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

I was travelling next to a training car from birchmount to don Mills, it was catching up to me while I was stuck at the lights waiting. Really the only complaint is that all the stops should be before the intersection and not after, the double stopping doesn't make any sense
 
Aplus23 said:
I was travelling next to a training car from birchmount to don Mills, it was catching up to me while I was stuck at the lights waiting. Really the only complaint is that all the stops should be before the intersection and not after, the double stopping doesn't make any sense
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How is a double stop different than a single extra long stop if the train gets a red during disembarking? At least after an intersection, the LRV’s could get signal priority one day and not get red lights, once Toronto stops subsiding single occupancy vehicles in all their traffic planning.
 
ownthesky said:
How is a double stop different than a single extra long stop if the train gets a red during disembarking? At least after an intersection, the LRV’s could get signal priority one day and not get red lights, once Toronto stops subsiding single occupancy vehicles in all their traffic planning.
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I'm pretty sure the reasoning is pretty similar as to why far side bus stops are considered better by transit designers. The parts about pedestrian safety and visibility to drivers would apply to trains as well
  1. Far-side bus stops are the most common and are generally preferred by designers. They allow pedestrians to cross behind the bus, which is safer than crossing in front of the bus. On multilane roadways, they also increase the visibility of crossing pedestrians for drivers waiting at the signal.
 
MisterF said:
Why do people always bring up China in these conversations? People act like the only alternative to our ponderous way of building infrastructure is China, and then it inevitably turns into a back and forth about human rights. But there are lots of rich democracies that that value human rights like we do and still build mass transit faster and cheaper than us. The whole debate about China is completely unnecessary.
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Agreed. Rather then get lost in China discussions, we should compare builds like the crosstown to sunny Spain. Instead Toronto has always seemed to want to emulate NYC, the paragon of overpriced rail development. But even within North America, the Crosstown is leaps and bounds slower to build and more expensive than other metro-like LRTs using similar technology like the Confederation Line (175m/km) or Seattle's Link (333m/km for Line 1 so far). Seattle is especially apt, as it cost about 5.7 billion CAD (475m/km) to do both the University and NorthLink tunnel segments, which is about the same price per km for the Crosstown averaged across the tunnel and surface sections.

I feel like one of the big flaws in the crosstown is that the "stages" are enormous. You needed the entire 28km and a decade of construction before it could open in the best case scenario, whereas projects in other cities are often done in smaller chunks of 3-7 years, which would also allow kinks to get shaken out (in the case of Ottawa, more like gnarly knots) before the whole line was complete, and allow adjustments and learnings to be applied on later sections.

How Madrid built its metro cheaply - Works in Progress

Madrid tripled the length of its metro system in just 12 years — faster and cheaper than almost any other city in the world. What can its expansion teach other cities?
worksinprogress.co worksinprogress.co
 
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ownthesky said:
How is a double stop different than a single extra long stop if the train gets a red during disembarking? At least after an intersection, the LRV’s could get signal priority one day and not get red lights, once Toronto stops subsiding single occupancy vehicles in all their traffic planning.
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Because on a major route like Eglinton, it's far more likely to get a stop light while boarding at a near-side stop than one affecting through travel in motion.
 
christiesplits said:
Hopefully our very snowy winter provides ample opportunity for vehicle testing in harsh weather.🤞
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It would indeed be a good testing opportunity both on Finch and Eglinton. Have they been operating either in the last couple of weeks? Eglinton was certainly running last winter - but we didn't have a dump like this last winter.
 
nfitz said:
It would indeed be a good testing opportunity both on Finch and Eglinton. Have they been operating either in the last couple of weeks? Eglinton was certainly running last winter - but we didn't have a dump like this last winter.
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Yet, "DriveTest" centres have been known to close for road tests, like today. Would have been an excellent situation to test the new driver's skills in bad weather. (Knowledge tests are open.) Wonder if the TTC takes new drivers for training on buses and streetcars on a morning like today?

https://drivetest.ca/find-a-drivetest-centre/service-disruptions/
 
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