M II A II R II K
Senior Member
The fact that the extension is there would draw large numbers of people to it, particularly to the terminus station.
YRT ridership on buses coming into Finch subway was about 40,000 in 2006, not counting other transit services (why not?), and notwithstanding the double fare which significantly reduces ridership in the densest southern areas. Southern York Region has continued to grow and to plan growth significantly since that time, including denser development to come such as -- adjacent to the Yonge extension -- the muilti-building developments at the Hy & Zels Plaza, Thornhill Town Centre/Promenade, and Bunker.
You can really see the horsetrading in these articles.A few other comments ...
I'd take the Yonge expansion a million times over the one to VCC. But they both seem to be a result of the political notion of making everyone happy just a little bit and not providing good transit.
Roughly. Specific technologies need to be chosen, but it is almost certain to be electric and above-ground. These might be EMU (self-propelled) or it could be existing bilevel cars behind an electric loco, though. The key thing is that headways could be as low as 5 minutes during rush hour and 15 minutes at other times.1. Does express rail basically mean above-ground subway-style trains?
TBD, but I'd bet on the existing corridor.2. Will service through the Lakeshore corridor follow the existing Go line or will a new line be built?
All day and see above.3. Will service run all day and what kind of intervals could we expect?
Stops would be 2-5 km apart. Travel time would be about 10 minutes faster than the current situation.4. What would the travel time be from Hamilton to Toronto Union and what kind of stops would there be in between?
The individual EA will decide if this means converting the SRT to LRT or building Eglinton as SRT. The bottom line is that you won't have to transfer at Kennedy.
I certainly look forward to that EA however. A line with no transfer at Kennedy would be sweet. It would become an effective alternative to the BD line with reduced transfers and faster total travel times.
2) I really don't understand the logic of this subway extension on Yonge ... maybe to Steeles but even then.
What exactly is the total ridership coming into the finch go/yrt terminal. We know Viva Blue is somewhere around 15K ... My guess would be the grand total (excluding GO busses) so we're taking about YRT + Brampton would be something less then 30K ... maybe even 25K. Many of these routes also wont be completely eliminated by the subway. So why oh why do we need a subway??? What was Sheppard's pre-subway ridership ... low 40K ... and we already consider that a failure ...
There is a question about where the line should terminate - one could make a good case for each of Steeles, Clark, Langstaff, even 16th or Major Mack as suitable terminus points - but there is absolutely no question that the line *needs* to be extended to Steeles.
The key thing to remember is all of this cost $$$ ... for a subway ... a lot of it!
All of these reports really fail to mention where the money will come from. If you really think we'll get all this money (at least in some timely matter) I think your way off.
So the question becomes how to most effectively spend the $$$ we will get. My argument is that a subway to Steeles and a dedicated lane on Yonge is best (no LRT on Yonge is even needed).