Toronto Eglinton Line 5 Crosstown West Extension | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx

Eglinton is nice and green, I agree. But measure the distance from Plant World to an ATM, convenience store, let alone pharmacy. Or an actual playing ground where one can throw a frisbee around, away from traffic. Restaurant? Grocery store? LCBO?

Maybe the new development will negotiate a back door route to LaRose plaza. Otherwise it’s a 1 km walk around the long way. That’s equally true for the rest of the neighbourhood, so perhaps there are many who like their neighbourhood bland. But it’s a long LRT ride to a Subway, even.

- Paul
Would it be too big of an ask to raze the entire mega-block (Royal York --> Scarlett Road, Eglinton --> La Rose Ave) and start anew? :oops:
 
I fail to understand how that's necessary.
Post was made in jest. It is private property so my dreams of playing sim city in the area would require heavy expropriation or rise of totalitarian dictatorship, whichever that proves more prudent.

I do think the area could do with a master-plan redesign of local street grid, parks placement, commercial and institutional placement, integration with local street network and future Crosstown West transit, along with new setback standards, so basically something like the Golden Mile Master Plan in Crosstown East. The existing high-rises are kept in place in the short-term, but redevelopment potential and standards can be prescribed.
 
Anyone think it'd be a good idea for Eglinton West to be a completely separate line from Crosstown? Hear me out. We know the Prov now wants this to be fully grade-separated (ie a "subway"). But since it's connected to the rest of Crosstown the line wouldn't be a subway by default. This could actually be one. Two car trains. Sort of makes sense to do it this way since 1) Crosstown uses hefty low-floor vehicles designed for urban tram use. Not exactly a vehicle befitting of full grade-separation in the suburbs. And 2) Crosstown east of Kennedy is dead, all configurations. So the line is really a shell of its former vision with room to play around. Also full Crosstown stations would be 90m long, this would be half those lengths (less cost).

But there's more. Sauga has done some heavy lifting with Transitway grade-separation between Renforth and Hurontario. This could lead into that (one day), just needs a proper connection to Sq One. Also one day, a N/S subway of the same system running from Kipling to Pearson - this is integral to the vision and the reason I posted. It'd be an integrated network of smaller automated subways serving 427 corridor-East/West Mall, Pearson, Eg West, and Sauga. Be a bent cross shape, about 30km, four services: Sq One-Kipling, Sq One-Black Ck, Kipling-Pearson, Pearson-Black Ck. Drawbacks, yes. But huge benefit.
 
Anyone think it'd be a good idea for Eglinton West to be a completely separate line from Crosstown? Hear me out. We know the Prov now wants this to be fully grade-separated (ie a "subway"). But since it's connected to the rest of Crosstown the line wouldn't be a subway by default. This could actually be one. Two car trains. Sort of makes sense to do it this way since 1) Crosstown uses hefty low-floor vehicles designed for urban tram use. Not exactly a vehicle befitting of full grade-separation in the suburbs. And 2) Crosstown east of Kennedy is dead, all configurations. So the line is really a shell of its former vision with room to play around. Also full Crosstown stations would be 90m long, this would be half those lengths (less cost).

But there's more. Sauga has done some heavy lifting with Transitway grade-separation between Renforth and Hurontario. This could lead into that (one day), just needs a proper connection to Sq One. Also one day, a N/S subway of the same system running from Kipling to Pearson - this is integral to the vision and the reason I posted. It'd be an integrated network of smaller automated subways serving 427 corridor-East/West Mall, Pearson, Eg West, and Sauga. Be a bent cross shape, about 30km, four services: Sq One-Kipling, Sq One-Black Ck, Kipling-Pearson, Pearson-Black Ck. Drawbacks, yes. But huge benefit.

It all should be he same then this would allow for people to continue without a hard transfer.
 
Anyone think it'd be a good idea for Eglinton West to be a completely separate line from Crosstown? Hear me out. We know the Prov now wants this to be fully grade-separated (ie a "subway"). But since it's connected to the rest of Crosstown the line wouldn't be a subway by default. This could actually be one.
Maybe like this?
204744
 
But there's more. Sauga has done some heavy lifting with Transitway grade-separation between Renforth and Hurontario. This could lead into that (one day), just needs a proper connection to Sq One. Also one day, a N/S subway of the same system running from Kipling to Pearson - this is integral to the vision and the reason I posted. It'd be an integrated network of smaller automated subways serving 427 corridor-East/West Mall, Pearson, Eg West, and Sauga. Be a bent cross shape, about 30km, four services: Sq One-Kipling, Sq One-Black Ck, Kipling-Pearson, Pearson-Black Ck. Drawbacks, yes. But huge benefit.

Being from Etobicoke, and not Scarborough, I'm not precious and don't oppose the concept of across the platform transfer. So I'm quite happy if people change vehicles at Mount Dennis. But I suspect that it will be decades before the Ontario Line (whatever it becomes) will be ready to push west from Exhibition. And the marketability of a through ride from Pearson to Eglinton east of Mount Dennis seems too desirable to pass up. So, keep Eglinton West as LRT for now, but build it with Ontario Line clearance specs so that it can be converted some day when the Ontario Line reaches Mount Dennis.

If the OL ends up being something other than vanilla TTC subway, perhaps it and the Crosstown spec's ought to converge somehow, so that Crosstown can be upgraded to the same vehicle parameters some day. I continue to wonder if Eglinton will exceed three-LRV tram capacity sooner than we predict.

I definitely like your idea of integrating with the Mississauga busway. I can see an eventual interleaved line that has service Pearson to MCC, Pearson to the east, and MCC to the east. A transfer for some at Mount Dennis doesn't strike me as a showstopper in that.

- Paul
 
On the one hand, if we're doing this, high floor LRV gets you both (physically, stations are another matter) compatible with Eglinton and delivers OL capacity. If we really need to upgrade Eglinton at some point, platform height increases are one of the few options that don't seem liable to be completely infeasible, though the real capacity difference between three car low floor and three car high floor isn't as big as perception, or the reality of Flexity floorplans, suggest. My suspicion is that one way or another Eglinton will end up running the Alstom cars with the Flexities shifted elsewhere.

On the other, I've actually been moving away from thinking that the Mississauga busway should get rail - certainly not in a form that removes bus access. It's long haul component is really quite important to it's function, and the section of the line in question has, inherent to it's location, reasonably frequent services going in at least five directions after leaving the transitway. With rail we MIGHT get through service to Eglinton, Kipling and Finch, while removing GO's through service on the genuinely long haul express routes. Using it as less a rail precursor than the first portion of the 407 transitway seems to deliver a better result to me.
 
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