seriously doubt the impact is only 6 minutes, either considering change in headway or length of trip during rush hour.
6 minutes is the average expected delay for the SRT shutdown. I recall the TTC adding nearly 10 minutes to trips across the day to accommodate Eglinton Line construction, but I have to go back into the Service Summary to be certain.
The reason the SRT shutdown adds only 6 minutes is because buses will run on a much tighter headway than the SRT does; for example; you might be waiting only 1 minute for a bus vs 5 minutes for the SRT. This offsets a lot of the travel time delay. People on Eglinton don't get the benefit of increased bus headways, thus their delays are greater.
Based on my own experiences with buses running adjacent to the SRT, 6 minutes seems quite reasonable to me.
You didn't answer the question though - why don't we shut down the downtown line to do much needed backlog of work (i.e. Not regular maintenance)?
We do. The subway has been shut down for countless weekends to accommodate installation of Automatic Train Operation. We had the option of installing ATO without shutting down Line 1, but that would've been unreasonably costly and would take too much time.
Line 1 will also be shut down for an extended period of time to accommodate installation of Eglinton Line.
Line 1 and downtown streercar service will also likely be suspended for Relief Line construction as well.
Ummm I think Scarborough has been "dealing" with it for 50 years. Gimme a break, I love the people who never even bothered to visit Scarborough (mostly downtown folks) not understanding just how disconnected it is to the rest of this city.
I've lived in Scarbrough, worked there and gone to school there from years, commuting daily from the Rouge Park area to downtown. I think I have a pretty good understanding of how disconnected it is. I also understand that this 1-stop subway extension will do little to correct these problems. In my case, it would only save 1 min on average, and be slower than the Crosstown East