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

[nfitz]

Considering construction had already begun on an Eglington subway and was cancelled, it's not as "wishful" as you may think.

That piece is subway now. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a grade separation at Leslie in the future.

 

[drum118]

That piece is subway now. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a grade separation at Leslie in the future.

How do you see it happening??

 

[nfitz]

How do you see it happening??

By adding a lane to the north side of the tracks.

Cars that would turn northbound on Leslie from eastbound on Eglinton would cross over to the north side, between Brentcliffe and the portal. Cars turning from southbound Leslie to eastbound Eglinton would stay in that single lane on the northbound, and then merge into the rest of the traffic at the portal west of Don Mills Road.

The biggest challenge would be widening the underpass under the CPKC mainline.

Alternatively, one could take advantage the topography there, and build a road tunnel through the fill that Eglinton is built on, and connect the lanes to Leslie on the south side. The existing fill looks to be about 14-metres thick at the intersection,

 

[ThenWhat]

By adding a lane to the north side of the tracks.

Cars that would turn northbound on Leslie from eastbound on Eglinton would cross over to the north side, between Brentcliffe and the portal. Cars turning from southbound Leslie to eastbound Eglinton would stay in that single lane on the northbound, and then merge into the rest of the traffic at the portal west of Don Mills Road.

The biggest challenge would be widening the underpass under the CPKC mainline.

Alternatively, one could take advantage the topography there, and build a road tunnel through the fill that Eglinton is built on, and connect the lanes to Leslie on the south side. The existing fill looks to be about 14-metres thick at the intersection,

That would make good sense. Was it considered in LRT planning stages, does anybody know? It should have been obvious then that the current design would create a major traffic bottleneck.

 

[PL1]

That would make good sense. Was it considered in LRT planning stages, does anybody know? It should have been obvious then that the current design would create a major traffic bottleneck.

The design team forgot to check their designs with the UT crew. A south alignment until Don Mills would have been better

 

[innsertnamehere]

That would make good sense. Was it considered in LRT planning stages, does anybody know? It should have been obvious then that the current design would create a major traffic bottleneck.

A lot of pundits tried to encourage the LRT ROW to run on the south side of the road between Brentcliffe and Don Mills to avoid the signalized intersection at the time. For whatever reason, metrolinx did not head that recommendation.

I think if the Crosstown were to be designed today it probably would have been elevated between Brentcliffe and Don Mills like the western extension is over Jane - but that ship has long, long since sailed. It is what it is at this point.

 

[Bojaxs]

I think if the Crosstown were to be designed today it probably would have been elevated between Brentcliffe and Don Mills like the western extension is over Jane

It would have to be elevated over the CPKC line. That would be fairly high. Then, from Don Mills, you would bring the tracks back down to at-grade before reaching the Don Valley Parkway. That would be a steep drop.

 

[nfitz]

A lot of pundits tried to encourage the LRT ROW to run on the south side of the road between Brentcliffe and Don Mills to avoid the signalized intersection at the time. For whatever reason, metrolinx did not head that recommendation.

When Metrolinx took over, they tried to change it from a portal east of Brentcliffe, to just tunnelling all the way to Don Mills Road. But they encountered community opposition about dropping the Leslie stop in the EA amendment process, and with TBMs already in the ground, they cancelled the EA amendment, and just stuck to what was written. These days they'd do it differently, but this was the first project of it's type, and I think they were still gun shy from their mismanaged Blue 22 EA in Weston.

 

[ThenWhat]

When Metrolinx took over, they tried to change it from a portal east of Brentcliffe, to just tunnelling all the way to Don Mills Road. But they encountered community opposition about dropping the Leslie stop in the EA amendment process, and with TBMs already in the ground, they cancelled the EA amendment, and just stuck to what was written. These days they'd do it differently, but this was the first project of it's type, and I think they were still gun shy from their mismanaged Blue 22 EA in Weston.

Community opposition by which community? At the time there were just a few residential buildings around the planned Leslie stop.
A lot of car traffic is funnelled through that intersection, because there are no other east-west options nearby. It is a choke point in every rush hour. Not a big surprise if you look at the map of the city.

 

[Adjei]

Community opposition by which community? At the time there were just a few residential buildings around the planned Leslie stop.
A lot of car traffic is funnelled through that intersection, because there are no other east-west options nearby. It is a choke point in every rush hour. Not a big surprise if you look at the map of the city.

The condos there and also the councillor at that time I forgot who it was fought to have the stop reinstated. I think if it was now Metrolinx wouldn’t have given in but maybe because the agency was new at that time, that’s why we have ended up with this current situation.

 

[crs1026]

I seem to recall Rob Ford being knees deep in that whole conversation.

- Paul

 

[nfitz]

Community opposition by which community? At the time there were just a few residential buildings around the planned Leslie stop.

I thought it was the developers who owned lands on/near the northwest. And some community opposition that it would remove easy access to the parkland there. Thinking about it more, the biggest opposition was removal of the stop east of Don Mills. You can probably find it in the Eglinton Transit City discussion thread, if you search for Ferrand and Leslie (and perhaps environmental assessment) in the early 2010s.

A lot of car traffic is funnelled through that intersection, because there are no other east-west options nearby. It is a choke point in every rush hour. Not a big surprise if you look at the map of the city.

Yeah, I used to commute that one, turning from eastbound Eglinton to Leslie (and vice-versa)!

 

[TossYourJacket]

Happy 13th Anniversary of the groundbreaking ceremony for this cursed project!

 

[Mind_the_gap]

... [T]he signal system failed pretty badly. And since then, it has not been able to operate with any semblance of reliability...

This is ridiculous at this point, reverting to old-fashioned block-signalling, or even line-of-sight operation (ala. Bay Street tunnel) at reduced speeds would be more optimal.

Still very pissed about the 51A/151 divide...

 

[Allandale25]