News   Oct 02, 2024
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Subway Interlining ...

I see the logic, but unless youre extending that line up Mount Pleasant to Eglinton, it acts soley as a reliever line for B-D. Putting it along Sherbourne or Parliament allows it to act as both a reliever for B-D, and be a catalyst for development on the east side of downtown.

However, if it were to be extended north to Eglinton, it would act in essence as a Yonge Express, which would hold some weight.
 
Why not Jarvis? It appears to be the next concession road east of Yonge is roughly the same distance from Yonge that University is. Is a major traffic throughfare as it is for vehicles, and is ripe for redevelopment.
 
Jarvis would work too. Pretty much any of Jarvis, Sherbourne, or Parliament would work. I simply said Sherbourne because anyone on Church is close enough to walk to Yonge, and anyone on Jarvis or Parliament is close enough to walk to Sherbourne. Plus putting it along Sherbourne would also act as a major catalyst for redevelopment around Regent Park (and make the redevelopment already occuring in Regent Park more attractive for market investors).

Basically, putting in on Sherbourne would ensure that everyone from Bay to Parliament is within less than a 5 minute walk from a subway.
 
Jarvis or Sherbourne is too far -- when University opened, it was dead because the stops were too far from Yonge -- Church is the closest you can get to Yonge -- a 3 min walk.

Stations would be ...

Sherbourne (new lower level)
Wellesley
Carlton
Dundas
Queen
King
Union (new lower level)
 
See how I see it is: Castle Frank, Wellesley East, Carlton, Dundas East, Queen East, King East, (turn west towards downtown), St. Lawrence (between Jarvis and Church), King, Union (underneath Wellington Street).

This offers new connections, as well as the DRL effect, while at the same time creating a great opportunity for densification of basically everything between the Don Valley and Yonge, south of Bloor.
 
And with regards to your comment that the University Subway was dead when it first opened because it was too far from Yonge, I would argue the exact opposite. I would argue that it was dead because it was too CLOSE to Yonge. It wasn't far enough away to provide any real new connectibility to the area. Had it have been placed under Spadina, it would have been far enough away to act as a catalyst along Spadina, as well as still relieve the Yonge line and service downtown. This is also the same reason why, until recently, the Spadina subway had lower than expected ridership, because it's too close to Yonge to have it's own significant ridership capture base.
 
This is also the same reason why, until recently, the Spadina subway had lower than expected ridership, because it's too close to Yonge to have it's own significant ridership capture base.

That's not true. It'd actually have a larger ridership base if it was closer to Yonge (such as right along Bathurst, although veering away from Yorkdale/York U would not be good). If it went farther west, you'd intercept some N/S bus riders who use Bloor, but you'd make the zone in between Spadina and Yonge even larger...and these people are more likely to go east to Yonge rather than west to Spadina. People to the west would take buses over to Spadina whether it run under Bathurst, Dufferin, Jane, etc.
 
If it went farther west, you'd intercept some N/S bus riders who use Bloor, but you'd make the zone in between Spadina and Yonge even larger...and these people are more likely to go east to Yonge rather than west to Spadina.

My point is that the Spadina subway does neither. It doesn't take much from Yonge, and its too far east to intecept those passengers from the northwest of the city, who would rather take a bus down to Bloor. My point is that if the Spadina line was further west, it would capture those riders as opposed to having them bus down to Bloor, and end up transferring at St. George anyways to reach downtown.

If the line were further west, it would capture those riders, and avoid them having to transfer at St. George to reach downtown. The same principle is being applied to the eastern portion of the proposed DRL (the extension to Eglinton part of it). By creating a second line far enough away, you are increasing transit in an underserved area, as well as diverting traffic off the Yonge line.

The Spadina subway was a mistake. The only reason it exists was to make the idea of the Allen expressway more pallitable. Its route was chosen not because of sound planning rationale, but because that's where it made sense to put an expressway.
 
My point is that the Spadina subway does neither. It doesn't take much from Yonge, and its too far east to intecept those passengers from the northwest of the city, who would rather take a bus down to Bloor. My point is that if the Spadina line was further west, it would capture those riders as opposed to having them bus down to Bloor, and end up transferring at St. George anyways to reach downtown.

If the line were further west, it would capture those riders, and avoid them having to transfer at St. George to reach downtown. The same principle is being applied to the eastern portion of the proposed DRL (the extension to Eglinton part of it). By creating a second line far enough away, you are increasing transit in an underserved area, as well as diverting traffic off the Yonge line.

The Spadina subway was a mistake. The only reason it exists was to make the idea of the Allen expressway more pallitable. Its route was chosen not because of sound planning rationale, but because that's where it made sense to put an expressway.

And my point is that your point is not true. There is no magical place in between Yonge and Bloor that Spadina could have run to steal a maximum of riders from both lines. Moving Spadina in any direction would cause it to both gain and lose riders - and all lost riders would be forced to take either Bloor or Yonge, neither of which has any room for them, or be forced into cars. By having it run somewhere it'd steal more riders from Yonge, it'd divert more people to Bloor, and by having it run somewhere it'd steal more riders from Bloor, it'd divert more people to Bloor. Since neither one has room for more riders, Spadina actually follows a reasonable path by serving Yorkdale and, soon, York U.
 
People here forget why University was built -- it was the DRL of the 1960s, and after the wye closed, most passengers stopped using the line. There was no reason to use it anymore because the Yonge stations were closer to their final destinations. A transfer is a transfer.

In fact, even before the wye opened, most people from the Bloor streetcar changed at Bloor station, not St. George, to go downtown. That's why the current DRL plan won't relieve B-Y and Yonge south of Bloor as much as a subway under Church.
 
Rush-hour subway -- to save money. It's only there to relieve the Yonge line, and outside of rush hours, it's not needed. If the Yonge line was a 4-track system, as it should have been built, like Lexington in NYC, then we wouldn't be in this stupid mess.
 
Seriously? You're advocating spending over $1-billion to build a subway to be used just 6 hours a day? There's a lot of "interesting" ideas here, but I'd say this one takes the cake.

When Lexington was built, there was already a demand for a four-track system. Manhattan was more dense than Toronto is today. And considering the geography of Manhattan, of course the planners would put in a four-track system, because there's no where else to put another line parallel to relieve it (minus 2nd Avenue Subway, but that's a different mess). In Toronto we have the benefit of having the potential to have several north south routes spread out over the city, hence the reasoning behind the western N-S line (Spadina).
 
An even more odd idea (in my opinion) is to spend $1 billion to retrofit Bloor-Yonge station when you could spend a little over $2 billion and build the DRL, but that's a different story...
 
People here forget why University was built -- it was the DRL of the 1960s, and after the wye closed, most passengers stopped using the line. There was no reason to use it anymore because the Yonge stations were closer to their final destinations. A transfer is a transfer.

In fact, even before the wye opened, most people from the Bloor streetcar changed at Bloor station, not St. George, to go downtown. That's why the current DRL plan won't relieve B-Y and Yonge south of Bloor as much as a subway under Church.

There was practically nothing along the University line back then, but it's integral and very well used today. No point in trying (and failing) to deny it. It's original purpose and historic conditions are totally irrelevent now.
 

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