Transit City Plan

[rbt]

Then it's brought back as an option due to the potential extension to Richmond Hill from Finch.
Report says that the TTC would save by not having to build another yard since they could use Wilson which can be massively expanded. The report due point out how it would improve connectivity and the overall network.

Metrolinx quite handily dismissed that as a savings and the RE extension got a large storage area attached to it in its design instead. Savings (versus a train going around Yonge loop) was about $1M per year.

There are good reasons to have Sheppard West, operator savings from out-of-service movements is not one of them.

 

[howl]

Thank you very much for taking the time to send me a note about your concerns. As you may know, Transit City was not fully funded by the Province of Ontario or the Federal Government. The transit plan that has been funded is the Metrolinx Plan and that plan includes transit investment on Sheppard, Eglinton, the Scarborough RT and Finch. Stopping Transit City does not jeopardize the Metrolinx Plan.

During the last municipal campaign, the voters of Toronto, through their support for Mayor Ford, indicated a preference for below-surface transit. Over the next few months, the TTC, Metrolinx and the Province will revisit the current Metrolinx Plan with a goal to increase the amount of below-surface transit.

We all have a shared goal of a regional transportation plan that meets the needs of the riders of today and in the future. I am confident that the TTC, Metrolinx and the Province will work together to adjust the plan in a fiscally responsible manner that will receive the endorsement of the residents of Toronto.

Yours truly.

If asked most "voters" would also want 20 lane wide expressways and all the free ice cream they could eat. That doesn't mean those are realistic options.

 

[Electrify]

Running a bus with 10 minute frequencies and a train underneath has very high operating costs for covering a single street, it is also one of the larger complaints about Sheppard from those who lived there before it was built and are stuck between stations. They went from having 2 minute service to 20 minute service.

What about all those poor people on Yonge St between St. Clair and Queens Quay? The stop spacing is now up to 700m, forcing those who used to have a streetcar stop at their door but now live in between stops to walk up to the station rather than catching the streetcar from outside their door. And now we have a rush hour bus to supplement service through this stretch, with service every 30 minutes. Think of how wasteful that is!

Running local service alongside rapid service is part of running a transit service, not some sort of radical thinking.

 

[Calrissian]

That's political spin. Above ground LRT and underground subway aren't interchangeable. I want to see what comes to council but if an Eglinton LRT or subway doesn't get built on her watch, she's not going to make it past 2014.

MM, reply to her and make that very clear...

 

[rbt]

What about all those poor people on Yonge St between St. Clair and Queens Quay? The stop spacing is now up to 700m, forcing those who used to have a streetcar stop at their door but now live in between stops to walk up to the station rather than catching the streetcar from outside their door. And now we have a rush hour bus to supplement service through this stretch, with service every 30 minutes. Think of how wasteful that is!

You find 30-minute rush-hour only service an acceptable replacement?

Yonge line is old enough that those it concerned are long gone. Expectations do change to be what is currently required.

If Toronto suddenly reduced bus service on all routes to 30 minute frequencies, then two decades later increased to 20 minute frequencies it would be hailed as new and marvellous. When you cannot remember what was lost, everything seems okay.


Anyway, wheeltrans numbers for Sheppard corridor would be useful. Are the people with a 700m walk (nobody lived directly on Sheppard, they're on a side street) more prone to taking wheel trans which has a subsidy level in the $10's per trip? All these 50 year old boomers will be 70 soon and I don't envy the person in charge of the wheel-trans budget.


A good answer here is probably to build stops every 2km at start but with track setup every 500m for an additional station when wanted. This allows the line to adjust itself over the decades to the urbanization of the area.

Eglinto to York Mills will never have additional stops inserted despite being quite useful.

 

[SimonP]

What about all those poor people on Yonge St between St. Clair and Queens Quay? The stop spacing is now up to 700m, forcing those who used to have a streetcar stop at their door but now live in between stops to walk up to the station rather than catching the streetcar from outside their door. And now we have a rush hour bus to supplement service through this stretch, with service every 30 minutes. Think of how wasteful that is!

The distance from Front to St Clair is 4.8km. On that strectch there are 10 subway stations on both the Yonge and Spadina lines. That's an average stop spacing of 480m. It think those in Scarborough would be more than happy with that spacing.

 

[gweed123]

A good answer here is probably to build stops every 2km at start but with track setup every 500m for an additional station when wanted. This allows the line to adjust itself over the decades to the urbanization of the area.

Eglinto to York Mills will never have additional stops inserted despite being quite useful.

Well, they did do that with the Yonge north extension did they not? There are level sections in the line where the future mid-block stations can go.

 

[rbt]

Well, they did do that with the Yonge north extension did they not? There are level sections in the line where the future mid-block stations can go.

I was only aware of the North York station being possible. Are there other locations and do we know the cross street? Sheppard has Willowdale of course.

 

[Justin10000]

Well, they did do that with the Yonge north extension did they not? There are level sections in the line where the future mid-block stations can go.

The original plans for the subway north of Eglinton included a station at Glencairn, and a station between Lawrence and York Mills. They were taken out due to save on costs.

 

[MetroMan]

MM, reply to her and make that very clear...

... and so I did:

Councillor,

LRT and Subways are not interchangeable. You don't go from planning to build an LRT and then decide to build a subway instead on the same budget and timeline.

I understand that you may be getting a lot of requests over this -- hence your template response -- but I'd like to get your thoughts on the following:

I and many others voted for you because of your support for Transit City and for the Eglinton LRT in particular. We live in reality and so we must abide by the fact that you cannot build Ford's Sheppard subway and still have funds left over to build the Eglinton LRT (much less an Eglinton subway).

Now, will you satisfy the demands of your boss or will you deliver on your campaign promise to build the Eglinton LRT?

I hope that your new position as chair of the TTC further strengthens you as our councillor to build the decades long delayed rapid transit on Eglinton -- the highest priority transit corridor far ahead of Sheppard.

What are your thoughts? Thank you in advance for your reply.

 

[GraphicMatt]

For the lazy, like me, there's an easy way to send a Transit City support message to all of council, plus Toronto-area MPPs and the premier at this link: http://www.emailthem.ca/transitcity/.

I got Stinz's form response almost right away - what kills me is how badly it's written. What does "Stopping Transit City does not jeopardize the Metrolinx Plan" even mean. Does she think everyone is concerned about the non-Transit City parts of the Metrolinx plan?

 

[nfitz]

With the Cons winning Vaughan and Ford winning Toronto, I wouldn't be surprised seeing the Feds sending gifts to Toronto at the next election

The Cons make it clear today that there will be no more federal funding available for Toronto subways.

Meanwhile the Ontario government has said any extra costs would have to be paid for by the city, and they may even require the City to pay back amounts already spent.

With even the Conservatives not supporting Ford it's starting to become clear that the only reasonable course of action is simply to continue with Transit City.

 

[MetroMan]

the only reasonable course of action

lol

 

[SlickFranky]

Don't worry...Ford is famous for his following of reasonable courses of action, isn't he?

 

[nfitz]

Don't worry...Ford is famous for his following of reasonable courses of action, isn't he?

Ford's also famous for never having council support him.