Toronto Ontario Line 3 | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx

I got a good chuckle from your image of the LRT superfans who think they read from the Munro gospel and don't realize it's more complicated than they think.

Who knows, I might beat Steve in explaining what a regional rail is in Spacing. I beat him to it for the DRL, though he has mentioned it in passing mostly, or a bit more in the comments. I also see what his vision of a DRL would be as well, which makes sense, but too bad that what's good for Don Mills or Jane to downtown isn't good for Sheppard East - a one seat, transferless ride.

Well that's what happens when you're too focussed on one technology.

I'm also interested in seeing "regional rail" in Toronto. Although if every GO line had all-day both-way service (even if it was hourly), I don't think we'd even be talking about S-bahns and REX or whatever.
 
It's back on the radar!

Never underestimate the power of blogs and bloggers. ;)

TTC to consider relief lineby 2018, chief says

[Headers and excerpts below]

'There will come a time when it's essential': Giambrone

Zosia Bielski, National Post
Published: Wednesday, April 16, 2008

TTC chairman Adam Giambrone says a new subway line cutting through the bottom of the city is a "good idea," one the TTC will start looking at seriously by 2018.

[...]

First studied in 1985, the route would cost more than $3-billion today.

"As the city continues to grow, you will deal with capacity constraints. In the 2020 window, you will need to consider a downtown relief line," Mr. Giambrone said. "There will come a time when it's essential."

The TTC is currently focusing on its Transit City plan, which will build a $6-billion network of above-ground streetcar-type light-rail lines in the city by 2021. Aside from two suburban subway extensions, the Downtown Relief Line would likely come next, Mr. Giambrone said.

As the city core becomes more dense, passengers are choking the Bloor-Yonge and St. George transfer points, as well as the King and Queen streetcars. The Bloor-Danforth line will soon be congested, too, Mr. Giambrone said.

[...]

But the current focus until 2020 is three other extensions, Mr. Giambrone said. They are a Yonge line extension from Finch to Highway 7; a five-stop extension north from Downsview to the Vaughan Corporate Centre (a 50-hectare downtown development planned for east of Highway 400) and an addition to the Scarborough rapid transit line north to Sheppard Avenue.

Metrolinx identified the line as a priority in its Green Paper on transit. The province created Metrolinx to plan a seamless transportation network for the Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton.

Al though some bloggers such as Transit Toronto founder James Bow note that a new subway tunnel would be prohibitively expensive and that much of the line would likely be a surface route on GO tracks, Metrolinx chairman Rob MacIsaac said the plan is for subways.

"We're studying it. Our concept is that it's a subway but that's subject to change because we're really just doing the modelling now for the proposed network," Mr. MacIsaac said.

"There's so much demand that you're exceeding what a streetcar line can carry. I had a discussion with [former TTC general manager] David Gunn once and he said, 'Don't build a subway until you can jump from the top of one streetcar to the next,' which is probably a circumstance that you're getting close to on Queen Street."

Between 2004 and 2006, the TTC's annual ridership grew by 27 million riders to 445 million passengers. Last year, it jumped to nearly 460 million.

The Downtown Relief Line has also captured the imagination of transit activists, who have formed a Facebook group.

Urban magazine Spacing was buzzing with at least 70 comments after a story about the Downtown Relief Line appeared on its site on Monday. Some argued that the new route is a logical southerly extension of Transit City's Don Mills line, to run light-rail service from Steeles Avenue to the Bloor-Danforth subway.....
 
Good job guys! It's back on the radar. Now let's get it to become a priority. This should have been part of Transit City all along.
If the province is going for broke with TC, fit in the Downtown Relief Line. The good news is that the province's own agency, Metrolinx is talking firm about building this.
 
Excellent though I agree only considering it by 2018 is nuts. It needs to start construction in the next 3 years. Once City Place, Liberty Village, West Donlands, East Bayfront etc are built out the King line will be a mess (not that it isn't already). Help is needed sooner than later.
 
Well that's what happens when you're too focussed on one technology.

I'm also interested in seeing "regional rail" in Toronto. Although if every GO line had all-day both-way service (even if it was hourly), I don't think we'd even be talking about S-bahns and REX or whatever.

if we had REX or RER i don't think we'd be talking so much about a DRL...
 
The DRL has just been put back on the radar. If anything, there's been too little talk of a DRL, not too much.

Regional rail would still not be a subsitute for people coming through from Pape Station from East York, Thorncliffe Park, or the intermediate points along the DRL route.
 
The DRL would also solve the growing problem of more and more important cultural/entertainment areas of the city not being very accessible by transit. West Queen West, the Distillery, Queen East, etc, are all areas that are growing rapidly in importance and they are all a drag to get to by transit.
 
How would that serve the within-downtown trips served by the DRL?

The combination of Milton/Georgetown/Bradford REX + Lakeshore East REX approximates the DRL's route. You could have a REX branch that short turn between (current) Bloor GO and (future) Pape GO, or you could use the branchline concept to bring it up to (current) Pape Station if you wanted.
 
Would there be REX stops every 1km? If not, it cannot serve downtown like the DRL can.

Metrolinx also prefers a Queen (or maybe King) alignment, at least according to the green paper, which would not serve the same areas as the DRL and which would be much more expensive.
 
Would there be REX stops every 1km? If not, it cannot serve downtown like the DRL can.

Metrolinx also prefers a Queen (or maybe King) alignment, at least according to the green paper, which would not serve the same areas as the DRL and which would be much more expensive.

Think of REX like the national rail network in London. South of the Thames, the national rail fills in the gaps left by the relatively few underground lines.

A drl (not the DRL) along King-Adel-Queen-Mond doesn't eliminate the need for some sort of REX downtown.
 
Yeah, but maybe downtown Toronto is not the best place to leave "gaps" in the subway network for the sake of building a 'rail du jour' line. No matter what the GO lines morph into, it doesn't eliminate the need for something like the DRL.
 

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