a joke! We should have just constructed a VIVA style BRT along Finch.

EDIT: The bus flying pass the LRV near the end of the clip was the chef's kiss.