I would say a Queen Line would be a good idea, even if it's just an underground streetcar for a sizeable length of it.
But the density in the downtown is 100 times greater than the suburbs, and yet they get the subways? I know its more expensive to excavate in the core but the pay-off for hundreds of thousands far outweighs the benefit to a few thousand suburbanites already well-served by GO. Isn't York U already getting a busway? A fleet of cross-GTA BRT ROWs meeting with Toronto subways at the city limits is the cheapest, quickest, most reliable, efficient and effective solution for the entire GTA. You seem to already agree with me since you advocate: "
the B/D line can be extended to Sherway on one end, and on the other end to STC and beyond up to Steeles...the 427 having stops at the airport, woodbine"
So, socialwoe, the Vaughan Corporate Centre, an area designated for major development, will never see any kind of growth. Meanwhile, anyone who suggests that Rouge Park - a wilderness park - will not be developed is visionless and near-sighted.
I never said never but much like my map's timeline the end results (meeting sustainable capacity via premanent population growth NOT merely seasonal university use) will likely be far, far off in the future. So VCC which doesn't exist yet, (which the TTC itself predicts won't hit 20,000 ppd- an extremely low ridership tally considering the immediate heavy usage of Eglinton, Queen, even Sheppard- until 20 years after line completion), deserves a line ahead of STC, Centennial College, Markham gateway, Sheppard East- another area designated for major development, Malvern Town Centre, 000s of new residents in Morningside Heights, Rouge Park (hey if it worked for Christie, High Park and Downsview it'll work again- campers and skiers will shrill in glee) and yes again the Zoo which I've already explained wouldn't destroy the environment like some eco-nuts around here suspect.
And for the record its Scarberian who said it'd take developing the park to support the subway which are really RTs which would not damage an acre of parkland due to its own ROW on Zoo property :rolleyes .
Two wildly opposing opinions from one poster wildly lost in his own fantasy land.
The only person living in his own fantasy land is the one that'd sink billions into a DRL line that'll go underused west of Bathurst, run the BD line into the hinterland of Markberia to serve a shopping mall, yes folks a shopping mall already complete with its very own GO station and yet still needs a subway line, neglect nearly one-third of the city because its not close enough to Yonge St., ridicule the ingenious Sheppard West-Hwy 27 area lines because it's a bad idea despite the fact that the connection between NYC and Pearson is done quicker via south Rexdale and yet for the sake of ten people at Jane-Finch having to ride down for 2 mins to reach it thinks I'm playing connect-the-dots when he's proposing absurdities "Canada's Wonderland...why not...it's just another 5kms" (Maple-Major Mac before Morningside?) and few condos at Cosburn-who was griping about everywhere there's some condos needs a subway again?- and the list goes on.
An elevated subway at Yonge & Eglinton? Yeah, that'll be popular...
See unlike you I have a real enthusiasm for all aspects of planning including station design. That's the best part! I envison it everytime I'm in the area. Now that the bus terminus has been relocated don't you think the land vaccated could support a platform? This would allow above ground connection to the Yonge-Eglinton Centre and Canada Square, forming tri-level transit in one of the city's densest neighbourhoods. The link to the Yonge line would be via demantling the wall adjacent to Cinnabon. Elevated subways would so work along Eglinton given its hilly nature. Mount Pleasant and Sunnybrook (Bayview) would also run into Moore Place and Sunnybrook Plaza respectively with sound-deminishers installed to reduce noise pollution. I've even thought beyond subway technology putting a people-mover at Sunnybrook to shuttle people between the hospital and the subway, similarly Centenary Hosp. would be linked to West Hill Stn. We can no longer afford to see spaces as fixed premanent constants, we must transform wherever possible if the progression of Toronto on a whole depends on it!
If it's so doomed, why is it on your map?
Good God man I told you already my map is a combination of existing proposals already floating around city officials, the TTC's plans, other transit fans ideas and my own recommendations. I support a line to York U, no farther- if politicians are placating to the fat cats in Woodbridge they may as well veer the line along Hwy 7 to serve there. Does that make any sense? The buck should stop at York U and only after every other option is explored.
And half a million daily rides for the Queen line? That's optimistic, to say the least.
Shocking, I know. No one wants to even attempt it cause they know it'll be a massive success and no one does what's in the best interest of the majority of city-dwellers anyway, only the handful of 905ers. At least half the people riding everything from YUS, BD, GO and all south of Bloor TTC routes would ride the Queen line, more still if we add your DRL-thingy.
So now tell me which is farther, Mississauga from Kipling, or Vaughan from Downsview.
Vaughan is alot closer to becoming a reality as long as Peel refuses to help fund a Mississauga extension and YR does. However I don't see why an extension to Sherway couldn't be done first, it'd cost around $250 million if ran above ground leaving a ton of money left over for MT BRT and even possibly a Hwy 27 ROW between Sherway and Albion Mall via Renforth/Pearson diversion.
European routes are faster because of the tendency for the tracks to be in their own ROW.
Would that seriously work in Toronto though? The SRT is literally a streetcar 'subway' too but is largely underused intermediately while parallel bus routes see alot of traffic. All the new ROWs proposed are for the lakeshore areas (Queens Quay East, Exhibition) where there aren't alot of density. Spadina with its own ROW is still at the mercy of pesky stop lights, unless that problem's eliminated Toronto streetcar routes will never succeed in speed, that and too many stops in places and too few in others.
I have pictures from Slovakia, Czech Rep, Austria, and Hungry... Rarely do I see European LRTs going underground, unless you mean the ones that they call subways
I was refering primarily to Western Europe and I guess its up to interpretation what one considers a subway but if streetcar lines are included in a subway system map you tend to think of them as such.