Toronto Crosstown LRT | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx | Arcadis

[duffo]

They're not.

They're about halfway between a subway car and an SRT car - about 9 1/2 feet wide by 65-ish feet long per car, coupled into 4-car trains (260 feet long) with the potential of adding a 5th car.

The LRT cars are narrower - 8 feet, 9 inches - and at the start will be less than 200 feet long but will ultimately be almost 300 feet long.

Automation has no bearing on the size of the equipment.

Dan

Fair point, forgot the ECLRT cars will be smaller than subway.

But the point still stands that the OL cars will be on the smaller side, not because automation requires it, but because they can achieve equal throughput to a manually-operated subway via high-frequency service enabled by automation. And unlock cost savings associated with smaller stations due to shorter trains... Although this seems only theoretical when MX is running the show lol

 

[innercrow]

If you have ten billion dollars to spare, anything's possible.

Other people have speculated, and I agree, that it's more likely they cut the line at Doug Ford's Corruption Emporium Science Centre and instead run Ottawa/Seattle-style operations to the west, and the east gets the Finch treatment.

That's out of the range of most of our lifetimes, and if Eglinton East gets built without the connection, this plan will be dead forever.



The bigger concern than gauge here is platform height. To use the OL's trains would require a conversion of the Eglinton Line platforms to high floor, something which would optimistically require a multi-month shutdown (probably multi-year). Otherwise, with LRVs, just turn around every other train or every third train at Don Mills when capacity hits the roof.

Honestly, it's the same deal as Sheppard; I don't think a conversion or elevated guideway will happen, if for no other reason than the inconvenience to existing riders while everything changes over. (elevated even more so, that's a multi-year shutdown anywhere)

Not to dwell on hypotheticals but I don't think it's that unlikely that eastern grade separation could take place eventually, considering the density that's being built along the corridor. Plus we did just shut down the SRT and put in a bus replacement service while the SSE gets built so there is precedent.

That said you're right about how onerous high floor conversion would be. I think the most likely compromise in the future will be to grade separate and maybe automate the whole line for capacity, while replacing the rolling stock with low floor vehicles with better layouts more suited to subway style function (like e.g. the Skoda 15t)