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

Rainforest said:
Indeed, of all the existing colours they had to choose GREY .. What's wrong with those people?

If they could just hire one or two Arts programs graduates, to address the lack-of-imagination problem that seems to cripple Metrolinx ..
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Arts grads?

I bet that shade of grey came from a swatch book owned by a very expensive consultant.

- Paul
 
Rainforest said:
If so, then it kind of suggests that higher pay doesn't always equate better outcome ..
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It's all about giving the client what they want.

Client (ML): We don't want anyone (especially the TTC) thinking that this is a streetcar
Consultant: Well, subways are silver, so how about grey?
Client: Wow! You sure are clever!
Consultant: We will begin some analysis, conduct some focus groups, do some artwork, will send you some proposals. Please make sure to send us the retainer fee right away.

- Paul
 
TheTigerMaster said:
Grey skies, grey concrete, grey trains. This shit is why nobody wants elevated.

If we plan on extending west we need to make these guideways less obtrusive and expressionless.
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TransitBart said:
Stop quibblin'!
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Complainers gonna complain. To me this looks perfectly normal and consistent with what I saw all over Vancouver and other cities. I thought the skytrain was a model example of the kind of elevated infrastructure and integrated development that some UrbanToronto people wanted to see more of on the Crosstown and elsewhere. But now they're all upset over a single photo, because it turns out grey is the natural colour of concrete, and sometimes the sky happens to be grey too?

Elevated transit is physically intrusive no matter how you design it. There may be ways to mitigate it, but it's still gonna be intrusive. I'm hoping that when construction is complete, the trees, landscaping, public realm and lighting will at least soften this up a bit. And to address the lack of colour, lets get some artists to paint a mural across the whole thing that celebrates the history and culture of the neighbourhood. A quick browse through the twitter account of StreetArtToronto provides many inspiring examples of this from all over the city.



1576361938741.png
 
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salsa said:
Complainers gonna complain. To me this looks perfectly normal and consistent with what I saw all over Vancouver and other cities. I thought the skytrain was a model example of the kind of elevated infrastructure and integrated development that some UrbanToronto people wanted to see more of on the Crosstown and elsewhere. But now they're all upset over a single photo, because it turns out grey is the natural colour of concrete, and sometimes the sky happens to be grey too?

Elevated transit is physically intrusive no matter how you design it. There may be ways to mitigate it, but it's still gonna be intrusive. I'm hoping that when construction is complete, the trees, landscaping, public realm and lighting will at least soften this up a bit. As for colour, lets get some artists to paint a mural across the whole thing that celebrates the history and culture of the neighbourhood.


View attachment 220221
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Write it off as complaining, sure, but that doesn’t mean that the appearance isn’t detrimental to efforts to get more elevated transit built across Toronto.This will forever be ammunition for NIMBYs wishing to kill other elevated transit projects.
 
salsa said:
Complainers gonna complain. To me this looks perfectly normal and consistent with what I saw all over Vancouver and other cities. I thought the skytrain was a model example of the kind of elevated infrastructure and integrated development that some UrbanToronto people wanted to see more of on the Crosstown and elsewhere. But now they're all upset over a single photo, because it turns out grey is the natural colour of concrete, and sometimes the sky happens to be grey too?

Elevated transit is physically intrusive no matter how you design it. There may be ways to mitigate it, but it's still gonna be intrusive. I'm hoping that when construction is complete, the trees, landscaping, public realm and lighting will at least soften this up a bit. And to address the lack of colour, lets get some artists to paint a mural across the whole thing that celebrates the history and culture of the neighbourhood. A quick browse through the twitter account of StreetArtToronto provides many inspiring examples of this from all over the city.



View attachment 220221
Click to expand...
Vancouver using a single prestressed box girder is much more elegant than the 4 I-griders used in Toronto. We just used our standard highway bridge design.
Vancouver
Toronto
 
TheTigerMaster said:
Write it off as complaining, sure, but that doesn’t mean that the appearance isn’t detrimental to efforts to get more elevated transit built across Toronto.

This will forever be ammunition for NIMBYs wishing to kill other elevated transit projects,
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No it won't. Literally no one in Davenport or Riverdale that I'm aware of has made a reference to this, but feel free to pore through every NIMBY group on the internet (which I've already done) to see if I'm wrong. On the other hand I've seen all sorts of absurd comparisons with the Gardiner Expressway or cherry-picked sections of the Skytrain (such as this actual example provided by a community group in the east end).

I would argue that the real precedent-setting project will be the Davenport overpass. Unlike this thing which barely had any opposition to begin with, Davenport will be the most extensive piece of elevated infrastructure through a populated area that we've seen in a long time. The future of elevated transit in the city will depend heavily on how well Metrolinx handles the uprising that this has triggered. Will they be sensitive to the concerns of local residents through the duration of the project? How well will they address those concerns and mitigate the impacts? And will they deliver on everything that they promised? Affected residents here and in other parts of the city are watching closely.

Regardless of the outcome, there will always be a substantial number of people who will still fight against this for various reasons. Whether it's because of noise impacts, visual impacts, construction impacts, frequency of trains, vibrations, air quality, loss of trees, loss of greenspace, expropriation, reduced property values, etc. Even with the best planning and design practices, there is only so much that can be done to ameliorate these issues, and that is what will always make this kind of infrastructure a tough sell. But I assure you that if we never see more elevated transit in this city, it will NOT be because of Mt Dennis. So please direct your outrage toward more productive battles that lie ahead.
 
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W. K. Lis said:
Maybe they're trying to avoid the colours used by the political parties?

In Canada, the official color for the New Democratic Party is orange, while the Liberal Party of Canada uses red, the Conservative Party of Canada uses blue, and the Bloc Québécois uses light blue. The Green Party of course uses green. So none of those colours can be used.
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But doesn't grey represent independents? HOW DARE THE EGLINTON LINE SUPPORT INDEPENDENTS!
 
Coolstar said:
Something like this always brings me hope they'll open this on time. Not 2020 yet and they already started testing.
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I wouldn’t be too optimistic. Cedarvale and Yonge are the two major blockers for this project. Doesn’t really matter how far the rest of the project progresses while Yonge and Cedarvale remain a giant hole in the ground.

Any word on if the test trains have entered the tunnels yet? Testing should be able to commence between Mt Dennis and Caledonia in short order
 
TheTigerMaster said:
I wouldn’t be too optimistic. Cedarvale and Yonge are the two major blockers for this project. Doesn’t really matter how far the rest of the project progresses while Yonge and Cedarvale remain a giant hole in the ground.

Any word on if the test trains have entered the tunnels yet? Testing should be able to commence between Mt Dennis and Caledonia in short order
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No I heard they were only testing between the EMSF and the west portal.
 
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