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Ontario Line North of Eglinton (was Relief Line North) (Speculation)

Build the damn line first, open it, and expansion north will become obvious to all.
Sure, the section between Osgoode and Pape station is arguably the most technically challenging and most expensive, so why are we changing the technology, throwing away years of work, and adding another two technically challenging sections to the line, one near the waterfront, and one over the don valley, thereby adding years of construction work, and years extra of studies.
 
We are all squabbling about the particulars, but who here really thinks it will have shovels in the ground before the next election? Ford need the city and the federal governments to match the money or it won't even get started.
 
We are all squabbling about the particulars, but who here really thinks it will have shovels in the ground before the next election? Ford need the city and the federal governments to match the money or it won't even get started.

Agreed. I don’t think we’ll see much progress in transit construction in the next 4 years. We were close to shovels in the ground for both the SSE and the DRL. The cynic in me wonders if this is a carefully scripted ploy to avoid spending hard dollars that directly affect balancing the budget.
 
Agreed. I don’t think we’ll see much progress in transit construction in the next 4 years. We were close to shovels in the ground for both the SSE and the DRL. The cynic in me wonders if this is a carefully scripted ploy to avoid spending hard dollars that directly affect balancing the budget.

That is my thinking. Say something, then worry about it after the next election.
 
Why?
Are you not learning anything with the Scarborough line?

Last year the early projections where showing a Eglinton/Don Mills - VP./Lawrence - VP/York Mills alignment would have a higher ridership the continuing north up to Don Mills. The issue with that would be the need to extend the Sheppherd Subway to VP.
 
LRT on Don Mills to Steeles & Ontario Line North under Victoria Park to Sheppard Subway makes sense in a future plan

I think its a bit... sigh... I dunno, wrong... to use the term LRT.

Only because when people say LRT in Toronto they think of the "Streetcar-esque" LRT Transit City plan.

The Ontario Line will be "Light Rail" but the fully grade separated kind like the SkyTrain or the line in Dubai etc.

Quite different and important to make that distinction I think.
 
^ Perhaps it will be better to call Ontario Line, assuming that it actually gets built, a "light metro line" instead of "light rail".

The definitions of rail transit types are vague, same terms can mean different things in different locales. Here, "light rail" usually means vehicles that are street-worthy, i.e. have proper signal lights and don't have protruding parts under voltage. Under those terms, Ontario Line certainly won't qualify as light rail.
 
^ And the term "metro" is even more vague, and highly regional. It can mean a bus network, without a single train. That being said, the industry accepts it as a type of train like the Metropolis or competitor.

Excellent vid for those still unsure of what Sydney's 'metro' is: (And the Montreal REM is almost exactly the same rolling stock, just shorter trains, 2-car ones sometimes strung two sections together at peak)

Take careful note at 1:20 to 1:43...the train discharges passengers, and then automatically reverses in just a second over twenty seconds...my jaw dropped...
 
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Last year the early projections where showing a Eglinton/Don Mills - VP./Lawrence - VP/York Mills alignment would have a higher ridership the continuing north up to Don Mills. The issue with that would be the need to extend the Sheppherd Subway to VP.

Can you support your claim about early projections? I follow this topic pretty closely and I don’t recall seeing credible data released.
 
Can you support your claim about early projections? I follow this topic pretty closely and I don’t recall seeing credible data released.

I think someone posted it back last year during the consult period ... otherwise it was mentioned by one of the reps during the consult I attended. They stressed it was early modelling and subject to change.
 
This Star article has a good overview of all the key aspects including the north portion.


While many of the points The Star writes are valid, the fact that they wrote this piece at all betrays their typical political bias. Have they written a similar smear piece on the technical challenges of the Relief Line, of which there are also many?
 

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