Danforth Line 2 Scarborough Subway Extension

[nfitz]

How did take you 8 minutes to walk from the GO platform to the TTC? This is a video of me making the transfer in less than 3 minutes. This was during the peak of rush hour and I had no idea where I was going (I don't use Union very often):

1) I wasn't on platform 8, I was on a platform well into the teens.
2) I wasn't rushing past anyone.
3) There were other passengers on the platform, and on the stairs. I've never seen a train arrive and not have congestion on the stairs in rush hour!
4) No lineups trying to get into Union station at rush hour? Haven't done it at rush in a while, perhaps those new doors help?
5) the new subway platform does look more convenient.

Perhaps it was 6 minutes - I certanly wasn't timing it. I simply glanced at my watch as my train departed Union, and realised that about 10 minutes had passed since my GO Train arrived. It was certainly 9-10 minutes from the train, to my subway train departing Union, perhaps disembarking and walking on the platform took longer than I thought. Sometime it seems to take 2 minutes, just to file out of the GO Train! (though it hadn't in the example I cited, I was standing by the door, which stopped at the top of the stairs).

You seem to have been lucky enough to catch a subway train as you walked it. Maybe I had to wait 2-3 minutes, and didn't remember.

Still, I don't know how you have a 5-minute transfer time at Guildwood to a train that only runs every 15 minutes ... and what appears to be a very long walk from the bus!

 

[TheTigerMaster]

2) I wasn't rushing past anyone.

Umm... that's my normal walking pace. You don't want to see me when I'm in a rush.

3) There were other passengers on the platform, and on the stairs. I've never seen a train arrive and not have congestion on the stairs in rush hour!

I hadn't accounted for that.

 

[nfitz]

Umm... that's my normal walking pace. You don't want to see me when I'm in a rush.

I'd say that most people don't walk faster than average though!

Hmm, that wasn't you who ran into me outside George Brown yesterday was it? I turned my head for a minute behind me to see if the streetcar was coming while going along the sidewalk, and found myself walking into someone who wasn't there a second before, who must have run out of a door and across my path! (to be fair, I was moving quickly to get the streetcar ... but there was literally no one in sight when I turned my head!).

 

[ehlow]

I'd say that's an average leisurely walking pace. He even went to the wrong platform!

Also, it's amazing that you replied with an actual video of you making the transfer.

Anyways, GO platform to subway is a pretty convenient transfer, in my opinion.

 

[nfitz]

I'd say that's an average leisurely walking pace.

Watched again. Overtook several people, and when it got crowded, deked to the right, and around the whole thing quite quickly. Faster than average.

He even went to the wrong platform!

Ah, missed that ... well, only to the top of the stairs.

Eight is probably an overestimate. Still, I don't think the average walk is 2.5 minutes. You should have seen the tortuous path I took the last time I did it from a very southern track, coming out in the York Concourse. The only way you could walk was west towards York Street! Though that's not typical either (in retrospect I should have walked east along the platform to a different set of stairs).

 

[epcjay]

I also say three minutes would be best case scenario. You can easily add 2-3 minutes exiting a go train and cramming into the door down to union unless you are the very first person to exit the train and line your self up to the nearest exit where the train stops. Another 2 minutes for being on a platform that is not close to the subway.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

Niftz is also a old man, so it would take longer

 

[44 North]

Haha. Great video, TM. I love how it's a short synopsis of hectic Toronto. Rush-rush, disjointed pathways, friendly people chatting and holding doors open, distant sirens, and (mostly fake) Canada Goose logos galore.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

Councillor De Baeremaeker wants to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build an Eglinton-Danforth Station on Line 2:

Scarborough’s appointed “champion” for the Bloor-Danforth subway extension says that extension must be improved.

“It’s no use having a subway if no one one can get access to it,” Glenn De Baeremaeker said of the $3.56-billion proposal last week.

A Scarborough Centre councillor who threw his support behind the extension instead of the light-rail line Toronto council previously approved, De Baeremaeker this month was named Mayor John Tory’s Scarborough deputy.

Read More: Inside Toronto

 

[ehlow]

Councillor De Baeremaeker wants to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build an Eglinton-Danforth Station on Line 2:

An Eglinton-Danforth station could make sense. The station could a have a bus bay, which buses from the east would use instead of Kennedy station. There is some density north along Danforth, and some redevelop potential in the plazas around there.

Assuming we're building this subway, if it's justified I don't have a problem with a station here.

 

[WislaHD]

Well if we are building this subway, we might as well built it right.

 

[dowlingm]

A station dropped before because otherwise "$500 million more than SRT" couldn't hold water.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

How about we keep this one in budget. If they want a Danforth Station, then eliminate Scarborough Centre, Sheppard or Lawrence. I think Lawrence makes most sense to kill. This $150 Million can be spent more producively.

If not, then this Councilor can grab themselves a shovel and dig the station themselves. I'll even donate $500 for building supplies and snacks or something.

 

[ehlow]

Well if we are building this subway, we might as well built it right.

Exactly. We're already spending billions on this tunnel, yet we won't spend an extra $150 million for a 4th station?

How about we keep this one in budget. If they want a Danforth Station, then eliminate Scarborough Centre, Sheppard or Lawrence. I think Lawrence makes most sense to kill. This $150 Million can be spent more producively.

If not, then this Councilor can grab themselves a shovel and dig the station themselves. I'll even donate $500 for building supplies and snacks or something.

I've got to disagree here. Lawrence bus route is pretty frequent & busy bus route, and lots of people will probably transfer to the subway at the Lawrence station.

STC is essential, and so is Sheppard. They are all more important than Eg-Danforth, so if I had to choose 3 it would be Lawrence, Sheppard, STC/Ellesmere.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

I've got to disagree here. Lawrence bus route is pretty frequent & busy bus route, and lots of people will probably transfer to the subway at the Lawrence station.

STC is essential, and so is Sheppard. They are all more important than Eg-Danforth, so if I had to choose 3 it would be Lawrence, Sheppard, STC/Ellesmere.

Well I never said it made more sense to built Danforth, I said that if this Councillor wants a station on Danforth, one of the other stations has to go if the project is to stay within budget. If one of the stations has to go, Lawrence makes the most sense. But would I kill Lawrence to build Danforth? No