The Pittsburgh T

[Brandon716]

Um, the DRL proposal ends at Eglinton East and Don Mills near Flemingdon Park.

If that doesn't do anything for the Don Mills corridor, you've got to be smoking weed. There could be a major bus transfer station at the end of the DRL and in the longer term, extensions up Don Mills.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Relief_Line

That sounds like a good idea to start building on.

 

[JasonParis]

I would disagree that heavy rail is needed on most of those lines. Toronto is not New York or Montreal.

Huh?

 

[Whoaccio]

Um, the DRL proposal ends at Eglinton East and Don Mills near Flemingdon Park.

If that doesn't do anything for the Don Mills corridor, you've got to be smoking weed. There could be a major bus transfer station at the end of the DRL and in the longer term, extensions up Don Mills.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Relief_Line

That sounds like a good idea to start building on.

I would sacrifice 10 lambs for that. No, 12!

 

[kEiThZ]

Um, the DRL proposal ends at Eglinton East and Don Mills near Flemingdon Park.

If that doesn't do anything for the Don Mills corridor, you've got to be smoking weed. There could be a major bus transfer station at the end of the DRL and in the longer term, extensions up Don Mills.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Relief_Line

That sounds like a good idea to start building on.

My mistake....I was thinking of the portion that's just south of bloor.

 

[kEiThZ]

M
I would disagree that heavy rail is needed on most of those lines. Toronto is not New York or Montreal.

Huh?

I meant that Toronto doesn't have the density in certain portions of the city to justify building subways just yet. For example, Don Mills, Jane, Waterfront corridors, could do just fine with light rail. They don't need subways.

 

[Brandon716]

The point of a subway isn't just to serve existing capacity, its to withstand the growth and urbanization over a period of the next 100 years and the future of the city well beyond even that.

To build light rail defeats the purpose when you're building a world megacity, IMO.

 

[kEiThZ]

The point of a subway isn't just to serve existing capacity, its to withstand the growth and urbanization over a period of the next 100 years and the future of the city well beyond even that.

To build light rail defeats the purpose when you're building a world megacity, IMO.

I would agree with you in certain cases...ie Eglinton. But for Jane and Don Mills, there is not much further development planned. To build subways on those routes would be a serious waste of taxpayer dollars, as that much capacity is not needed for today or tommorrow.

And like I have explained before, cost recovery is a huge issue for the TTC. The Sheppard subway is such a poor revenue generator that the TTC considered mothballing it last year. If the TTC chooses to build more subways, we could face the situation where the TTC will be forced to mothball them down the road due to poor cost recovery. LRT lines are much more sustainable in this regard.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

There certainly isn't more of a case for an Eglinton subway than there is for a line like Don Mills or Jane based on density...

Don Mills, in particular, is seeing and will see substantial developments.

 

[kEiThZ]

There certainly isn't more of a case for an Eglinton subway than there is for a line like Don Mills or Jane based on density...

Don Mills, in particular, is seeing and will see substantial developments.

I stand corrected.

But my point still stands, subways are not suitable for all routes in Toronto. I understand Brandon's points that a world class city needs subways. However, I doubt that converting all of transit city's routes to subways would be sustainable.

So do you believe that Jane, Don Mills and Eglinton warrant heavy rail? I would say light rail is acceptable and will probably be sufficient for at least 3 decades.

Also, light rail will bring a culture change as TO gets used to something in between bus and subway and also used to POP. Those ideas will finally get people thinking about transit differently. Scarborough will finally stop needlessly clamouring for a subway.

 

[Brandon716]

Toronto already has one of the largest streetcar networks around.

This isn't really a debate in my opinion, the option really stands before Toronto is a massive need to dramatically increase subway service.