Toronto Spadina Subway Extension Emergency Exits | ?m | 1s | TTC | IBI Group

[TJ O'Pootertoot]

Mayoral candidate Mario Racco is also touting it.
If the hospital was already there, and if Wonderland was a year-round destination I miiiiight see it but I agree that LRT (if not BRT) is more sensible.
It seems to me the pols can wag all they want but that extenstion is not in the Metrolinx plan so there's NO way it's happening before the Yonge extension and the DRL, and probably not before the Transitway either.

 

[urbandreamer]

Then the next stage would be maybe three more stations west terminating in old Kleinburg/McMichael Centre....

 

[W. K. Lis]

Then the next stage would be maybe three more stations west terminating in old Kleinburg/McMichael Centre....

Not before the Yonge extention reaches Newmarket, Bradford, and eventually Barrie itself.

 

[urbandreamer]

Using GPS or even an electronic marker in each station, the TTC could keep track of how far customers go on a "pay as you go" system. (Each transit pass would have a chip, and maybe you'd end up paying at the end of each month instead of at the start of the month?)

 

[Darwinkgo]

It is called tap on tap off - it is not rocket science, works with Presto, or any smart card system. If you don't tap off, you pay a max fare, pretty simple.

No need for fancy gps tracking.

 

[strookie]

Then the next stage would be maybe three more stations west terminating in old Kleinburg/McMichael Centre....

Oh, the posh, snobby citizens of Kleinburg would never allow for a subway in their neighbourhood! Should some sneaky politician manage to accomplish that against all odds, then watch Klienburg install 3-foot tall speed bumps on the tracks so that the subway can only run 0.1 km/h through their town.

 

[Fred.S]

A little bit off-topic, but just saw this on Youtube:

[video=youtube;jTSwppnahFQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTSwppnahFQ[/video]

The Swiss just completed the boring of an incredible 57 km railway tunnel after 7 years (150 km of total tunneling). You'd think the Spadina extension could go just a bit faster.

 

[Dan416]

A little bit off-topic, but just saw this on Youtube:

The Swiss just completed the boring of an incredible 57 km railway tunnel after 7 years (150 km of total tunneling). You'd think the Spadina extension could go just a bit faster.

Toronto has so many issues to deal with, they're nothing like Switzerland. All Switzerland had to deal with was a mountain. Toronto has water tables.

 

[junctionist]

Toronto has so many issues to deal with, they're nothing like Switzerland. All Switzerland had to deal with was a mountain. Toronto has water tables.

Fair enough, but you'd think we'd have a smaller number of road and rail tunnels in Toronto, instead of nothing.

 

[Asterix]

Fair enough, but you'd think we'd have a smaller number of road and rail tunnels in Toronto, instead of nothing.

What?

Apart from the subway (which is in tunnels a lot of the way), what roads or rail corridors are there in Toronto where it would make any kind of rational economic sense to put in tunnels? What do you think the price tag is of the most oft-suggested - burying the Gardiner?

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

What?

Apart from the subway (which is in tunnels a lot of the way), what roads or rail corridors are there in Toronto where it would make any kind of rational economic sense to put in tunnels? What do you think the price tag is of the most oft-suggested - burying the Gardiner?

$2 billion or so to bury the Gardiner from Dufferin to Jarvis.

Another $2 billion (roughly) to bury the tracks around Union station and electrify them.

It's also been mentioned that the rail line that runs north of Dupont could be buried as well as a new tunnel to connect with pearson airport under the terminal (rather than at the people mover station). If a high speed rail proposal ever got off the ground some of the route could be straightened out by tunneling.

 

[nfitz]

$2 billion or so to bury the Gardiner from Dufferin to Jarvis.

That's about 5 kilometres. About $400 million per kilometre. I'd guess that such a wide highway in such difficult soils, would be about 3 to 5 times more expensive.

 

[Fred.S]

So yea I posted the Swiss video mostly because it was just neat, and it'd be cool to see Toronto's TBMs in action. I realize they are extremely different projects.

I don't think a lot in Toronto needs to be tunneled, but if there's one thing I'd support, it's definitely the DRL. But that would be for another thread...

 

[junctionist]

Tunnelling often makes for a lot better infrastructure. Rather than severing neighbourhoods and introducing major sources of noise, the infrastructure can be isolated in the ground. Switzerland has cases where highways are built under neighbourhoods through a city. Maybe it would have been cheaper to cut a trench, demolish a lot of properties along a corridor and sink some areas into economic depression for decades, but it wouldn't be better for the city.

If you want the highest quality infrastructure, then you have to pay. You can rationalize mediocrity by saying the better alternative doesn't make "economic sense" but at the end of the day, you have an urban environment where many people feel cut off from the major amenities, where people won't even consider living in certain areas because of the noise of a piece of infrastructure. Of course, there are limits to what can be built, but the "build nothing" approach to tunnels suggests that there's no balance between quality and quantity.

 

[Asterix]

If you want the highest quality infrastructure, then you have to pay. You can rationalize mediocrity by saying the better alternative doesn't make "economic sense" but at the end of the day, you have an urban environment where many people feel cut off from the major amenities, where people won't even consider living in certain areas because of the noise of a piece of infrastructure. Of course, there are limits to what can be built, but the "build nothing" approach to tunnels suggests that there's no balance between quality and quantity.

Which is a valid abstract argument. But in reality, we certainly aren't scaring people off from living by the waterfront or right next to a rail line or expressway and those areas certainly aren't sinking into an economic hole.

As a previous poster mentioned, spending those billions on a DRL instead of tunneling the Gardiner and rail line (whether it is $2 billion or many times more) makes more economic and logical sense.