Transit City Plan

[Electrify]

So if Agincourt is going to be turned into New Hong Kong, I'd like to see some conceptual drawings of all the new condos, office towers, businesses, and public spaces surrounding the stations. To start watering our appetites, let's look at the "new" downtown Markham:

 

[ladyscraper]

It's interesting. The Eglinton LRT would almost seem like a subway then if it's entirely buried but it seems wasteful to have that and a complete Sheppard subway since they are in a similar north part of town. However, as someone pointed out - that Sheppard money doesn't exist so it probably won't happen. If there was some weird way to come up with the money for another crosstown subway, it would be way more beneficial to have it cross downtown along King or something.
Oh well.. no reason to try to find logic in any of this.

 

[EnviroTO]

They may be fine with it, but they don't fetishize it like the TTC does. They know where it's appropriate, and where it isn't.

The TTC had Eglinton both at grade and underground and was extending the SRT above grade and below grade. So much for the fetish. Ford wants everything underground.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

Rob Ford’s hatred of above-ground rail will be a costly story

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...d-rail-will-be-a-costly-story/article1915239/

Rob Ford is consistent, you have to give him that. The mayor has made it clear all along that he dislikes streetcars and all other forms of transit that roll along city streets on rails. They only get in the way of traffic and, as he said at the auto show last week, “the war on the car is over.†All new railed transit, he insists, must go underground....

 

[gweed123]

The TTC had Eglinton both at grade and underground and was extending the SRT above grade and below grade. So much for the fetish. Ford wants everything underground.

...Ok, now what about the other 3/4 of Transit City???

 

[Automation Gallery]

...Ok, now what about the other 3/4 of Transit City???

The other 3/4 of Transit City was a vision anyways.

 

[gweed123]

I have to say though, I'm pretty satisfied with the plan that is shaping up (even though it's not official). There are still some spots where details haven't been released, so I don't know if I 100% agree with them or not, but going into this whole thing, I (and other like-minded people) had a few goals that I hoped the new plan would achieve.

1) Downtown Relief Line: Obviously isn't in this plan, but at least it's somewhat on the political and planning radar (DRTES).

2) Elimination of the forced linear transfer at Kennedy: Given that the SRT will likely become part of the Eglinton Crosstown, this issue is eliminated. Yes, I will admit that my preference was initially for an extension of the Bloor-Danforth subway, but hey, this does a lot of the same thing, and won't cause any delays.

3) Complete grade-separation of the Crosstown route: Whether it will be tunnelled the entire way or not remains to be seen, but either way, I'm happy that it will be entirely grade-separated.

4) Stopping the Sheppard subway from being cut off at its knees at Don Mills: I was never a fan of the SELRT, and quite frankly I'd much rather see that $950 million be spent somewhere else, than on an LRT out to suburban never never land. Whether or not Ford's vision of a Sheppard subway ever becomes reality is doubtful, but either way, the status quo or a relatively minor increase in bus reliability, or a BRT-light service is fine with me.

So 3 out of 4 things on my wish list isn't too bad. Considering the disaster this could have been, I think this turned out fairly well. We're getting a true midtown crosstown line that will stretch from one side of the city to the other. Even if this is not the grand vision that Transit City had initially set out, it's still the single largest transit infrastructure project that the City of Toronto has ever taken on. It will be longer than the Bloor-Danforth subway, and longer than the Yonge and Spadina subways when counted as separate lines (they weren't originally planned as one line). You can't help but call that a victory.

 

[Dan416]

If you're going to the trouble of linking the SRT to the Eglinton underground LRT, it makes more sense just to build the SRT as an extension of the Danforth line instead. Why would anyone from Scarborough want to travel to Yonge-Eglinton to transfer to get downtown? Seems silly to me.

Funny thing is, there's been no confirmation as to what exactly the SRT replacement will be, only speculation.

As for the rest of the plan, I'm okay with it. Too bad about Finch though. And I think Eglinton didn't really need to be underground the whole way. I'd rather have the SRT be a Danforth extension or get a few stations on the Sheppard line (since with this 3P Sheppard Subway I don't see going anywhere fast).

 

[GraphicMatt]

I think ultimately the SRT being part of Eglinton comes down to ownership requirements.

 

[leopetr]

If you're going to the trouble of linking the SRT to the Eglinton underground LRT, it makes more sense just to build the SRT as an extension of the Danforth line instead.

You do realize that's impossible without spending a lot more money, right?

Why would anyone from Scarborough want to travel to Yonge-Eglinton to transfer to get downtown?

One reason would be so that they can transfer to the Yonge subway before it fills up even more at Yonge-Bloor.

 

[Electrify]

In an attempt to encourage Scarborough residents to take the Bloor-Danforth line rather than taking the Yonge line, I could see shutting down some of the stations on the B-D line to improve its speed. If the trip downtown ends up being faster to transfer at Kennedy and Bloor/Yonge rather than just at Eglinton, it could keep the Yonge line from literally exploding through midtown.

 

[lafard]

Eglinton might actually be a better transfer point than Bloor-yonge anyways, we're designing it from scratch and have quite a bit more space to play around with. In fact diverting people off BD would probably remove the need to remodel Bloor-Yonge, freeing up however many millions of dollars for other projects. In the medium term the increased traffic could well force DRL sooner than otherwise expected.

 

[Thoughtless Miscreant]

In an attempt to encourage Scarborough residents to take the Bloor-Danforth line rather than taking the Yonge line, I could see shutting down some of the stations on the B-D line to improve its speed. If the trip downtown ends up being faster to transfer at Kennedy and Bloor/Yonge rather than just at Eglinton, it could keep the Yonge line from literally exploding through midtown.

I imagine the people living around those stations might have a problem with that scheme.

 

[nfitz]

I could see shutting down some of the stations on the B-D line to improve its speed.

Your probably the only one who thinks this may happen. There was absolutely no discussion of this at the recent open houses for some of the lesser used B-D stations discussing second entrances.

 

[gweed123]

In an attempt to encourage Scarborough residents to take the Bloor-Danforth line rather than taking the Yonge line, I could see shutting down some of the stations on the B-D line to improve its speed. If the trip downtown ends up being faster to transfer at Kennedy and Bloor/Yonge rather than just at Eglinton, it could keep the Yonge line from literally exploding through midtown.

You would be better off proposing an express rail option from either Victoria Park Station or Main St Station down to Union Station via the Lakeshore East GO route, basically a similar proposal to the ARL. This would give downtown-bound Scarborough residents the opportunity to bypass the B-D subway on their way to downtown. May not be extremely well used, but it would go over a heck of a lot better than shutting down stations on the B-D line.