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

I doubt this will actually materialize, but the Gov of Ontario proposes to extend the Ontario Line to Richmond Hill Centre and Pearson Airport as part of its 2051 long term goals. :/

"Exploring a new transit loop that connects the Ontario Line with new major transit hubs where regional services connect, including at Pearson Airport and Richmond Hill Centre" (page 9)

A very odd curved link over the north, definitely fantasy category.
 
I went to the Relief Line North Public meeting, hosted at York Mills Collegiate last night. About 50 people were there, and I'd estimate that half were representatives from the TTC, City of Toronto or Metrolinx. A 20 minute presentation that outlined the background and corridor options was provided. The intent was to engage attendees in one on one conversations to get input on what options were most attractive and why. Two interesting comments from the facilitators:

- Corridor #6, Vic Park - At first pass of the modelling, this corridor appears to have the highest ridership expectations. The person cautioned that the analysis was preliminary and is incomplete, they are in the process of integrating modelling engines from the TTC and Metrolinx. They also said an analysis of how much relief to the Yonge line would be provided by the Vic-Park corridor needed to be completed.

- Corridor #6 Curve to Sheppard - While not explicitly drawn on the map below, this was shared as an option that will be considered. The idea is for Corridor #6 to turn West at Vic Park and Sheppard. The existing Sheppard Line would become the final leg of the DRL.

Overall it was a good session. An interesting side note, all attendees drove to the meeting.

View attachment 140666
Well this aged well lol... The only common sense approach is Option 4 at this point. All the other options crossed themselves out once the OL was announced. and we are closure to shovels in the ground than RL S/N ever were in reality.
 
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Well this aged well lol... The only common sense approach is Option 4 at this point. All the other options crossed themselves out once the OL was announced. and we are closure to shovels in the ground than RL S/N ever were in reality.
You could also do option 5 based on the current OL design, since it also goes through Thorncliffe Park. I suspect Options 4 and 5 were the top two in Metrolinx's analysis, which is why the OL is built up to the point where they diverge. As to which is actually better north of Eglinton, I guess that's for them to work out.
 
You could also do option 5 based on the current OL design, since it also goes through Thorncliffe Park. I suspect Options 4 and 5 were the top two in Metrolinx's analysis, which is why the OL is built up to the point where they diverge. As to which is actually better north of Eglinton, I guess that's for them to work out.
I can see the appeal to service Victoria Park as it's already a street with reasonable density and relatively popular bus route. I think Don mills serves as a more compelling option for its densification potential at major cross-streets (being a wider ROW for elevated rail doesn't hurt either).
 
I can see the appeal to service Victoria Park as it's already a street with reasonable density and relatively popular bus route. I think Don mills serves as a more compelling option for its densification potential at major cross-streets (being a wider ROW for elevated rail doesn't hurt either).
I think Victoria Park is best reserved to be its own NS Line in the future (A Relief Line 2 perhaps?)
 
yea going to Richmond hill centre makes 0 sense to me. makes far more sense to head east to downtown Markham and maybe unionville
This was all spearheaded by the suburb councilors that don't even live in Toronto. This is the same result that happened in Vaughn - which sparked their "downtown" to be created.
 
I can see the appeal to service Victoria Park as it's already a street with reasonable density and relatively popular bus route. I think Don mills serves as a more compelling option for its densification potential at major cross-streets (being a wider ROW for elevated rail doesn't hurt either).
Back when it was a DRL, I always thought that the island within Don Mills north of Sheppard (George Vanier HS and the community center) would make a good Greenwood-sized underground subway yard, with the amenities built back on top. Kind of a moot point now unless Ontario line extensions one day outgrow the Leaside/Thorncliff yard.
 

The 2051 Regional Transportation plan was released, and we have a bit more clarity.

1646930070314.png

Once again they're still trying to push an idea of both an "Ontario Loop" that runs between Eglinton, 404, RHC, Pearson, and Kipling, as well as an orbital Oshawa <--> Burlington rail line, however now the way its drawn makes it seem like the Ontario Line will now be a spur of this orbital rail line? Its unclear if they're thinking of maybe quad tracking the central section between 404 and Pearson, or if such a service would involve having some Ontario Line trains run from the 407 to downtown exclusively, because otherwise you can't really maintain the 90s frequencies that they're trying to push.
 

The 2051 Regional Transportation plan was released, and we have a bit more clarity.

View attachment 384711
Once again they're still trying to push an idea of both an "Ontario Loop" that runs between Eglinton, 404, RHC, Pearson, and Kipling, as well as an orbital Oshawa <--> Burlington rail line, however now the way its drawn makes it seem like the Ontario Line will now be a spur of this orbital rail line? Its unclear if they're thinking of maybe quad tracking the central section between 404 and Pearson, or if such a service would involve having some Ontario Line trains run from the 407 to downtown exclusively, because otherwise you can't really maintain the 90s frequencies that they're trying to push.
Yeah it looks like a shared ROW for the new crosstown GO line and the OL loop, not a horrible idea, but are both really necessary? just run the OL loop from RHC to Union around to Pearson (btw not seeing a true loop because there is no link between Kipling and Union on the map), and use the crosstown GO line to connect Pearson and RHC. RER-level frequencies should be adequate for Peel-York demand.
 
Yeah it looks like a shared ROW for the new crosstown GO line and the OL loop, not a horrible idea, but are both really necessary? just run the OL loop from RHC to Union around to Pearson (btw not seeing a true loop because there is no link between Kipling and Union on the map), and use the crosstown GO line to connect Pearson and RHC. RER-level frequencies should be adequate for Peel-York demand.
Ye exactly. The Kipling spur should be just that: A spur or a branch line. My second thought is maybe they're considering doing a local-express dynamic. For instance, the crosstown route will have stops at Pearson, Rexdale, Woodbridge, Hwy 407, RHC, Leslie, and then the Ontario Loop will serve a lot of the more in between stops - but again this could easily be done without needing to run the Ontario Line ALL THE WAY to Pearson.
 
Theoretically the crosstown GO line could be an automated metro that just uses much longer commuter-style trains, and platforms could be designed to handle both, with the short OL vehicles heading downtown and commuter ones heading across the region.
The problem I have with that is as I wrote above, the Ontario Line has 100m long trains, and relies on 90s headways to reach its required capacity. Unless you double back some trains at Leslie, you must give the Ontario Line its own dedicated sets of tracks - at which point why not just have the 407-Leslie station be transfer between the two services, rather than interline for a local-express dynamic that could easily be done by the orbital line on its own?
 

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