M II A II R II K
Senior Member
You could still start work on it after just 100 days on the known route it would take above ground. Such as setting new tracks along side the GO corridor from Gerrard Square to the GO RH line at Queen.
I think a "quick 6 month study" is very, very optimistic. The DRL will be a technical nightmare in the core. It will take them a couple of years just to locate and move all the existing underground infrastructure out of the way. It will take them at least as long to acquire or expropriate all the land they need. Remember that modern underground systems have significantly higher safety standards than underground systems built even twenty years ago vis–Ã –vis ventilation shafts. Look at the vent structures they are building for the Eglinton Crosstown. Look at the new vent structure the TTC is currently building at Lawrence Station. Look at the vent structures they are building for the 2nd Avenue subway in NYC. They are massive. Any new subway through downtown Toronto will have a significant footprint on the surface and subsurface. There will be legal battles and community uproar to deal with before the final route can be chosen.
On top of that the actual impact of constructing a new subway through the core will make the ECLRT construction look like a cakewalk. Many major intersections will be affected for extended periods of time. That is going to require planning and designing substantial detours, which may require road upgrades beyond those roads directly affected by the subway construction. In addition, trying to tunnel between existing underground parking structures and building foundations, and through old tiebacks and other buried remnants of Toronto past, will really slow down the tunneling.
My guess would be if they committed 100% to the DRL this fall the actual tunnel/station construction in the core wouldn't start until 2018 at the very earliest, and completion would be in 2025 or thereabouts.
I really thought you knew more about this stuff. If it was as simple as just extending a subway down Sheppard, maybe. But we don't even know WHERE the thing is going. And then you have to figure out HOW, which is going to be difficult downtown.
There's a lot of work required to even start designing the launch shafts - let alone digging them. Besides, how do you meet their promise not to start building subways until the budget is balanced?
Or you could do what Hudak promised, and start work in 100 days by starting an engineering study.You could still start work on it after just 100 days on the known route it would take above ground. Such as setting new tracks along side the GO corridor from Gerrard Square to the GO RH line at Queen.
I really thought you knew more about this stuff. If it was as simple as just extending a subway down Sheppard, maybe. But we don't even know WHERE the thing is going. And then you have to figure out HOW, which is going to be difficult downtown.
There's a lot of work required to even start designing the launch shafts - let alone digging them. Besides, how do you meet their promise not to start building subways until the budget is balanced?
Ah .... sorry, that went completely over my head!I was trying to be sarcasm and guess I fail by your response.
That's what I've thought ... but as Hudak HAS promised an even bigger gutting of service and staff than Harris, then perhaps he'll pull it off.As for the budget being balance, will not happen until after the next election without major gutting of existing service and back to 1995 future.
You could still start work on it after just 100 days on the known route it would take above ground. Such as setting new tracks along side the GO corridor from Gerrard Square to the GO RH line at Queen.
While it's true that a tunnel along King thru the Financial Core would be a nightmare as well as extremely expensive and if the GO corridor is at capacity there is an effective alternative to King, namely...
Maybe where it was originally intended to go, south of the current Union Station.
that was just one of the options, not the original intention.
I still think Adelaide makes more sense. There is obivously more office space within walking distance to these streets than somewhere south of Union station, despite the hype about Southcore (which will not be able to challenge the traditional CBD for a very long time).
Union is too crowded. Do we want to expand it once more in 10 years? It is old fashioned thinking that one big hub should assume all the connection needs. We are not a city of 1M.
On Yonge, there are already entrances to King Station as far south as Colborne St. It would be relatively (for some definition of relatively) easy to build a fare-paid connection there. You should see some of the labyrinthine fare-paid connections that exist on the NYC subway. Though, I'd agree that it would be a tall order to figure something out to connect to Union, without massively sacrificing PATH capacity.Wellington.
The downside(?) here being is that you wouldn't be able to get direct connections to the existing subway stations.