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Debate on the merits of the Scarborough Subway Extension

M II A II R II K said:
Since there aren’t going to be any stops on McCowan, why bother tunneling under it, have it go outside on a different alignment.
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I agree 100% with this statement in principle. There is no doubt it was the wrong choice for a single stop subway. But...

  • Smarttrack now owns the RT corridor.
  • If the RT corridor was selected the shutdown would have great impact whereas I expect the Lawrence ST station to be phased in to minimize down time. Ie) the reason the bus drop off is proposed at street level.
  • The subway on the RT corridor was recently pegged at a shade under $3B. Construction in general is not cheap. Really its the cost of adding stops that is the killer
  • Poltics are polluted enough right now on both sides and going back will spill into other projects. This will cause arguments, debates and delays which could increase costs on other projects.
  • Politcs aside we would be looking at minimum 5-10 minimum years worth of delay from tenders, reviews, and designs. Inflation alone could negate most savings
  • The other transfer free options were rejected due to politics and the appetite for the transfer plan remains strong from the outer Opposition. Again Politics will cause delays, studies, reports, more plans and again no action

The corridor and lacks of stop is unfortunate but the overall plan shaping up to be quite effective. Smartrack (Finch and Lawrence additions), SSE and seamless Eglinton East LRT is very good. Sheppard is getting reviewed to better deal with the stub. At this stage I hope they add the hospital stop to maximise the use of the corridor. But even then, it time to move on. If Tory loses the election none of the above matters and we reset everything on all plans. I don't see that as a good thing.
 
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They should elevate it over McCowan and cover it over to make it soundproof with a reflective covering so it’ll also be invisible so no one will notice on the ground that it’s there and operating.
 
syn said:
What an honour!

After electing Rob Ford, Scarborough is helping to seal Toronto's international reputation for head-scratching idiocy. :p
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His personal side show aside...

If council just supported Rob at this juncture on this line https://www.theglobeandmail.com/new...er-winning-provincial-funding/article1391137/. with the Metrolinx report that supported this line over the transfer LRT line then this Tory-Keesmat 1-stop subway would not have been a global concern. Honourable mention to Glenn and Stintz for the McCowan corridor, but they weren't responsible for one stop and Smarttrack wasn't an thing. Lots of historic blame to go around, including Miller.

Fords LRT > than Miller LRT for this corridor.
Tory's over all plan > Both Miller and Fords plan. Tory just choose to proceed with a very inefficient corridor to remove the transfer before SCC
 
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salsa said:
Even Sarah Palin had the sense to not proceed with her own white elephant that she originally supported, and that project involved far less money. Is she actually smarter than Glen DeB? ;)
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Since Josh Matlow is not smart enough to get off the non evidence based transfer LRT plan, I really don't think GlenD has a choice. I think this elephant is unavoidable. Its really been a joint effort.
 
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salsa said:
Even Sarah Palin had the sense to not proceed with her own white elephant that she originally supported, and that project involved far less money. Is she actually smarter than Glen DeB? ;)
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I find it odd to compare that Alaska bridge which would serve 50 people to the subway extension that's projected to serve 62,000 daily rides.

Of course, Toronto transit enthusiasts couldn't miss the opportunity to engage in self-deprecation :)
 
62,000? Hopkins said it was 75,000. And that number isn't really relevant since there's not a single stop for another 6km (as has been pointed out numerous times in this thread). Kipling services nearly 53,000 riders (2015 data), and that's with 4 other stops in just 5.5km. It's 5 if you want to include High Park (total distance -6.3km). Total ridership at those 5 stations is 164,440.

You can suggest the Alaska example isn't comparable, but the point of the article was to outline completely absurd infrastructure projects. The SSE certainly fits the bill.
 
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OneCity said:
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This couldn't make our choices any clearer. Vote Liberal who have been wishy-washy on their commitment to fund and build this line since 2013's "subway champion" byelection and offloaded all extraneous expenses to the city putting the whole project in jeopardy... OR

TAKE A CHANCE ON CHANGE! Seems Mr Brown will fund SSE separately from the $5 billion he's committing to other subway projects. Can't go wrong there.
 
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