JSF-1
Active Member
Some final thoughts: Firstly they couldn't find the 1994 report so the final part of the Eglinton West story is missing.
The original 80's era LRT proposal didn't include a connection to the airport as at the time Metro was more focused on a possible extension to Mississauga City Centre and a diversion north to Pearson would preclude such an extension. As well the report noted that service to Pearson could be adequately handled by express buses from Renforth Station.
You'll also notice that the proposal for the surface section of the EW was to run down the middle of Eglinton Ave (which would be expanded to 6 lanes), although the stops at Kipling, Islington, and Royal York would be underground. So it would dive underground at major intersections to avoid them, but maintain grade-crossings with minor roads.
It may be hard to see but if you look at the plates you can see that the tunnelled section of the route were going to be very shallow (probably like Queens Quay Station). The route itself would only be tunnelled between Jane and West Side Mall, where it would come to the surface and run along the Belt Line ROW to a point just west of Marlee where it would dive underground again to serve Eglinton West Station.
Also you can see that the recommendation was for the line to be built as a BRT first and then converted to LRT when ridership demanded.
The line would have used coupled ALRV's running as a 4 car set with a frequency of 3.5 minutes which would offer a capacity of 10,000pphpd. This could be increased to 16,000pphph if cars ran every 2 minutes. BRT service would be served by 60' Articulated busses, and it was estimated the line would run 100 buses an hour.
By 1992 the route had solidified as an entirely underground route although there was still ambiguity about whether the line would be a heavy rail subway or LRT as both are referenced. That said it seems by that point they were leaning towards heavy rail as the report noted among other things that the TTC wanted to avoid introducing a new vehicle type to the network, and subway cars could be stored at Wilson Yard thus negating the need for a new Yard on the EW.
They did examine building elevated and at-grade alignments for the EW west of York Centre however these were dropped due to "Natural and Social Environment" concerns (you can probably figure out what that means....)
For whatever reason when examining a street level LRT in the 90's they omitted the grade separation possibility at major intersection like what was proposed in the 80's, and just looked at it as a pure street-level LRT (like the Crosstown in the east end).
Another thing to note is that by 1992 they hadn't actually figured out an alignment to the airport and 2 were being examined, one to Renforth and then north to the Airport, and another north up Hwy 27 and then west along Dixon to the Airport.
Finally it was recommended that the route be built in 2 phases, with phase one being a subway (of some description) between Eglinton West and York Centre. Service west of York Centre to Renforth would be handled by a busway until the extension to Renforth and the Airport could be built.
And of course in not one of these reports is there any mention of an eastern extension to Yonge and into Scarborough. Not saying it would never happen but from the lines conception to its cancellation there was never any consideration given to an eastern extension.
The original 80's era LRT proposal didn't include a connection to the airport as at the time Metro was more focused on a possible extension to Mississauga City Centre and a diversion north to Pearson would preclude such an extension. As well the report noted that service to Pearson could be adequately handled by express buses from Renforth Station.
You'll also notice that the proposal for the surface section of the EW was to run down the middle of Eglinton Ave (which would be expanded to 6 lanes), although the stops at Kipling, Islington, and Royal York would be underground. So it would dive underground at major intersections to avoid them, but maintain grade-crossings with minor roads.
It may be hard to see but if you look at the plates you can see that the tunnelled section of the route were going to be very shallow (probably like Queens Quay Station). The route itself would only be tunnelled between Jane and West Side Mall, where it would come to the surface and run along the Belt Line ROW to a point just west of Marlee where it would dive underground again to serve Eglinton West Station.
Also you can see that the recommendation was for the line to be built as a BRT first and then converted to LRT when ridership demanded.
The line would have used coupled ALRV's running as a 4 car set with a frequency of 3.5 minutes which would offer a capacity of 10,000pphpd. This could be increased to 16,000pphph if cars ran every 2 minutes. BRT service would be served by 60' Articulated busses, and it was estimated the line would run 100 buses an hour.
By 1992 the route had solidified as an entirely underground route although there was still ambiguity about whether the line would be a heavy rail subway or LRT as both are referenced. That said it seems by that point they were leaning towards heavy rail as the report noted among other things that the TTC wanted to avoid introducing a new vehicle type to the network, and subway cars could be stored at Wilson Yard thus negating the need for a new Yard on the EW.
They did examine building elevated and at-grade alignments for the EW west of York Centre however these were dropped due to "Natural and Social Environment" concerns (you can probably figure out what that means....)
For whatever reason when examining a street level LRT in the 90's they omitted the grade separation possibility at major intersection like what was proposed in the 80's, and just looked at it as a pure street-level LRT (like the Crosstown in the east end).
Another thing to note is that by 1992 they hadn't actually figured out an alignment to the airport and 2 were being examined, one to Renforth and then north to the Airport, and another north up Hwy 27 and then west along Dixon to the Airport.
Finally it was recommended that the route be built in 2 phases, with phase one being a subway (of some description) between Eglinton West and York Centre. Service west of York Centre to Renforth would be handled by a busway until the extension to Renforth and the Airport could be built.
And of course in not one of these reports is there any mention of an eastern extension to Yonge and into Scarborough. Not saying it would never happen but from the lines conception to its cancellation there was never any consideration given to an eastern extension.
Last edited:
