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Dufferin Street: Eliminating the jog

Aug 8

Where the bridge was before
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The bridge is been used as a road now
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They are core drilling and placing some large anchor bolts in the south sidewalk under the bridges and look like they are going to be used to shore up the bridges for some unknown reason.
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Glad to see this project moving along.

Has anybody seen any information about the future of Peel St. and Gladstone Av.?

On another note, I was thinking about the streetcar service in this part of town, and wondering if this project could lead to a new loop for Queen services. Here's the reasoning: Gladstone, Peel, and Dufferin will all likely have new paving as part of this project, making it easy to build a loop using these streets. Secondly, it would give 501 management an alternative short turn between shaw (which is a long turn) and roncesvalles (which is far away).

In the future, I think there's an obvious potential for a GO station at this intersection, if they ever electrify and run frequent trains. (Some say it should be closer to King, but thats already pretty close to Exhibition Stn. and serves only one major street, unlike Queen/Dufferin). Could also be a DRL stop if that uses the rail corridor, or goes along Queen.

So, if that ever happens Queen/Dufferin will be a reasonable place to short turn and also to terminate routes in a future 501 split arrangement, or just shuttles down to the ex, or even king cars instead of roncesvalles.
 
Acting Minor Traitor said:
I can't wait until this project is finished and Dufferin is continuous. It's going to make an incredible difference for Caribana and the Ex in 2010, considering that Dufferin is the primary western artery for both those events.
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What is the odds that this street project will be finished on the completion date (June 2010) Caribana/Ex 2011 sounds more realistic.:)
 
Automation Gallery said:
What is the odds that this street project will be finished on the completion date (June 2010) Caribana/Ex 2011 sounds more realistic.:)
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I have a gut feeling that this one will be completed on time and on budget. I do have a slight tingling that the Simcoe Underpass affect could repeat here though.
 
jwill said:
In the future, I think there's an obvious potential for a GO station at this intersection, if they ever electrify and run frequent trains. (Some say it should be closer to King, but thats already pretty close to Exhibition Stn. and serves only one major street, unlike Queen/Dufferin). Could also be a DRL stop if that uses the rail corridor, or goes along Queen.
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I am one of those people that thinks any future GO stop on this corridor should be much closer to King.....by being at King it serves the Ex/Ontario Place/Convention Centre(s)/BMO Field for a whole lot of people (Milton and Georgetown lines)....providing a valuable collection of weekend/off-peak trip generators.....the fact that it is close to the already existing Exhibition Stn is irrelavent because they do not serve the same lines (IMO).
 
King might be better for local destinations, but Queen/Dufferin would allow for better connections to the local transit network (29 and 501). I'm not sure if people would rather get off at Queen and take the 29 down to the Ex, or walk from King. I think the corridor is wider at Queen also, which might be a factor if we try to fit in 2 platforms and 8 tracks.

Its not the most important detail, I just hope it gets done, somewhere.
 
Could the station not be between King and Queen and serve both? The distance between Queen & King here isn't much greater than a train length anyway. One north exit could serve Queen and a south exit could serve King (likely via Joe Shuster Way).
 
Darkstar416 said:
Could the station not be between King and Queen and serve both? The distance between Queen & King here isn't much greater than a train length anyway. One north exit could serve Queen and a south exit could serve King (likely via Joe Shuster Way).
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If that can be done, sure!

I just think that stations should be built as close to major trip generators as possible. Over the last few years that whole area has seen a major resurgance in visits what with the Ricoh arena refurb, BMO Field, Direct Energy Centre, the new convention centre, return of the car race, etc etc etc.......giving more people direct access to that plus the bars restaurants, etc of Liberty Village will be a big factor in the success of any GO Station.......if it can be built in a way to serve both Queen and King that would be fine but not, IMO, at the sacrifice of actually serving King....that would be about as far away from the Ex as I think the majority of GO users would view as useful.
 
The distance between Queen and King is about twice as long as a GO platform.

Another point for debate is the access from the east. If people are going to the EX, liberty village, BMO field, etc. they will transfer at Union and go to the Exhibition station. So, putting a new stop at King will only convenience people coming from the northwest heading to those attractions.

I also think people going to the EX will change at Union and go to exhibition station also, as king is still a good walk from the main attractions. I might be in the minority here, but I dont think Liberty village is a huge attraction, at least compared to queen street through WQW and Parkdale.

I think its more important to deliver good service to that area rather than duplicate service to liberty village, which already has a GO station on its south periphery and a working streetcar line to the core.
 
There is no room between King and Queen to put in platforms without removing a line or 2 or take the sound barrier wall down and remove most of the streets on both side of the corridor.

Since you have 3/5 different lines in this corridor, where do you put the platforms (2) to service all the lines.

Kind of useless going all the way to Union to track back to CNE at 2 to 4 travel times it would take you if you got off at a King or Queen station.
 
A rail station used to exist above Queen and Dufferin, on the south side, it was the old terminus of the Toronto, Grey and Bruce railway. I believe that's what the stairway under Queen lead to as well, the station above. Apologies if I'm way off.

Anyway, I know trains were shorter back then than today's 12 and 10 car GO Trains, but it's not as though it's a completely foreign concept to have passenger trains stop on that curve.
 
GO has it in their peanut head that trains should only stop on straight track, not curb track considering it was done this way before GO exist.

Parkdale was the station and stairs are still there.

You can/could put a station platform on either side of this corridor going over Queen/Dufferin, but would be an operation issue as how all the lines would service them.

Concrete has been pour for the east retaining wall and the final pour for the west will be next week.

It going to take 2 weeks to form the centre section as there are knockout opening as this is not a straight pour wall.

The roof section will start going up in Sept with the pour in Oct.

Tracks are schedule to be moved in Nov/Dec.

The exist 3 west bridge will see shoring under them on the Queen St Sidewalk while the support wall is removed to allow building the rest of the underpass.

It seams that the owner of the falling down house next to this project lost out on getting this house bought up when the city bought his other house. He allow both houses to fall apart as he thought the city was going to buy both of them.

It would be nice to see a developer buy up that whole block and built something nice.

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I like the idea of the station being on the bridge itself and not further down or up the line.

p5
 
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