Oh gotcha. Yeah, I don't really see that option moving forward very far.
Me neither. I think it's stupid and a waste of time to even talk about it. However it was shortlisted by Mlinx, and believe the Prov may very well opt for it as their #1 Relief Line choice in a few months. On the surface this doesn't make sense. But perhaps the unstated reason could be to further complicate and delay the City's plan so the Prov can a) not pay for the subway, or b) get on with their own pet projects.
Higher levels changing plans to make-or-break other plans is somewhat of a longstanding tradition in these parts. And sometimes they have neutral "experts" on standby to back them up - e.g Neptis/Schabas claiming that we don't need a relief subway. Apparently all our core congestion problems can be solved by spending a few $Million on a pedestrian connection between Main Stn and Danforth GO. Costly high-risk ventures like building subways thru fields along suburban highways OTH...
those are necessary
Reading yesterdays ST/RL Ridership Forecast report makes it pretty clear that adding new ideas out of the blue like Tory's ST East (aka Stouffville RER+) can throw a wrench in the RL plans - adding time, using scarce funds, and slowly whittling-down the importance and alignment of the RL. I wouldn't put it past the Prov/Mlinx to do the same with their YRNS study. Example: highlight something odd like a Don Mills-Broadview-Front LRT to compete with the City's Pape-Queen subway plan (so as to purposefully result in
further delays / reports / modeling / realignments etc for the RL). The endgame from Tory and Wynne may be to slowly chip away and denude the RL even more. I get that people like
@Forgotten claim Keesmaat is doing the cheapening on the DRL front. But I think her, Byford, and our Planning Dept are pushing against the tide and doing everything they can to
not cheapen things. And I commend them for it.
I can't help wondering why it doesn't go one stop further. I'm thinking of those huge crowds flooding out of Blue Jay games. Many walk all the way to Queen now....finding a subway station up there around John or Peter that goes east just seems marketable.
Exactly. Those crowds this summer were insanity. I mean really. It's easy to joke about core congestion, but at times this gets serious. The volumes of people flooding the streets, stations, and surface transit is downright scary at times. Able-bodied people have trouble, but the wayward tourist or family with kids in tow are put in dangerous situations. I'd fully support extending the RL further west even if it is just by one station.
And although I'm not a big fan of a single City Hall station, I think there's an opportunity to do something really cool. I recall during early plans for Dundas Square there was a proposal for a glass floor in the plaza so people could see the subway below their feet. Not sure how viable that is, but I think for a City Hall Stn an expansive natural light-filled cavern below the street would be great. And if we could tastefully include Old City Hall this could very well be one of the world's most attractive metro stations.
Two more images I snapped at the Public Presentation tonight, that do not seem to be in the presentation PDF.
These show detailed Relief Line alignment options. Sorry about crappy photo-taking, people were walking around me and my hands shaked... edit: I stitched the image together
Whoa, these are gold. When will the public get to see these detailed alignments? I've been waiting for too long...getting antsy.
