Danforth Line 2 Scarborough Subway Extension

[Thoughtless Miscreant]

I have no heartaches over the sad realization [to some] that democracy works and you can't ram something down a community's throats or they might actually vote their representatives out. Imagine that. Voters actually pursuing self-interest. Politicians should absolutely be scared of voters. And they should absolutely respond to the concerns of voters. After all, these are the voters who live there, put up with these decisions and pay the taxes for these projects.

Oh, I absolutely agree. I'm just saying we need to be realistic when we talk about what's motivating people.

 

[epcjay]

The BD Extension isn't even a good route downtown. It still takes 45 minutes to get to the core once you're on the subway. Increasing GO frequency, or running an express subway parallel to the GO line would have been much more effective.

Dont think you take the BD regularly. Takes 25 minutes tops to bay and bloor.

 

[RPM]

Since your grasp of the English language seems to be a bit tenuous, I'll spell it out for you bluntly.

The technology of the SRT was wrong. It was supposed to have been built as an LRT. It should have been converted in the next couple of years to an LRT. There has never been a need to build a subway to Scarborough Town Centre, and there likely never will.

Building a subway there is a huge waste of scarce resources.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.

well mr. wise ass, let me spell it out for you clearly to understand. Whether it have been SRT or LRT doesn't matter... it should have been a subway all along. maybe your thick head can understand now ?

You think you're right, but you're wrong
It will now be as it was meant, A SUBWAY !!
I'm happy, you're not (who cares)
end of story.

 

[Tulse]

You think you're right, but you're wrong
It will now be as it was meant, A SUBWAY !!

Well, that deft bit of deeply researched and informed argumentation has convinced me. How could anyone deny your elaborate and carefully-constructed argument?

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

well mr. wise ass, let me spell it out for you clearly to understand. Whether it have been SRT or LRT doesn't matter... it should have been a subway all along. maybe your thick head can understand now ?

You think you're right, but you're wrong
It will now be as it was meant, A SUBWAY !!
I'm happy, you're not (who cares)
end of story.

I hope you use this everyday, since it should have been a subway.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

Dont think you take the BD regularly. Takes 25 minutes tops to bay and bloor.

You also have to factor in the transfer on Yonge or St. George. I don't take in that often (maybe once every 2 weeks), but travel times are about 35 - 45 mins

 

[innsertnamehere]

Takes me around 45mins to get from union to stc, and 1:30 last time I took it. (Admiringly that was during the huge rainstorm in the summer)

 

[AlbertHWagstaff]

Well, that deft bit of deeply researched and informed argumentation has convinced me. How could anyone deny your elaborate and carefully-constructed argument?

Remarkably cogent and eloquent indeed. Any argument that starts with "well mr. wise ass" is irrefutable. Enjoy your SUBWAY RPM, you'll be paying for it for a long time.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

well mr. wise ass, let me spell it out for you clearly to understand. Whether it have been SRT or LRT doesn't matter... it should have been a subway all along. maybe your thick head can understand now ?

You think you're right, but you're wrong
It will now be as it was meant, A SUBWAY !!
I'm happy, you're not (who cares)
end of story.

This isn't Reddit or the Toronto Sun comments. I think you're in the wrong place. We like to be cordial and factual on UT.

 

[Johnny Au]

RPM, civility goes a long way.

You see, if you continue to be rude, then expect people to put you on the ignore list if the mods do not ban you.

By the way, how do you pay for the subway? Subways are not exactly cheap.

Having many subway expansions and keeping taxes low are very much mutually exclusive, unlike what a certain person in power says.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

By the way, how do you pay for the subway? Subways are not exactly cheap.

We both know the answer to that. Private sector fairies. They'll fund anything, for free. Guaranteed!

 

[Adjei]

RPM, civility goes a long way.

You see, if you continue to be rude, then expect people to put you on the ignore list if the mods do not ban you.

By the way, how do you pay for the subway? Subways are not exactly cheap.

Having many subway expansions and keeping taxes low are very much mutually exclusive, unlike what a certain person in power says.

These people like their leader will scream that only subways need to be built but when it comes time to actually paying for it, they are clueless is bringing forward ideas which actually help to raise money.

 

[BurlOak]

Where is the person that said the Downtown Relief Line was the top priority because this Scarborough subway is now being built. Ford is now advocating for cancelling the Sheppard LRT and making it a subway. Watch the Downtown Relief Line get pushed to the back once again.

Forcing the SELRT to be the top priority, and dashing the hopes and dreams of those in Agincourt, is the reason that the Sheppard Subway is Fords number one priority.

If the LRT people would have stood down and proposed some immediate bus improvements on Sheppard East, and then a re-evaluation of the LRT/Subway decision in 10 years time - I think the DRL could easily have been sold as the number one priority. The Transit City LRT plan is what made the Sheppard Subway the number one priority.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

I just read in the star they still don't have enough money to take it to Sheppard.

 

[BurlOak]

You are imagining an alternate history here. Ford has never so much as said the word transfer. All he cares about is being able to say he built a subway. When he was campaigning his transit plan had no Eglinton line and the SRT converted to subway (NOT an extension of Bloor-Danforth but a new separate line).

Ford wanted to extend the B-D through the SRT corridor - to eliminate the transfer. At the time, he looked like an idiot since everyone said that it was impossible to built on this alignment - but then in the past few months, Metrolinx and TTC say that it is possible.

Once he got elected he announced his top priority was Sheppard and that he was willing to scrap every other transit project to get it finished. When the province announced the new combined Crosstown line he actually said it was as good as a subway since it was fully separated from traffic. Whether or not it was transfer free didn't enter into his rhetoric.

The two keys were not interfering with traffic and the continuous line. Strangely, he has compromised on the traffic angle (actually he is just not aware that the Eglinton LRT is imminently planned for the median), but he has only supported plans with no transfer.

Finally he has been on board with every subway proposal in the city since then, regardless of where it goes and what it does. There's no indication that he would reject a subway plan that involved a Kennedy transfer and frankly that would be completely out of character for him. He's shown in council that he barely knows the details of the plans he's talking about. Why should he care about this specific a detail when he doesn't even know whether or not the Scarborough LRT runs in traffic?

If you can show me a subway proposal with a transfer at Kennedy - that Ford supported, then I will agree with you.

If Ford seems flexible it's because his goals are ridiculously simplistic. He made a promise to build subways and he wants to be able to say he's building a subway. That's it. People on this forum might care about transfers but politicians in the real world do not. At best they only claim to do so when it helps justify their pet projects. Stintz et al didn't care about transfers in the slightest during the first big Transit City debate of Ford's term. They were more than happy to have one at Don Mills and another at Kennedy for example. But once it became politically advantageous for them to support the BD extension all of a sudden the Kennedy transfer had to be eliminated at any cost.

I agree that he just wants to keep his subway promise, but based on the projects he supported (SRT/ECLRT-underground, Province Subway, City Subway), the key thing that makes it a subway (in his mind) is the lack of transfer. His support shows that elevated, at-grade in the railway ROW, underground, either HRT or LRT all seem to fit within his definition of subway - as long as there is no transfer.