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

I seriously don't get Toronto's aversion to elevated rail. We have cities like Hong Kong, Miami, Vancouver building their transit above ground - it's cheaper, it doesn't look too bad if proper design is involved, and it's rapid transit.

Of course, none of those cities get clsoe to the amount of snow we do.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.
 
Yorkie/Torkie and Holey/Moley are exactly the kind of names I'd expect the TTC to pick.
 
Bingo ...

And I think we've all observed how well Toronto's streetcars run in the winter ... the only thing that really troubles them is when some idiot parks too close to the tracks ... and clearly that isn't a problem with any of what we are talking about! I suppose a huge freezing rain event would create havoc ... but that happens what ... once every decade or two?
 
If the weather's bad enough to shut down surface transit then the whole city in general will be shut. Buses and cars are even worse off. Even in regular snow the Bathurst bus has trouble getting up the Iroquois shoreline.
 
I could throw out the Chicago argument, but I don't even have to: a large portion of Toronto's subway system already is above ground.

"Above ground" and "elevated" are two completely different things, however. You can simply push or blow snow out of the way on the open-cut sections of the subway, but the answer is not that easy for elevated.

If we build elevated lines above streets, there will be an issue with snow accumulation. I don't know how Chicago (and New York) deal with it, but they must have some sort of protocol for it.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.
 
I could throw out the Chicago argument, but I don't even have to: a large portion of Toronto's subway system already is above ground.

And how many times have you heard on the news in the morning about frozen track switches on the GO line during the coldest days of December/January?
 
Last edited:
Oh please. New York City gets just as much snow as Toronto does.
Why are you saying this? New York City gets much less snow that Toronto and is warmer during the winter. If you'd spent any time in New York City in the winter (well, not this winter!) this would have been evident.

A quick look at Wikipedia confirms this ... Toronto averages 133.1 cm per year; yet New York City only averages 56.4 cm - that's less than 45% of what Toronto gets! Ottawa of course beats both ...

A look at the average number of snowy days, Toronto has 42, and New York City only has 11!

Still, it would be interesting to know how the JFK Skytrain ran this winter, during those big storms that stranded subway trains. I haven't seen (or looked) for anything.
 
Why are you saying this? New York City gets much less snow that Toronto and is warmer during the winter. If you'd spent any time in New York City in the winter (well, not this winter!) this would have been evident.

A quick look at Wikipedia confirms this ... Toronto averages 133.1 cm per year; yet New York City only averages 56.4 cm - that's less than 45% of what Toronto gets! Ottawa of course beats both ...

A look at the average number of snowy days, Toronto has 42, and New York City only has 11!

Still, it would be interesting to know how the JFK Skytrain ran this winter, during those big storms that stranded subway trains. I haven't seen (or looked) for anything.

Sorry, I'm just used to Ottawa. Any place that lies between "gets snow" and "snowbanks that you can step over in 1 step" are all the same in my books :p. If you don't have to stop, look at it, plan your steps in advance, and then take at least 3 steps to get over it, it isn't a snowbank. As far as I'm concerned, those cities are all equal in the "moderate winter" category, haha.
 
I like the stations. I just wish that Sheppard West station (soon to be Downsview Parc Station) and Finch West station had platforms for four train tracks. Reasoning? Then the Sheppard subway could interline with the Spadina line and continue west on Finch.
 
I like the stations. I just wish that Sheppard West station (soon to be Downsview Parc Station) and Finch West station had platforms for four train tracks. Reasoning? Then the Sheppard subway could interline with the Spadina line and continue west on Finch.

I doubt they'd ever need that extra capacity. Half the Spadina trains will be short-turning at Downsview anyway, so if you really wanted to, you could route the Sheppard trains north in the same time slots that those short turned trains occupied.
 
And people may be encouraged to instead get on the Sheppard trains and have crowds dumped onto the Yonge line at Sheppard Yonge station.
 
And people may be encouraged to instead get on the Sheppard trains and have crowds dumped onto the Yonge line at Sheppard Yonge station.

Or continue along Sheppard to STC. Think about it, an uptown line that connects 3 major suburban nodes (VMC, NYCC, STC).
 

Back
Top