lordmandeep
Banned
I think a line cutting through Queen is best as it serves the most people and would be actually used as an east-west route instead of being a gigantic feeder line like the Bloor subway line is now.
Well right now it's the east they are talking about. But with the proposed increase in rail service along the Georgetown line, there's no room left for subway tracks, so it would have to be elsewhere.Just to make sure...
The DRL would run from Dundas west along the railway tracks to union station???
Or would it be something else???
I wouldn't be totally adverse to a Queen routing by any means, but I think there's at least a few factors that work against it...I bet my bottom dollar that it will be Queen. Its the geographic distance betwen the B/D line and Union. And Queen/King streetcars created existing transit patterns which will only be disrupted if the the line is brought to Union which is well south of major employment centers
Well right now it's the east they are talking about. But with the proposed increase in rail service along the Georgetown line, there's no room left for subway tracks, so it would have to be elsewhere.
It's not so much that there would be no room... its really more about duplication of service. The improvements to the corridor will see subway-style service and it might not be wise to run two high-frequency services down the same corridor when there are plenty of other areas that could be served.
I wouldn't be totally adverse to a Queen routing by any means, but I think there's at least a few factors that work against it...
- Most of the employment is south of Queen and what is north would be regarded as a "stable neighbourhood" for the most part.
- It's one of the more expensive options.
- The CBD is moving south, not north.
- The city's biggest growth area (the Portlands) wouldn't be well served by a Queen routing.
- It would be great to have a proper Queen subway at some point in the next 40 years and a Queen routing of the DRL would really put a crimp in making that happen.
High frequency service is a bit empty if those services don't stop. I would agree that the need for a rail corridor DRL could be ameliorated by using an upgraded GO service, but it would need a stop roughly at Jarvis. Not GO-shacks either, a real station.
The proposed GO rail improvements on the Georgetown line are not a good substitute for building the DRL on it, given the wide disparity of station spacing between the two transport modes. There are plenty of examples of mainline rail and urban rapid transit trains running along the same corridor, and there's no reason it cannot happen here.
As for the subway itself, I agree it should run more to the south and include a direct link to Union. It only helps to improve connectivity, and Queen can always get a separate underground streetcar with Bloor/Danforth station spacing. It even has its first station built in!
These types of service are not interchangeable. Putting too many stops on Go will degrade that service into a different type of service.
With express and local tracks we can have all three run on the same corridor without affecting each other.
I agree with this, but there could be a reasonable compromise here. As someone else mentioned, the use of Adelaide routing would likely have less impact on the transit bound along king and queen street (west side). They could then build the stair entrances towards both King Street and Queen Street, which would make the entrances very close to those streets. Going east, I would like the subway to jog south a little to be close to St. Lawrence Market - Esplanade. Personally I would like a Stop at Cherry Rd - so that T&T shuttle can run between that stop and T&T regularly It also allows a reasonably close stop to add in a connection to the Portlands.
But our subway system currently hugs the CBD on three corners and people walk to it from all directions even it if out of their way. Non?