Finch West Line 6 LRT

[ssiguy2]

So this "rapid transit" is going to warp out at 60km/hr, have to wait for red lights, and have too many stations. All this for just $1.5 billion.......what a deal.

Torontonians are going to be awfully disappointed when they find out that they have put up with endless construction for a system that won't be any faster than an express bus with limited stops and que-jumping lanes at intersections.

 

[reinventingthewheel]

Torontonians are going to be awfully disappointed when they find out that they have put up with endless construction for a system that won't be any faster than an express bus with limited stops and que-jumping lanes at intersections.

This project has always been about increasing capacity. Rush hour bus headways on Finch could not be reduced further.

 

[Steve X]

So this "rapid transit" is going to warp out at 60km/hr, have to wait for red lights, and have too many stations. All this for just $1.5 billion.......what a deal.

Torontonians are going to be awfully disappointed when they find out that they have put up with endless construction for a system that won't be any faster than an express bus with limited stops and que-jumping lanes at intersections.

The main goal as stated many years ago is not to build an express train (which they could have done on the hydro corridor just north of Finch) but a surface (easy to access) line to help riders connect between different destinations along Finch Ave West and promote midrise development along the corridor. Many riders don't actually travel from Finch to downtown. This forum however is obsess with subways and long distance commutes, which doesn't fit in the agenda of many users on this corridor.

The Eglinton East LRT and all former Transit City lines also share this design. The city could improve it with better transit priority though.

 

[felix123]

Little montage of some trains today, Sep 18.
Shot between 11:50 am and 12:41pm. Walked from Sentinal Rd to Jane Finch, then back again.
Each clip is a different train aside from the last two clips.

Looking slow as hell, especially compared to the older testing videos.

 

[robmausser]

So this "rapid transit" is going to warp out at 60km/hr, have to wait for red lights, and have too many stations. All this for just $1.5 billion.......what a deal.

Torontonians are going to be awfully disappointed when they find out that they have put up with endless construction for a system that won't be any faster than an express bus with limited stops and que-jumping lanes at intersections.

The density of Finch really doesn't warrant anything better, sorry. Subways, subways, subways is over with the death of Rob Ford. It turned out he had enough Subway to eat at home anyways.

The public there will absolutely be glad to have a higher capacity transit system than the currently always overfull buses.

Also, if we wanted, an LRT could never ever wait for a red light. It's literally as easy as reprogramming the transit priority system. Everything is ready to go. The only thing stopping it are the boomers at city hall that run Toronto Transportation.

 

[nfitz]

Subways, subways, subways is over with the death of Rob Ford.

I hate to say something positive about Doug Ford, but he's initiated more subway than I ever expected to see built in my lifetime.

 

[evandyk]

So this "rapid transit" is going to warp out at 60km/hr, have to wait for red lights, and have too many stations. All this for just $1.5 billion.......what a deal.

The last estimate they gave us was $2.5B and that was in 2023.

 

[narduch]

I hate to say something positive about Doug Ford, but he's initiated more subway than I ever expected to see built in my lifetime.

That's only once he realized it was a way to funnel money to his cronies in the construction industry

 

[nfitz]

The last estimate they gave us was $2.5B and that was in 2023.

Doesn't that number include decades of maintenance and interest? Does it include an operational subsidy?

 

[Rainforest]

Without getting overly excited; I believe Finch LRT is a useful line to build.

1. The right-of-way will speed up the travel during the peak periods, when the street is congested. And, will hopefully make the headways more even.

2. The capacity limit is higher than what can be achieved with buses (even if buses are given dedicated lanes, like YRT's VIVA); the fixed wheel advantage enables longer vehicles.

3. The cost is high, but that reflects the general inflation of construction costs. Surface light rail is still cheaper than subways. Once we get the final per-km costs of the OL, SSE, Yonge North subways, they will end up being 3-5 times greater than the per-km cost of Finch LRT.

However, I don't really like it when Finch LRT is marketed as "rapid transit"; that's misleading, and could lead to negative public sentiments once the actual travel times are known from the line's operation. I would stick to "improved, high-capacity local transit" instead of "rapid".

Or, if anyone insists on calling Finch LRT "rapid transit", then we should call TTC's express buses "rapid transit" as well, since they operate at a similar speed.

 

[turbanplanner]

The density of Finch really doesn't warrant anything better, sorry. Subways, subways, subways is over with the death of Rob Ford. It turned out he had enough Subway to eat at home anyways.

The public there will absolutely be glad to have a higher capacity transit system than the currently always overfull buses.

Also, if we wanted, an LRT could never ever wait for a red light. It's literally as easy as reprogramming the transit priority system. Everything is ready to go. The only thing stopping it are the boomers at city hall that run Toronto Transportation.

This is the same city that reduced the speeds on basically all roads and decided not to re-time the lights. Effectively training people to drive 20 over or suffer a 2 min wait at every intersection!

 

[Steve X]

I hate to say something positive about Doug Ford, but he's initiated more subway than I ever expected to see built in my lifetime.

Projects are moving along and we see a lot of progress with his government. Column supports are going up along Eg West on the elevated section. The OL is showing significant progress. It is a real changer than the previous governments. He also showed that you don't need to study something for 2 decades to build a line. Yet this city is still studying (I mean stalling) on the Eglinton East LRT.

 

[BrenWilson]

Projects are moving along and we see a lot of progress with his government. Column supports are going up along Eg West on the elevated section. The OL is showing significant progress. It is a real changer than the previous governments. He also showed that you don't need to study something for 2 decades to build a line. Yet this city is still studying (I mean stalling) on the Eglinton East LRT.

Hamilton LRT would like to object lol.

 

[smallspy]

He also showed that you don't need to study something for 2 decades to build a line.

You're right. All you need is some hired hack to show you something shiny and new, and he'll approve it. All of the old studies be damned.

Dan

 

[ShonTron]

You're right. All you need is some hired hack to show you something shiny and new, and he'll approve it. All of the old studies be damned.

Dan

Michael Schabas?