Time for me to weigh in on this plan with some belated thoughts and questions.
Firstly, for the most part, although there are some glaring gaps, I think this plan is amazing. I just don't understand why it wasn't unveiled months ago before the Feds ponied up the cash for the Spadina subway extension since that money would have gone to much better use had it been invested in this. I know, I know - politics.
I love true subways as much as the rest of you guys, but given their astronomical cost and the years of frustrating tooth pulling that it takes to get three bureaucracies to agree to fund extensions in small, almost meaningless increments in this country, they just don't make much sense until a system of sustained, predictable funding for mass transit is secured again. Given this unfortunate situation, the city has come up with this brilliantly sensible compromise solution - an LRT rail network criss-crossing the city, bringing rapid transit to woefully underserved areas with near-subway capacities that could be built in a fraction of the time at a tenth of the cost. Who could possibly argue against such a plan? It's exactly what the city needs, and, assuming funding is secured relatively soon, would be operational before gridlock spirals totally out of control as a result of the predicted huge population growth of the next 20 years.
Now, on to the specifics:
Waterfront West LRT: The no-brainer. People have been complaining for years that traveling between downtown and southern Etobicoke via King or Queen is a nightmare. Given that most of the route would use already existing track, it's amazing that this wasn't done ages ago. It would also bring much needed re-development and gentrification to one of the only areas of Etobicoke that has any character to it. Funny thing however is that just last summer a good chunk of the Lakeshore Blvd streetcar tracks were rebuilt. My friend and I gasped in frustration that they didn't take the opportunity right then and there to get the ROW going, but I guess in fairness there was no such thing as Transit City on the radar at that point.
Jane LRT: A corridor that's very dense in sections, and a logical choice for a north-south line in the western half of the city. My only gripe about it is that it doesn't extend south of Bloor to connect with the Waterfront West LRT in the South Kingsway/Humber Bay area, where quite a bit of residential construction has occurred, though I assume such an extension would be on the table as soon as the proposed line were complete.
Eglinton Crosstown LRT: Obviously the most significant line as it crosses the entire city at more or less the midway point along an often dense corridor and provides a link to the airport to boot. And if you were to spend its $2.2 billion cost on a full subway, all you'd get is another Sheppard-esque stub from roughly Eglinton West to Keele (if even that far at this point) that would languish underused for decades before a further extension would be built. FORGET THE SUBWAY.
Don Mills LRT: Finally an eastern north-south line to relieve Yonge in just the right spot. Can't see any flaws other than, like Jane, for some reason it initially doesn't go south of Bloor into downtown to connect with the intended Waterfront East LRT, although one should assume that such an extension would not take long to materialize.
Scarborough-Malvern LRT: Certainly the most unexpected and intriguing alignment. I'm not familiar with the east end of the city at all (pretty much anything east of Yonge, actually!) so I can't really comment on how useful this line would be.
The north: This is where the presence of the Sheppard stubway causes a big problem of discontinuity. Putting an LRT across the entire length of Finch would be ideal, but to justify the stubway's unfortunate existence, the eastern portion of the northern cross-town line has to be placed along Sheppard, thereby creating extra transfer hassles. In the western half, Finch is a much busier corridor than Sheppard, so I guess it was never really an option to just build along the entire length of Sheppard. Despite that this part of the plan is a bit of a mess in that sense, at least north-east Scarborough and the eternally suffering northern Etobicoke and Rexdale will finally have rapid transit access, ending their isolation. Another great aspect of the Finch West LRT is that it finally provides a connection between the Yonge and Spadina subways north of Bloor.
Questions:
- The SRT: Instead of refurbishing that piece of junk, why don't they just convert the whole thing to LRT to provide potentially transferless through-traffic capabilities with the other proposed lines that it intersects with? On a related note, if this were done, would it be useful to run a branch of this LRT line straight up Kennedy to Steeles (and possibly into Markham)?
- Missing lines: Apparently somebody posted (can't remember if it was here or on SSC) that the city's original Transit City proposal was far more ambitious than this version that was released to the public last Friday. Steve Munro also hinted at this in his blog when he mentioned that a Kipling LRT was seriously considered. What do you guys think are some of the corridors that the TTC put on the side for the time being? Kipling doesn't really strike me as the ideal spot for a central Etobicoke north-south line. Firstly, for almost its entire length it runs through either low density sprawly 50's bungalow neighbourhoods or light industrial areas. The only somewhat denser areas it hits are around Dundas, Dixon and Steeles. Plus, it also goes right through that whole Six-Points interchange disaster, though that will hopefully be corrected in the next few years.
There should be a west-end LRT line between Humber College in the north and Long Branch in the south, which would run along the western side of highway 27 and 427, since that side seems to have more nodes (Woodbine racetrack and mall, the airport, the civic centre, Sherway Gardens, more apartment blocks in general, and easier connections with Mississauga). I would bet money that the TTC had such a line planned and it should definitely be a top candidate for future system expansion once the proposed lines are built or under construction, especially since in the current plan, there's nothing proposed to enable efficient, rapid travel north and south within Etobicoke itself, which I think is a notable error.
Now, when you take the Jane LRT and the idea of a 427/27 LRT into consideration for a central Etobicoke LRT, the route that lies exactly half way between the two is actually Islington, not Kipling. It does seem to be a busier road than Kipling as well, at least judging by my own experiences, and despite that it's not exactly the densest street either, it hits the same amount of denser nodes as Kipling does (in this case, ECC, Dundas, Dixon, and maybe Albion). How feasible would an Islington LRT be? Why would the TTC look at Kipling instead? I'm really curious to hear your comments on this, if you've actually read this far!
Other missing lines -
Kingston: There's an EA being done to introduce an LRT/streetcar ROW along Kingston road northeast from Coxwell (I think), yet for some strange reason this doesn't appear in this plan. Anyone have an idea why that is? Not only would this provide an important link to the Scarborough-Malvern LRT, but if extended west along Eastern Avenue and Lakeshore could also link up with the also-currently-under-EA Waterfront East/Cherry LRT, which would create one massive line that would relieve the entire eastern stretch of the Bloor-Danforth subway. This seems very logical to me, yet for reasons unknown to me does not appear in the plan. Please enlighten me as to the nature of this glaring omission!
St.Clair: What are the future expansion plans for this line? I keep seeing different ones - some say that it will turn south on Jane to go into Jane station (unecessary overlap now that the Jane LRT is planned), some say that it will turn south at Scarlett and continue on Dundas all the way to Kipling station, and some say it will stay on Dundas beyond Kipling and go all the way into Mississauga. I guess we won't know for sure until the stupid EA for beyond the Gunns loop is complete. What about east of Yonge though? Again, my knowledge of the area is terrible, but would it be beneficial to take it over the Don valley all the way to Kingston road so that we would have a mid-midtown line all the way across the city?
Lawrence: How about a Lawrence-Dixon line? I vaguely recall Miller himself mentioning the possibility of a ROW along Lawrence. It's certainly wide enough and it would also go directly to the airport unlike Eglinton, which would have to curve north - not that that's a huge issue or anything.
York Mills-Wilson-Albion LRT: Potential corridor?
Steeles LRT: Same question.
Kennedy LRT: As I mentioned before, this seems like the proper route for a central Scarborough north-south line, running from downtown Markham in the north to Kingston Road in the south. Thoughts?
Dufferin LRT: A lot of people seem to be of the opinion that as soon as the Dufferin jog is eliminated, this route will be upgraded to rail. From Dufferin Gates at the CNE, where it would link up with the Waterfront West LRT, you cold run it all the way up to Yorkdale station, or to Wilson once it got it's own LRT. I suppose a lot of it would have to be tunnelled though, unless the city would be willing to just have it operate in mixed traffic like many other downtown streetcar routes.
Lansdowne: What about rail going down Lansdowne which would then continue on Jameson to link up with the Waterfront West line? Probably not necessary if Dufferin were to get a route, and the turn from Lansdowne to Jameson would likely be problematic.
Ossington: This has also been cited as having potential to be upgraded to streetcar transit, though given the width, a ROW would be impossible without tunnelling. Could it become a possibility once CAMH is rebuilt and the street continues south to the CNE?
Weston: A dense, dilapidated area well deserving of rapid transit and has existing rail corridors, yet despite this has been left out in the cold with this plan. Are streetcars the answer? Tunnelled LRT?
Dupont-Annette: Streetcars along this route from Spadina (or Avenue) to Jane. Dumb idea or has merit?
Avenue Rd: One of the few relatively wide streets downtown, although its proximity to the Yonge subway might not justify a need for a streetcar line.
Bay: Same as above, though apparently the TTC regretted eliminating the streetcars on it. I'm assuming that was just until the University subway was built, or am I wrong?
Sherbourne: Streetcar south of Bloor?
Richmond/Adelaide: The same question keeps popping up - could these two streets provide much needed relief of King and Queen if they had their own streetcar routes?
Wow, I'm really tired and can't think anymore. I apologize for making my post so long, but I'm just very excited about this plan. Are there any other routes I overlooked?
Oh and one more thing: On Sunday I was listening to CFRB and Adam Giambrone did a phone interview in which he discussed Transit City and mentioned that all the lines will have traffic signal priority. Makes you wonder what the hold up on Spadina is.
