Midtown Urbanist
Superstar
I would rather the Federal funding go towards building the line to Sheppard and adding a Lawrence East station instead of to SmartTrack.
To use the SRT corridor for the subway, I would take space away from SmartTrack. It also requires the Kennedy Station to be rebuilt and realigned - meaning closure of the station for years.
No it wouldn't. The new station would be built north of the old one while it remained in operation, and then the tunnel wall would be knocked out to connect it. The station might not have to completely close at all.
I disagree with BRT.
I am a big fan of BRT when done right like Miss/Ott/Peg where there are real rapid transit bus-ways. In this case however I think the plan is excellent because it has long seamless routes. STC to Kipling, UTS to Pearson, Mount Dennis to Kennedy.............you can travel long distances with few or no transfers. People hate transfers and any system that gets rid of them is a better one.
Again this was one of the many faults of TC.............completely disjointed and endless transfers. TC was very rider unfriendly. Longer routes are faster and more pleasant as you can just sit back and relax with your IPAD or book and not wonder when you next transfer is to say nothing of the bother of getting up/off the route if you are carrying bags, a stroller, or are disabled or elderly.
This is exceptional well thought out {although I think Eglinton/UTS still has too many stops} and I think the only real question is the route from Kennedy to STC as using McCowan in a tunnel is too expensive and those funds could be more constructively used elsewhere.
Who came up with this new plan, the City, Tory, TTC, or MLX?
I would rather the Federal funding go towards building the line to Sheppard and adding a Lawrence East station instead of to SmartTrack.
True, but the report this week did show that you'd save hundreds of millions with the Midland alignment - and you get the bonus of having an east-west station at Scarborough Centre, so you could put it near where the current station is - leaving open the possibility of a future extension in the far future along the SRT alignment to Centennial and Progress/Sheppard. In terms of development of Scarborough Centre - which the report says is driving this entire thing, it let's you protect the option of future stations at Bellamy and Brimley.
And what do you have to expropriate - a one-story Dollarama and a parking lot. You might even find a way to make money off that!
We are already in the greatest expansion of transit in this city's history.If Tory was involved in this plan then he obviously has not only political smarts but some good understanding of transit and what people want out of the system.
This is the best damn plan Toronto has had for a generation and what's more it's actually affordable, doable, and politically palatable. It provides rapid transit to hundreds of new centres and hundreds of thousands of more people at an affordable price by making use of current infrastructure and being open minded about Eglinton for LRT.
If Toronto gets going on this, it will have LRT from Pearson to UTS, subway from Kipling to STC, subway from Mount Dennis to Kennedy and beyond and this combined with GO RER and an expanding GO system and electrification, this will be the greatest expansion of transit in the city since the post-war period.
There were 2 documents released this week - both are on the city's Scarborough Subway Extension site - http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=804037e5463fa410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD there's aHello, first time poster here. I've been following the subway debate for a while, and I'm interested in your comment regarding the millions saved with the Midland alignment. Could someone direct me to this report. Is this report online? I'm usually pretty good at tracking the latest info down, but haven't seen any info comparing the relative costs of the different alignment. Would be interesting to read.
Tory understanding is generally shallow. However, so is his commitment, and one of his strengths is he'll listen to the smart people around him. The trick is to make sure the right people are around him. Fortunately under Ford the city hired an excellent planner.If Tory was involved in this plan then he obviously has not only political smarts but some good understanding of transit and what people want out of the system.
There were 2 documents released this week - both are on the city's Scarborough Subway Extension site - http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=804037e5463fa410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD there's a
(oddly, only the report can be found on the project website: http://www.scarboroughsubwayextension.ca/
- report - http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2016/ex/bgrd/backgroundfile-87737.pdf
- presentation - http://www1.toronto.ca/City Of Toronto/City Planning/Transportation Planning/Files/pdf/21-01-15 Breifing - Scarborough Transit Planning Update.pdf
However, if you go back to older work on the project website http://www.scarboroughsubwayextension.ca/project-materials.html and look at the Phase 2 presentation from May-July 2015, in the slides it has the relative costs of the various alignments. Midland/McCowan is $100-$130 million lower.
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Tory understanding is generally shallow. However, so is his commitment, and one of his strengths is he'll listen to the smart people around him. The trick is to make sure the right people are around him. Fortunately under Ford the city hired an excellent planner.
My gut feeling tells me its a combination of both the City staff and Tory. I admire what Tory is trying to do, which strike a compromise between those who want a subway to STC and those who want LRT. My concern is as I previously stated is that he is potentially setting himself up for defeat in the 2018 municipal election. I looked at the election results from 2014 particularly on the 10 wards that make up Scarborough and only 1 ward (Gary Crawford's ward) voted for Tory. The other 9 voted for Ford. This is not something I would dismiss completely. He will have to do a lot more to convince Scarborough that this new plan will work.
If Tory was involved in this plan then he obviously has not only political smarts but some good understanding of transit and what people want out of the system.
This is the best damn plan Toronto has had for a generation and what's more it's actually affordable, doable, and politically palatable. It provides rapid transit to hundreds of new centres and hundreds of thousands of more people at an affordable price by making use of current infrastructure and being open minded about Eglinton for LRT.
If Toronto gets going on this, it will have LRT from Pearson to UTS, subway from Kipling to STC, subway from Mount Dennis to Kennedy and beyond and this combined with GO RER and an expanding GO system and electrification, this will be the greatest expansion of transit in the city since the post-war period.