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Toronto Eglinton Line 5 | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx | Arcadis

Par course for Toronto...
It's just so sad CC, Chicago with all its violence is a better city for transit...

I can tell you haven't spent much time in Chicago, particularly outside the loop; and waiting for a train on a loop platform on a cold/windy winter night is enough to make you stop by a car dealership on the way home.

You get better service on Toronto bus lines like York Mills than you do on most Chicago metro lines.

I'll give Metra Electric District and North Central Service 2 thumbs up though. Both these Metra links allow you to avoid the L and get to your destination in a reasonable timeframe.

Chicago is a car town. Even in heavy traffic it's still far faster to take a cab.
 
You can just add another "fail" in Toronto's pocket. Fun times to be had for all.

We're getting a huge new 19km transit line, the majority of which will be grade-separated, and it's a "fail" because people are going to have to walk 1 flight of stairs to transfer between this line and two other rapid transit lines, all with very frequent service? All things considered, I would still say that it's a pretty major win; the transfer is a minor inconvenience at most.

Transfers suck when they involve either a long walk or a long wait, but they're pretty painless when they're easy and fast. Compare the transfers at Spadina and St. George -- at Spadina it's an annoying ordeal because of the walk, but at St. George you don't even notice it. The current Kennedy transfer is more like Spadina (except the distance is vertical rather than horizontal); the new one will be more like St. George. I know that won't satisfy the "transfers are stupid" people here, but I think that once it's in operation it'll actually make a big difference in how users feel about the transfer.
 
We're getting a huge new 19km transit line, the majority of which will be grade-separated, and it's a "fail" because people are going to have to walk 1 flight of stairs to transfer between this line and two other rapid transit lines, all with very frequent service? All things considered, I would still say that it's a pretty major win; the transfer is a minor inconvenience at most.

Transfers suck when they involve either a long walk or a long wait, but they're pretty painless when they're easy and fast.

Major interchange stations also aren't that uncommon.

Nobody in Mexico City freaks out because the A line isn't connected to the 1 line, or that lines 9 and 5 are separate. Transfers (both at the same station) are quite easy.

I can think of dozens of lousy transfers out there. MTR's orange North Island line to the Blue Hong Kong line is pretty darn painful.

Red line to almost anything at Jackson in Chicago isn't pleasant. The pedestrian tunnel isn't always big enough for the crowds going through it. A single very large person can effectively block pedestrian traffic in both directions.


Of course, the worst transfer (East Rail to Shenzen Green requires clearing customs) has been fixed with an express through train. Looking forward to trying out this line in the fall as I found Shenzen customs wasn't very tourist friendly last time I went through here.
 
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^ My current commute involves me going up a flight of stairs, down a hallway, down a long flight of stairs, down another hallway, down a long escalator, one other flight of stairs and a hallway for good measure to transfer from the Circle line to the Jubilee line at Baker Street Station.

Tl;dr Suck it the hell up.
 
^ My current commute involves me going up a flight of stairs, down a hallway, down a long flight of stairs, down another hallway, down a long escalator, one other flight of stairs and a hallway for good measure to transfer from the Circle line to the Jubilee line at Baker Street Station.

Hah, yeah, but London is royally screwed up. They've got to be the only city that purposfully makes some transfers difficult as a form of crowd control. At a few stations, they're even known for reconfiguring the transfer on the fly by closing/opening gates at shorter corridors to create a time-delay allowing platforms/escalators/elevators to clear.

I tried to stick with examples that weren't actively trying to punish their customers.
 
Transfer from the Green Line (streetcar) to the Orange Line (subway) at Park Street station in Boston. Then get back to me about "awful" transfers.

It's the nature of public transit to transfer modes. I drive quite a bit and when I do use transit (more frequently I might add) I don't even care for the transfers.

The notion of one seat rides and fewer transfers has to stop. Or else we might as well build a bus stop, an LRT stop and a subway station at everyone's front door.
 
It's amazing listening to Torontonians complaint about transfers, given how painless transfers often are in Toronto compared to many cities.

Even the one people seem to complain about the most, at Kennedy, is only up a few flights of stairs ... and is going to be replaced.

Transfers are one of the things TTC got right.

Now, there's some GO/TTC transfers that could do with some work ... Leslie/Oriole ... Main/Danforth ... etc. Even Exhibition Loop to Exhibition station seems to require an undue amount of walking, given the streetcar tracks go so close to platform 1 and the main entrance of the station.
 
It's amazing listening to Torontonians complaint about transfers, given how painless transfers often are in Toronto compared to many cities.

Even the one people seem to complain about the most, at Kennedy, is only up a few flights of stairs ... and is going to be replaced.

Transfers are one of the things TTC got right.

I am glad the TTC did not put in a trasfer at St. George when the extended the Spadina subway. I think there would be lots of complaints about a lack of a one seat ride if riders had to get off the Spadina subway and transfer to the Yonge-Univertisy line.

When they build a subway to Richmond Hill and Vaughan, will there be a transfer at Finch (or Steeles) so that the York Region riders have to make a transfer to get onto the Y-U-S line.
 
It also got a 50+ year head start...

Then there are those who insist on driving a car in bumper to bumper traffic (using up precise fuel, wear and tear on the vehicle, and their nerves) to park in a parking lot for $25, then walk 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 blocks to their destination, only to reverse the process afterwards.
 
It's unfortunate that they are not going to take the opportunity to easily eliminate a transfer.
It will be a travesty if they build a brand new Kennedy station that specifically restricts the ability to eliminate the transfer.

It might be that the TTC is operationally unsure of themselves to run the line on the surface in the middle segment, but they should not enshrine that in a new build.
 
While continuing to transfer at Kennedy will suck, I don't think it will be as bad as some may think. Currently the problem isn't the transfer, but the fact that the line goes nowhere and is essentially a middle man.

Let's compare the Scarborough RT to The York University BRT. Both have you transfer to them in the middle of nowhere, but while York is the destination for the majority of riders, Scarborough Town Centre is yet another transfer point. With the Scarborough LRT in Transit City, the line will continue to Centennial College and to the Sheppard East LRT and possibly beyond. It will become a trunk line for Scarborough rather than an extension done cheap.

This is my problem with the current plans for Sheppard. The current subway becomes nothing more than a middle man, forcing the majority of riders to transfer to actually go anywhere.
 
While continuing to transfer at Kennedy will suck, I don't think it will be as bad as some may think. Currently the problem isn't the transfer, but the fact that the line goes nowhere and is essentially a middle man.

Let's compare the Scarborough RT to The York University BRT. Both have you transfer to them in the middle of nowhere, but while York is the destination for the majority of riders, Scarborough Town Centre is yet another transfer point. With the Scarborough LRT in Transit City, the line will continue to Centennial College and to the Sheppard East LRT and possibly beyond. It will become a trunk line for Scarborough rather than an extension done cheap.

This is my problem with the current plans for Sheppard. The current subway becomes nothing more than a middle man, forcing the majority of riders to transfer to actually go anywhere.

But the York U Busway was just a temporary solution until the TYSSE opened. It wasn't meant to be a permanent solution, unlike the linear transfers at Kennedy and Don Mills.
 

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