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SmartTrack (Proposed)

Oh, and the Eglinton West LRT extension to the airport. Another piece of infrastructure that was resurrected by the Smarttrack plan. This LRT plan is a resurrection of David Miller eras "Transit City".
I dont ever recall the transit city plan mentioning surface rail on grade separated rail line. What i distinctly recall about transit city was a map of new LRT's (which were really elongated street cars) running along surface of Eglinton , Sheppard and Finch avenues. There was no mention of designated stations or stops on those lines thus leaving the distinct impression that from a service standpoint, it was just like a bus.

Also, i am positive that there was no mention of service to the airport in those old transit city plans of David Miller.
 
I dont ever recall the transit city plan mentioning surface rail on grade separated rail line. What i distinctly recall about transit city was a map of new LRT's (which were really elongated street cars) running along surface of Eglinton , Sheppard and Finch avenues. There was no mention of designated stations or stops on those lines thus leaving the distinct impression that from a service standpoint, it was just like a bus.

Also, i am positive that there was no mention of service to the airport in those old transit city plans of David Miller.

Rapid transit service to the airport was a big part of Transit City

Transit_City.jpg


It's also the part of transit city I like the least, since the Airport was anticipated to generate next to zero ridership.
 
Rapid transit service to the airport was a big part of Transit City

Transit_City.jpg


It's also the part of transit city I like the least, since the Airport was anticipated to generate next to zero ridership.

From 2012, the 192 Airport Rocket bus (from Kipling Station to the airport) had 4,000 customers (Monday to Friday). Then there is the 52A Lawrence West, the 300A Bloor-Danforth, and the 332 Eglinton West buses that all goes to the airport. That would be more than zero ridership.

The bad news is that those buses have to share the road, slowing them down.
 
From 2012, the 192 Airport Rocket bus (from Kipling Station to the airport) had 4,000 customers (Monday to Friday). Then there is the 52A Lawrence West, the 300A Bloor-Danforth, and the 332 Eglinton West buses that all goes to the airport. That would be more than zero ridership.

The bad news is that those buses have to share the road, slowing them down.

I didn't say zero, I said next to zero customers in peak hour
 
Pity the poor Torontonian when even transit geeks like us can't even figure out what they are doing.

So what stations were announced today for ST and was there anything more specific in time schedules beside "10 year plan?" W all know many a tree have met their maker with Toronto's semi-annual 10 year transit plans.
 
So if i'm understanding it correctly, what "smart track" has come down to is a few extra stations that we be funded by the city instead of the province.

Pretty much. The only thing Tory has done here is convince the province to rebrand RER as "SmartTrack" and make Toronto pay for new stops that were gonna happen anyway. And that includes two new stops on the Barrie line that wasn't part of SmartTrack to begin with, which we are now responsible for. Well done.
 
What utter nonsense.

The TTC projected that the 3.5 km LRT extension between Renforth Gateway (at Eglinton) and Pearson would have 500 alightments and 0 boardings in the peak hour. This extension is estimated cost around $300 Million, and that's assuming that it's built completely at grade without any specialized structures, such as bridges or tunnels. We didn't complete a TPAP for the Airport lands, since that is the jurisdiction of Transport Canada, thus we don't have a good idea of what infrastructure is required to build the LRT extension to the airport. If it is indeed true that specialized structures would be needed, the costs could easily escalate to $500 Million+ for the 3.5 km LRT extension.

That said, looking at the geography of the airport region, I can't envision how the 3.5 km LRT extension to the airport could be built completely at grade. The planned terminus was Terminal 1, with a connection to the Link train. At this location there is no suitable road space for the LRT to utilize, nor is there any room to built an LRT corridor at grade. The terminus of the line would likely have to be elevated to connect to LINK and Terminal 1. There's also the challenge of navigating the web of overpasses that surround the terminal, which will pose its own set of engineering challenges and additional costs. With all this considered, it's probable that we'll see large cost escalations for this segment of the line. It's hard to justify this extension with such low ridership, and high costs.

My preference would be to have our 192 Airport Rocket route add a stop at Renforth Gateway, where commuters could transfer between the 193 and the Eglinton Line LRT. The 192 Airport Rocket is would be able to handle the demand of 500 peak hour alightments very well. The transfer wouldn't be the most convenient option, however the magnitude of the inconvenience caused by the transfer is reduced when considering that we'd likely have every second Eglinton Line train terminating at Renforth Station due to the drop in demand north of there Renforth (Eglinton Line loses 50% of its westbound/northbound peak ridership at Renforth). The 192 Airport Rocket presently operates at 10 minute frequencies, all day, towards Pearson, and Eglinton Line would likely operate at 7 to 8 min frequencies, at peak hour, towards the Airport, if that 3.5 km extension between Renforth and Pearson were built.
 
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The only good thing about Toronto paying for the ST stations is that it will definitely be Toronto that sets the fares on the line which probably means TTC fares.
 
If there are zero boardings at a stop, the light rail trains would not have to stop. Only if there is "stop request" made, or there is someone at the stop. The light rail trains will be stopping at each underground station.
 
Again, Smarttrack is a mandate and ideology for transit in toronto core by piggybacking on other plans.


First time I've heard it being explained this way. I don't think even Tory would describe it like that, because to be quite frank, no one knows what the hell it *really* is. It's this ever evolving entity that takes on a new form every couple of months.
 

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