For whatever it's worth, here's my Quixotic transit plan for the core. I know it's a lousy graphic, but hopefully it conveys the key points that need to be addressed before we can have a complete, fast, and frequent transit network downtown that creates a greater connection to Lake Ontario:
View attachment 70017
In order to provide more Smart Track stations at greater frequency, it's necessary to have a final GO terminus for the Lakeshore Line other than Union. To make it effective for commuters, it has to connect with the Relief Line. In the same location there should also be a Smart Track station, since it completes a loop in the west from the Relief Line up to Bloor-Danforth. I'd suggest having a large parking garage here as well to get people out of their cars on their way into the core. I've called this the West Transit Hub because a city of Toronto's size warrants having more than one hub.
I've added an ST station at Parliament/Cherry, closer to Parliament than Cherry St., so it's sufficiently far from a Unilever ST station to justify having both stations.
Note the Front Street extension west of Bathurst, which is where the Gardiner tunnel begins. A sizeable portion of the Relief Line is buried in the same tunnel as the expressway (from Bathurst to DVP). The eastbound subway and eastbound expressway branch together under Adelaide. The westbound subway and expressway branch under Richmond. The RL stations are located on the north-south intersecting streets, in between the eastbound and westbound platforms (in between Richmond and Adelaide). At University, there can be a pedestrian exit from the westbound subway platform (under Richmond) to Osgoode Station, and a pedestrian exit from the eastbound platform (under Adelaide) to St. Andrew Station. This provides more than one transfer option from the Yonge-U Line to the Relief Line, but commuters would soon figure out that when they want to travel west transferring from the Y-U Line, it's quicker to get off at Osgoode. When you want to go east, better to get off at St. Andrew. The same kind of transfer scenario would exist at Queen and King Stations.
The Liberty Village ST Station is close to the King Streetcar ROW, but also sufficiently close to Queen that it wouldn't be a stretch for passengers on the Relief Line to transfer from a future station at Queen and Gladstone to ST.
Perhaps the biggest benefit of this plan is that it makes burying the Gardiner possible without worrying about the challenge of keeping the existing elevated Gardiner intact throughout construction. Nor would we risk seepage of lake water through the tunnel at this higher elevation. As mentioned in prior posts, the on-off ramps would simply rise to street level to merge with a lane of traffic, as the surface road traffic flows in the same direction as the expressway.
You get faster, more frequent transit service, a wider network of stations, a revamped Lakeshore Blvd., and reconnection to the lake. Yes, we still have the train tracks into Union, but they're really only an issue east of Yonge. We can build over them. For those who worry about excess traffic coming onto Richmond and Adelaide from a buried Gardiner, most of the cars on the Gardiner come into the core anyway. King, Queen, and Lakeshore could finally reach their potential as grand thoroughfares once we consolidate the traffic elsewhere and introduce wider boulevards, streetcar ROW's, bike lanes, and all manner of street improvements.
Tolls on the underground highway and funds earmarked for the Hybrid Gardiner would go a long way to paying for this bigger plan, which would receive funding from all three levels of government for both its local and regional value. Perhaps not all tunneled lanes would be tolled. Also note that drivers entering from the western Gardiner would have added access to surface roads at Front St.
