Tulse
Senior Member
Actually, that's me checking my email and texting -- I too hate loud phone conversations in public.
Might as well use that money to convert the TYSSE to LRT from Steeles to Vaughan Centre.
I know it's late but I would like to propose an amendment to the route of the FW lrt. My concern is the route around William Osler Hospital (Etobicoke General). Currently the route is to run the line from finch to hwy 27 south then west at Humber College Blvd., this places the nearest station to the hospital at the intersection of Humber College and 27. I would prefer to see the line turn south at the Hydro lines (east of 27) and west at Humber College Blvd, then dog leg south onto the hospital property and then west to Humber College.
I've tried to attach a simple map showing what I'm thinking, with any luck it should be here:
View attachment 8574
I reason that it would be better to get the station closer to the hospital and heath buildings considering that it may be older, less fit, ill or people of reduced mobility going there and that having a station at 27 might be to much for them. As well if the route crosses 27 about 50m south of Humber College Blvd then a bridge could be built over 27 so that the lrt does not interfere with the already busy 27/Humber College intersection. For those who may not be familiar with the area, the 27 road drops into the Humber Valley south of Humber College there so the roadbed is already about 3m lower than the surrounding ground so a bridge wouldn't be to difficult with regards to grades and road clearances.
My friends, what do you think?
I also think it helps to not have LRT turning at the already busy Highway 27 intersection.
So here is my alternative vision for the Finch Corridor. Based on my preliminary numbers ($30 million/km for dedicated ROW, $20 million/km for curb side, plus $5 million/km for expropriation, and a $50 million fixed cost for a bridge over the Ross Lord Reservoir), this entire plan can be built for less than the cost of the FWLRT. The estimate comes in at $1.138 billion, compared to $1.2 billion for the FWLRT.
How about vehicle costs? The cost of the additional garage to pay for those additional buses? Both of those are factored into that $1.2bil.
Unless he is buying artics there really wouldn't be any additional buses.
The current number of buses would be available and would be able to provide improved service (over today) in the dedicated lanes.
Unlike LRT we would not have excess buses available for gorwth on other routes (LRT has provincial money to buy rolling stock, buses do not have a provincial subsidy anymore) and we would eventually require an additional garage.
Not certain how this would work out on a 30 year network wide plan for capital moneys.
Interesting idea gweed123.
Though, I see a couple of issues:
1) It will be difficult to sell to the public (to justify the need to build 2 parallel BRTs, curbside in the Finch proper and busway in the HC, when other corridors are not getting any improvements yet).
2) Capacity west of Norfinch, where both branches merge and all buses must use the Finch proper, might become an issue. If the system is fast enough to attract many more rides from North Etobicoke towards the subway, it could hit the BRT's capacity limit.
I know it's late but I would like to propose an amendment to the route of the FW lrt. My concern is the route around William Osler Hospital (Etobicoke General). Currently the route is to run the line from finch to hwy 27 south then west at Humber College Blvd., this places the nearest station to the hospital at the intersection of Humber College and 27. I would prefer to see the line turn south at the Hydro lines (east of 27) and west at Humber College Blvd, then dog leg south onto the hospital property and then west to Humber College.
I've tried to attach a simple map showing what I'm thinking, with any luck it should be here:
View attachment 8574
I reason that it would be better to get the station closer to the hospital and heath buildings considering that it may be older, less fit, ill or people of reduced mobility going there and that having a station at 27 might be to much for them. As well if the route crosses 27 about 50m south of Humber College Blvd then a bridge could be built over 27 so that the lrt does not interfere with the already busy 27/Humber College intersection. For those who may not be familiar with the area, the 27 road drops into the Humber Valley south of Humber College there so the roadbed is already about 3m lower than the surrounding ground so a bridge wouldn't be to difficult with regards to grades and road clearances.
My friends, what do you think?