You can't change the fact that huge numbers of people live north of downtown and so they'll keep taking the subway. The City of Toronto is eyeing 1000s of new residents north of Finch too, and they'll take your seats too. I live in York Region and I take it, whether or not the line is extended. that's already true of thousands of others. As so many people here LOVE pointing out, even the Metrolinx study shows the capacity you open with the DRL will be used by 2031, right? So how does that help poor Pman get a seat? How is it an answer to the problem?
The City of Toronto's plans for new residents is contingent with the Yonge North extension, which Toronto has logically prioritized after the Relief Line. At least those thousands of new residents between Finch and Steeles will be paying City of Toronto taxes and contributing to subsidizing the City of Toronto transit system.
The Metrolinx study shows this with the short option between just Danforth and Downtown, which the Toronto City Planning department have verified with their own projections showing that the Yonge Subway will be over capacity in 2031 even with both the DRL and ST/GO-RER. It shows however, that the Relief Line would relieve the Yonge Subway by 1/3 if it is extended to Sheppard. This is our logical next step. This is the
answer to the
problem. (until post-2050 anyway)
Everyone's so hung up on the micro they can't see how this plays out regionwide - how transit capacity and road capacity are related, for example. I could go on (obviously). but the DRL is not going to singlehandedly solve downstream crowding on Yonge is the point. And most of you know that already, so take a chill pill. Or go protest to your politicians. It doesn't matter much to me.
This is quite funny because this has been the single greatest flaws in your arguments and posts on here.
Do you not realize how adding the Yonge North riders to the already over-capacity subway has ramifications all across the TTC? From Sheppard to Bloor? On every single connecting bus route? On transit mode share throughout the entire city? On loss opportunity cost due to congestion? On a higher frequency of service interruptions? On health and safety? What about transit-oriented development and other intensification within Toronto along the currently existing system? Should we scrap that and start building more parking spaces because York Region wants their TOD to be serviced by a subway first?
I don't want to sound like the sky is falling down, but it really is! The Yonge North extension, if no other forms of relief are built first, will really compromise the vitality and competitiveness of Toronto and the entire region!
Your prescription is literally, we can't solve downstream crowding in the long-run anyway, so we might as well jeopardize the whole system by adding more capacity issues to it. Instead, we want to prioritize the spending of that limited funding on relieving that Yonge subway crowding.
