Richmond Hill Yonge Line 1 North Subway Extension | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx

[leopetr]

^^ How's Langstaff an artificial terminal? It's at Highway 7 (the main E-W road and soon to be the main E-W high density corridor,) and the 407, which makes for an amazing transit terminal.

Great for transfers, not so good as an actual stop. There's nothing aside from the movie theatre within walking distance. Yonge is far, High Tech Rd is on an embankment with no pedestrian stairs, and Highway 7 is a limited access highway for that stretch.

I suppose they might redevelop the movie theatre, its vast parking lot, and the fenced-off Home Depot across the tracks eventually, but right now the station is a bit of an armpit.

It especially makes no sense to try to pull LRT on the entire route, as ridership has definitely not reached LRT levels north of 7, and especially not in Aurora and Newmarket.

A St. Clair-style median for BRT is supposed to start construction on Davis Drive in Newmarket this year, as well as on bits of Yonge and Highway 7. So, Newmarket is getting two BRT right-of-way as I understand things. Those have a similar capacity to LRT.

LRT on a portion of the route (Steeles-Highway 7 or Finch-Major Mac) would be an even worse option, since it unnecessarily splits the route up with little gain, not to mention overlooking the needs of York Region pretty much totally.

I agree. Three technologies is one too many for the Yonge corridor.

 

[Uncle Teddy]

I suppose they might redevelop the movie theatre, its vast parking lot, and the fenced-off Home Depot across the tracks eventually, but right now the station is a bit of an armpit.

You might want to look at the plans for the thousands of condo units they are planning for this location as well as those on the south side of the 407.

When Finch opened in 1974 pretty much everything north of Steeles and west of Yonge was farmland. Armpit indeed.

 

[Second_in_pie]

Great for transfers, not so good as an actual stop. There's nothing aside from the movie theatre within walking distance. Yonge is far, High Tech Rd is on an embankment with no pedestrian stairs, and Highway 7 is a limited access highway for that stretch.

Richmond Hill actually has quite extensive development plans for the Langstaff area. Just north of Highway 7, they're planning a large urban centre, complete with high density businesses. South of the 407, they're planning a pretty huge high density community as well. They're also following the greenbelt by encouraging densification along Yonge pretty much all they way up Yonge, which I can believe will gradually happen with the runoff from RHC and Langstaff.

I'm not sure how far ahead plans are, but I think there's some renderings of what both communities will look like a couple pages back in this thread. But it's probably past VCC, and should be superior to VCC in terms of efficiency and being a true downtown area.

 

[victor]

Great for transfers, not so good as an actual stop. There's nothing aside from the movie theatre within walking distance.

LCBO and The Beer Store just around the corner. That's a lot!

 

[waterloowarrior]

reposting this again...

 

[Second_in_pie]

^^ Thanks!

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

How many of those residents will be heading south into Toronto vs West to Vaughan Metropolitan Centre, Brampton, Mississauga, North West Toronto, North to Newmarket, Barrie, East to Markham tech centre or Durham region. And of those heading into Toronto how many can be better served by Regional rail?

 

[kettal]

How many of those residents will be heading south into Toronto vs West to Vaughan Metropolitan Centre, Brampton, Mississauga, North West Toronto, North to Newmarket, Barrie, East to Markham tech centre or Durham region. And of those heading into Toronto how many can be better served by Regional rail?

Many of these can be served by the Hwy 7 transit. If they're going to Mississauga, perhaps the GO bus that does RH to Mississauga Centre, but that kind of commute is really made for drivers.

My concern with the Richmond Hill centre buildings is that it won't be a pedestrian friendly area, especially if you have to cross the tracks. The bridges over the tracks are very unpleasant for walking.

 

[CityPlaceN1]

My biggest concern is Yonge Street. The traffic here is already bad. What will it be like when all these buildings and the massive TTC parking lot are built?

 

[Second_in_pie]

My biggest concern is Yonge Street. The traffic here is already bad. What will it be like when all these buildings and the massive TTC parking lot are built?

If YRT does it's job well (which I believe it will,) probably not that bad. Viva will do a very good job of serving crosstown riders once they get the BRT in, and YRT's continuing to improve service drastically.

I agree with kettal, in that they'll have to carefully engineer the area so it's pedestrian-friendly. If they do that, it should be all good

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

My concern with the Richmond Hill centre buildings is that it won't be a pedestrian friendly area, especially if you have to cross the tracks. The bridges over the tracks are very unpleasant for walking.

Didn't you get the memo? Subway automatically makes everything pedestrian friendly!

 

[Fresh Start]

Didn't you get the memo? Subway automatically makes everything pedestrian friendly!

Not if you have to walk half a kilometre in order to access said subway. You make it sound like it'll be central to the whole new development area. It won't be. In fact as the station will be located north of High Tech a ways inward from Yonge St, it will even be quite a trek away from the existing GO station and bus terminal.

BTW, those artitectural sketches don't impress me. It's still not justification enough for extending the Yonge Line that far north when it will only amount to the subway having no real functional purpose for intra-416 travel (as no one will be able to get on-board trains from Sheppard southwards). And how is it logical to counter with the argument that it's useful because it'll connect to a GO line there, which will also route trips into the exact same end-point in downtown Toronto and can be made to operate faster and at reduced headways to match that of the north-of-Finch 5-min headways of the extension? Confusing, I know.

Instead of a funnel solution for York Region, we need a fan. Have the passenger loads spread out. Have Vaughan residents use TYSSE; Markham residents use a flurry of BRT/LRT routes into Scarborough and down Don Mills; and have the bulk of Richmond Hill residents use its very own GO commuter rail corridor. Added stations at 16th Avenue and John/Bayview increases the catchment of residents it can directly serve. For the remnants that have to at all costs board the Yonge Line from the top down (as opposed to taking a feeder route into a more southerly point, like say York Mills via transit along the 401/404); There's the option of segragated LRT ROW down the median of Yonge Street which can strech all the way up to 19th Avenue and down directly onto platfrom level of a new Steeles Stn terminus.

If we were willing to explore all those possible options ahead of a full-length subway extension and even then it still wasn't enough... then and only then, I'd side with the mindset it is actually worth the investment to extend beyond Steeles. That however I just don't foresee happening, not for another 100 years at least.

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

Not if you have to walk half a kilometre in order to access said subway. You make it sound like it'll be central to the whole new development area. It won't be. In fact as the station will be located north of High Tech a ways inward from Yonge St, it will even be quite a trek away from the existing GO station and bus terminal.

BTW, those artitectural sketches don't impress me. It's still not justification enough for extending the Yonge Line that far north when it will only amount to the subway having no real functional purpose for intra-416 travel (as no one will be able to get on-board trains from Sheppard southwards). And how is it logical to counter with the argument that it's useful because it'll connect to a GO line there, which will also route trips into the exact same end-point in downtown Toronto and can be made to operate faster and at reduced headways to match that of the north-of-Finch 5-min headways of the extension? Confusing, I know.

Instead of a funnel solution for York Region, we need a fan. Have the passenger loads spread out. Have Vaughan residents use TYSSE; Markham residents use a flurry of BRT/LRT routes into Scarborough and down Don Mills; and have the bulk of Richmond Hill residents use its very own GO commuter rail corridor. Added stations at 16th Avenue and John/Bayview increases the catchment of residents it can directly serve. For the remnants that have to at all costs board the Yonge Line from the top down (as opposed to taking a feeder route into a more southerly point, like say York Mills via transit along the 401/404); There's the option of segragated LRT ROW down the median of Yonge Street which can strech all the way up to 19th Avenue and down directly onto platfrom level of a new Steeles Stn terminus.

If we were willing to explore all those possible options ahead of a full-length subway extension and even then it still wasn't enough... then and only then, I'd side with the mindset it is actually worth the investment to extend beyond Steeles. That however I just don't foresee happening, not for another 100 years at least.

That's what I've been saying all along (sarcasm and the internet don't mix), I would have rather seen improved GO service before or even as a precurser to a subway extension. This way commuters would have grown accustomed to riding the GO train.

 

[kEiThZ]

I don't think most of the riders getting on RHC will be due for Union. Most will likely get off before Eglinton and quite a few at Sheppard or earlier. I think it's a misnomer that all of these riders will be due for Union and therefore the extension isn't warranted. Yonge is becoming a contiguous corridor with the municipal boundary on Steeles becoming less and less relevant.

 

[xtremesniper]

In fact as the station will be located north of High Tech a ways inward from Yonge St, it will even be quite a trek away from the existing GO station and bus terminal.

I may be wrong, but I attended the public sessions and have been reading a lot about this and there has been no mention of the station being anywhere else but where the current SilverCity movie theater is planted. They are in talks with Metrus, the owner of those lands, to rebuild everything based around the idea of a subway station being there. The only thing that would have to be changed north of High Tech is the LCBO when they do a cut-and-cover.

And the last I heard, they were debating if the station should be closer to Yonge or closer to the rail line. From what I remember, most people favored it being along Yonge but couldn't be a decision because then they noted that nobody likes long walks between transfers (ala Spadina subway station).

Also, York Region Rapid Transit Corp is looking to hire a subway operations manager: http://www.york.ca/Employment/workopolis_current_opportunities.htm