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Eglinton East LRT | Metrolinx

I cannot believe people haven't considered branching yet.
Line is already proposed to be branched. Both the DSBRT and GO LE are already going to provide easy connections to pickering if this gets built anyway.
1770838136783.png

Build it as BRT and then theres plenty of reason and opportunity to branch and even interline services with the DSBRT. Also would maintain GO connections for 86 and 116, and 12D users without the need to transfer, avoids 85 service duplication. Will be drawing up some potential networks with brt and/or line 4 extensions soon to try and quantify travel time differences between that and the current proposals

1770838339176.png
 
Line is already proposed to be branched. Both the DSBRT and GO LE are already going to provide easy connections to pickering if this gets built anyway.
View attachment 714649
Build it as BRT and then theres plenty of reason and opportunity to branch and even interline services with the DSBRT. Also would maintain GO connections for 86 and 116, and 12D users without the need to transfer, avoids 85 service duplication. Will be drawing up some potential networks with brt and/or line 4 extensions soon to try and quantify travel time differences between that and the current proposals

View attachment 714650
Nice, can't wait!
 
There was an item well hidden in the Mayor's budget, my thanks to Matt Elliott for bringing it to my attention:

View attachment 715955

Talk, about a major change being slid under the radar.... this was hidden in the Tax rate setting package!


See item 31
Let's hope the transit expansion division doesnt play the same game here like they did with the Eglinton West LRT extension project when it was under the control of the city (ie: skew the figures to make all other alternative options look inferior except for at-grade).
 
If they choose the sheppard subway option which extends to Morningside Rd, would this make the LRT more viable?
It would certainly further highlight the need for something in the east end of Scarborough. However we also need to address how a possible eastern extension of the Sheppard Subway beyond McCowan would look since this will help inform us on how best to approach an LRT/BRT on Eglinton East and Kingston Road. I think it would be foolish and short sighted to design the Eglinton East Line without any consideration for a possible extension of Line 4 to either Malvern or UTSC since both are very realistic extension proposals. The way I see it there are three possible extensions we could see to the Sheppard Line, how this would mesh with the Eglinton East Line I'll leave to your imagination.

Option 1: Extend the Sheppard Subway to Morningside Avenue and then have it dive south to UTSC. The land south of the 401 is empty so the line could come to the surface and serve either an at-grade or elevated station in one of the parking lots on the north side of Military Trail and Ellesmere. Stops would be at: Markham Road, Neilson Road, Morningside Avenue, and UTSC. This extension grazes the southern part of Malvern so you can say it still "technically" serves the area, however the downside is this would be an expensive extension.

Option 2: Extend the Sheppard Subway to Markham Road and then have the line turn north onto the old Canadian Northern ROW to Malvern. Stops would be at: Markham Road, and Malvern Town Centre. This would be the cheapest extension as it is the shortest and serve the Malvern area. However this leaves out a connection to UTSC and other areas east of Malvern.

Option 3: Extend the Sheppard Subway to Markham Road and then have the line dive south under Progress to Ellesmere where it would then run east to UTSC, serving Centennial College in the process. (This is by far the hardest as it would need to cross under the Highland Creek meaning the stop at Centennial College would be deep underground, so I don't think this would ever happen). Stops would be located at: Markham Road, Centennial College, Neilson Road, and UTSC. This extension would hit both UTSC and Centennial College as well as Scarborough Centenary Hospital. However it would be the most expensive option since it would need to make 3 crossings of the Highland Creek, and it completely misses the Malvern area.

You can make a firm argument for both an extension to Malvern and UTSC and both wouldn't be wrong but realistically we can only built 1 (yes we could hypothetically run a branch line however that costs money to build and introduces its own operational complications). Of course there is the hidden fourth option and that is just leave the Sheppard Line at McCowan and have the Eglinton East line pull doube duty serving both UTSC and Malvern while connecting the Lines 2 and 4 at McCowan which appears to be the current plan.
 
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This is what I think is best (although I am not set in stone on it.

  • Sheppard Line to STC, Centennial and UTSC.
  • Eglinton East (grade-separated of course), from Kennedy to Eglinton GO, Guildwood GO, UTSC (and Sheppard Line and Ellesmere BRT), Malvern, McCowan (and B-D Line), Kennedy (Agincourt GO and Sheppard Line).

1771372877979.png
 
This is what I think is best (although I am not set in stone on it.

  • Sheppard Line to STC, Centennial and UTSC.
  • Eglinton East (grade-separated of course), from Kennedy to Eglinton GO, Guildwood GO, UTSC (and Sheppard Line and Ellesmere BRT), Malvern, McCowan (and B-D Line), Kennedy (Agincourt GO and Sheppard Line).

View attachment 716024
Sheppard East with no connection with line 2 is a none starter.

Better to have Sheppard intersect with line 2 at the STC and to go from there to the university of toronto.

Then you can have the grade separated light metro connect to both Sheppard and line 2..


If its not grade separated it'll be completely usless vs. The buss which is plenty fast in this part of toronto
 
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Sheppard East with no connection with line 2 is a none starter.

Better to have Sheppard intersect with line 2 at the STC and to go from there to the university of toronto.

Then you can have the grade separated light metro connect to both Sheppard and line 2..


If its not grade separated it'll be completely usless vs. The buss which is plenty fast in this part of toronto
Argh! In my haste to produce something, I didn't even look at it properly.
What you say is what I stated, but didn't draw.
I don't know where or how or if Sheppard could become elevated, but the Eglinton East (it would need a different name since it's barely on Eglinton) Line would be 100% elevated.
1771377541798.png
 
There was an item well hidden in the Mayor's budget, my thanks to Matt Elliott for bringing it to my attention:

View attachment 715955

Talk, about a major change being slid under the radar.... this was hidden in the Tax rate setting package!


See item 31
Name change to Eglinton East “Rapid Transit” project is significant. City is opening itself to developing an idea that is not a tramway.

Finch West seems to have been a shock for City. They created these strange middle of the road streetcar lines with their dreams of euro-urban heaven on the stroads of the inner suburbs and now they have seen the results of their work.
 
Name change to Eglinton East “Rapid Transit” project is significant. City is opening itself to developing an idea that is not a tramway.

Finch West seems to have been a shock for City. They created these strange middle of the road streetcar lines with their dreams of euro-urban heaven on the stroads of the inner suburbs and now they have seen the results of their work.
That is meaningless. They need grade separation in a few key spots. Midland should be underground. Brimley/Danforth triangle, Eglinton/Kingston and Lawrence/Morningside intersections should be grade separated. It's probably better to elevated through UTSC too. At that point they should build a new crossing over the 401 just east of Morningside to avoid the lights at the ramp. They can also go under Guildwood GO station to bring the stop closer to the GO station entrance to improve the connection. This would cut 8 to 10 minutes compared to what they did on Finch with lights only at minor street crossing. This also allows them to place more aggressive TSP for minor streets too.

What they do on Sheppard is another story. I think ridership will be much lower. The Finch West concept would be cheaper than grade separation for here. I also think the 131 Nugget bus would be better and probably faster to serve the local neighbourhood at Malvern than this line. The old SRT extension alignment via Centennial College is a much better and faster route to Malvern Town Centre connecting to Line 2 at STC. This Sheppard alignment just looks good on the map. Congestion isn't bad in this area. The 85/985B buses would zoom faster on Sheppard. A curbside bus lane would be cheaper and more efficient.
 
Why not just build a BRT for now? Building an elevated low floor LRT extension is just compounding the fool-hardy design of Line 5 with a $10B subway and what would probably end up being a $10B elevated LRT line with a surface section in the middle guaranteed to cause service disruptions due to grade crossings and signal priority issues. Automated light metro with frequent, shorter trains (and associated station platforms), maybe, but it would be a separate line from Line 5.
 
There was an item well hidden in the Mayor's budget, my thanks to Matt Elliott for bringing it to my attention:

View attachment 715955

Talk, about a major change being slid under the radar.... this was hidden in the Tax rate setting package!


See item 31
The funny thing is (at least from my recollection) one of the reasons they cited to not make this an Eglinton Line extension is because they wanted to save costs by not burying Lawrence/Kingston/Morningside Station, which they allegedly would have to do with a 3 car train (idk why, the road seems long enough). The fact that the line could be built to only accomodate 2 car trains, plus not needing to extend the tunnel under the SSE and thus not build an underground station at Midland meant that they could save a lot of money.

And now it looks like they're backpedalling on all that (although I somehow doubt anything will really come of this).
 

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