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The portal is right at the end of the platform at Finch West station. One can literally see light from the outside. It should be comfortable during summer as it is below surface, but in winter it is as enclosed as a bus shelter without doors (in terms of temperature).
Are there any heaters on the platform? In Ottawa the Line 1 platforms are open, but the Transecure area (aka DWA) always has heaters and a (somewhat ineffective) wind screen
I didn't see any when I was there, and from the looks of pictures, no.
Look at the ridership numbers in 2023 or 2024 and tell me that Finch West deserved a full-blown LRT before these other corridors got any transit improvements. Finch West was chosen because it was the only road already wide enough for an LRT among the top corridors pre-covid. But it was always less densely populated than half a dozen other corridors. Its pre-covid high ridership was more of a function of it feeding into Humber College, than latent transit demand of the surrounding low-density communities.
Therein lies the problem though, as you stated Finch West was converted to LRT because it was the easiest of the routes to fix, all the other ones have some kind of issue holding them back. Finch East is to narrow and there it doesn't appear there is enough space to expand the road until you get to Scarborough, Dufferin is to narrow so either we would need to build a line underground which is expensive or convince the TTC to re-embrace mixed traffic streetcars, Lawrence West is to narrow and space for expansion is effectively non-existent for its entirety, Jane becomes to narrow south of the 400 (this was a known problem during the Transit City era), Don Mills can be solved by a northern extension of the Ontario Line, Wilson is also to narrow with little to no expansion room, and lastly while Lawrence East is wide it doesn't have a natural western terminus so an LRT there would have to be a branch of the Crosstown, or it would have to be a BRT that goes to Don Mills Avenue.
There is no excuse for Finch West to start early works in 2016, 9 years before Dufferin got a small bus lane segment. A logical timeline would be to optimize the other corridors, within a reasonable budget...well before spending even a dime on Finch West. I am genuinely hard pressed to find a similar tram built in such a low-density, low latent transit demand area as Line 6, anywhere in the world. Finch West should've gotten an LRT after the other corridors got bus lanes, and after another downtown subway was built, to say the least. Not the other way around.
How can you quantify ROI as a measurable metric when the system hasn't even operated for one month? Just because other corridors have higher ridership does not mean project ROIs will be higher, especially if extensive infrastructure improvements and expropriation is required.
Feel free to disagree, my hypothesis rests on higher latent demand from the corridors that are more densely populated. Finch West is a comparatively low density area, and yet historically has had disproportionately high bus ridership. I attribute this to the 36 bus feeding Humber College during the academic year. The powers-that-be prioritizing transit for post-secondary students, lower income areas, lower car ownership households is actually something I very strongly support. But that also would mean there isn't much latent demand to be realized on Finch West. And even if there were more latent demand than I predict, it would not be captured since the planned headways on Line 6 are so awful. T9 took a 50k bus route to up to 100k ridership per day. I would be very surprised to see Line 6 average even 50k in its first year, barring some kind of TSP+operations+reliability improvement miracle.
That figure shows routes that are overcrowded. Not routes that are busy. If a route had 100 passengers per hour, and only ran once an hour, it would be very yellow on this map.
The difference is that other cities build trams either for short haul trips, as feeders to other transit lines, or make use of extensive off street segments. Paris is a perfect example of this, many of its Tram Lines run in dedicated Rail ROWs, or in cases like the T9 - the RER C is literally 1km to the east of the line. If you live in Orly and want to commute to the city, you're not going to take the T9, you're going to take RER C. The T9 is only used for short haul trips along the T9 corridor, and isn't meant to be used as a way to connect a far flung borough to the rest of the city.
I feel like 6 FW could become a feeder/short haul line if it was extended down to Woodbine, and especially so if/when GO manifests 7m30 headways on the UPX.
