SmartTrack (Proposed)

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Gerrard and Lawrence are both sort of useless station under the Ford transit plan - they are better off not wasting the money on them. Those couple hundred million would be better put to use on SOGR.

True, though clearly Smarttrack has completely ceased to be a thing.

Chow lost. Give it up. Its over 5 years ago. Move on

What does it have to do with Chow? Surely the original scope of ST vs. what little that remains (and from the previous few post - further reduced) stands on it own as a topic for discussion.

AoD

 

[innsertnamehere]

True, though clearly Smarttrack has completely ceased to be a thing.



What does it have to do with Chow - surely the original scope of ST vs. what little that remains stands on it own as a topic for discussion.

AoD

It never really was a thing. It's always just been a few new GO stations basically ever since it stopped being a line on a map.

I'm thankful that Tory has been willing to walk back on his pet project when the experts told him it didn't make sense.. Instead of trying to force the thing through.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

It never really was a thing. It's always just been a few new GO stations basically ever since it stopped being a line on a map.

I'm thankful that Tory has been willing to walk back on his pet project when the experts told him it didn't make sense.. Instead of trying to force the thing through.

Of course, the original proposal was vapourware - don't forget though, this little detour did waste time and money, and I am not as forgiving about that.

AoD

 

[robmausser]

It never really was a thing. It's always just been a few new GO stations basically ever since it stopped being a line on a map.

I'm thankful that Tory has been willing to walk back on his pet project when the experts told him it didn't make sense.. Instead of trying to force the thing through.

Damned if you do, damned if you dont eh? Push a project through and see it to the end, you are forcing the wrong project through and are a stubborn fool. Listen to the experts and modify it, you are a flip flopper and the project is "dead" and you "failed"

Its almost...almost like people have extreme political biases and just want to see the other team lose and their team win. Whether they realize it or not.

 

[Neutrino]

^you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Damned if you do, damned if you dont eh? Push a project through and see it to the end, you are forcing the wrong project through and are a stubborn fool. Listen to the experts and modify it, you are a flip flopper and the project is "dead" and you "failed"

Its almost...almost like people have extreme political biases and just want to see the other team lose and their team win. Whether they realize it or not.

False choice. How about listening to the experts first before pushing? As it was originally proposed it was pure BS - recall the heavy rail Eglinton west portion?

AoD

 

[robmausser]

False choice. How about listening to the experts first before pushing? As it was originally proposed it was pure BS - recall the heavy rail Eglinton west portion?

AoD

Dont throw out the baby with the bathwater, there is no denying that stations at Liberty etc have significant merit and benefit the system.

The heavy rail portion on Eglinton was dumb, but that doesnt mean other aspects were and are worth pursuing.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Dont throw out the baby with the bathwater, there is no denying that stations at Liberty etc have significant merit and benefit the system.

The heavy rail portion on Eglinton was dumb, but that doesnt mean other aspects were and are worth pursuing.

Which it was, via RER. ST wasn't anything like RER as originally envisioned, it was a "surface subway"- in fact, in the end it was a sweet nothing that sucked up space, time and money. I am not sure why we need to have this "baby" in the conversation in the first place.

AoD

 

[robmausser]

Which it was, via RER. ST wasn't anything like RER as originally envisioned, it was a "surface subway"- in fact, in the end it was a sweet nothing that sucked up space, time and money. I am not sure why we need to have this "baby" in the conversation in the first place.

AoD

Show me a single document that Metrolinx had plans for stations at Liberty, St.Clair, Lawrence, Finch, East Harbour, Gerrard with RER prior to the Smarttack plan. Their "50 stations analysis" came about as a result of Smarttrack.

Adding these stations are a huge benefit to the city, and were not planned prior to Smarttrack in any way.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Show me a single document that Metrolinx had plans for stations at Liberty, St.Clair, Lawrence, Finch, East Harbour, Gerrard with RER prior to the Smarttack plan. Their "50 stations analysis" came about as a result of Smarttrack.

Adding these stations are a huge benefit to the city, and were not planned prior to Smarttrack in any way.

That's a facetious argument - if you need someone else's proposal to determine if you want to put stations at certain locations, you aren't doing your job properly. It's like saying we wouldn't have come up with RER if not for Smartrack.

AoD

 

[drum118]

Show me a single document that Metrolinx had plans for stations at Liberty, St.Clair, Lawrence, Finch, East Harbour, Gerrard with RER prior to the Smarttack plan. Their "50 stations analysis" came about as a result of Smarttrack.

Adding these stations are a huge benefit to the city, and were not planned prior to Smarttrack in any way.

There was talk at Metrolinx long before Tory became mayor that St Clair was to have 2 GO stations. The Barrie Line had more legs, as it was to service the new ROW being built at the time. There was talk about a station at Queen as well, but well down the road.

East Harbour wasn't part of any Smart Track and only came about due to the plan development for the area now. It wasn't in Waterfront master plan for the Waterfront, since there was to be a GO station at Cherry St, but it wouldn't service the RHC Line. This was back in 2008.

Gerrard was part of the DRL plan.

 

[robmausser]

That's a facetious argument - if you need someone else's proposal to determine if you want to put stations at certain locations, you aren't doing your job properly. It's like saying we wouldn't have come up with RER if not for Smartrack.

AoD

Thats fine, I agree. I think that Metrolinx wasn't doing their job properly and was neglecting Toronto in their RER plan. Thankfully Smarttrack fixed that.

 

[Amare]

Thats fine, I agree. I think that Metrolinx wasn't doing their job properly and was neglecting Toronto in their RER plan. Thankfully Smarttrack fixed that.

Tory simply could have gone to the province and demanded for additional GO stations instead of playing with his little SmartTrack file and wasting our time and money. Remember, it's because of him that staff got redeployed from planning the DRL onto his pixie dust transit file.

Why would we give him credit for wasting years of our time? He initially supported the DRL, then he reverted to his pixie dust plan and made that his priority, then he realized that it was unraveling and came back to support the DRL.

 

[sixrings]

Also didn't smart track essentially kill the idea of using the RT corridor as a possible home for an upgraded subway.

 

[rbt]

Also didn't smart track essentially kill the idea of using the RT corridor as a possible home for an upgraded subway.

Temporarily. Metrolinx has since discovered they can build out the GO line without removing the RT stations; which means you could still use the RT space for another use in the future.

Eglinton LRT is in the way now though as it's at the same depth as the subway. It would likely be much easier to extend Eglinton LRT into the corridor and replace part of the Eglinton East extension with the subway.

Might be cheaper to demolish SCC (station, mall, city offices, and condos) and rebuild the entire neighbourhood at Kennedy.