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Transit Fantasy Maps

The other day my dad got a job offer from Guelph and I was investigating potential routes to get to Guelph for him before realizing it is pretty much nonviable (unless you want a 2.5h commute). Usually you hear about 905ers commuting to Yonge-Bloor/Eglinton/Sheppard and how going to Union station is completely out of the way, but this time the problem was the opposite way. That was an eye-opener for me realizing how important the Midtown Express is.

I am sure that the Midtown Express ridership would be pretty low comparatively speaking but sometimes that can be besides the point. Connectivity is one of the strong pillars of creating a good transit system just as much as high ridership is. The Midtown Express would open up tons of new commute options not thought possible before to a wide variety of people all throughout the region. You often see "ring" routes in developed transit systems in Europe for good reason, Toronto should have one too.

Once built, it would be a big boon to the whole metropolitan region. Suddenly commutes from Toronto to say Guelph, and vice versa, are possible.
 
TheTigerMaster said:
If expect a midtown elitist like you to support that kind of thing.

But seriously, I think its a good idea. But good luck getting CN to give up that corridor
Click to expand...

I believe CP operates that corridor. Metrolinx already has plans for the far future to potentially use the corridor for passenger rail use. The handover from CP will be a challenge, no doubt, but I believe CP is already aware of this. Correct me if I am wrong.
 
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WislaHD said:
The other day my dad got a job offer from Guelph and I was investigating potential routes to get to Guelph for him before realizing it is pretty much nonviable (unless you want a 2.5h commute). Usually you hear about 905ers commuting to Yonge-Bloor/Eglinton/Sheppard and how going to Union station is completely out of the way, but this time the problem was the opposite way.
Click to expand...

By around 2022, the trip from midtown to Guelph will be a lot more reasonable anyway: take the Eglinton LRT to Mount Dennis (~15 min), transfer to the GO Kitchener Regional to Guelph Central (~60min).
 
adrianaliu said:
Here is my own version of a GO RER map that I made about a month ago....

Links to full size maps:

http://i.imgur.com/OvhnJqF.png

http://i.imgur.com/FVRkERY.jpg

(First Post)
Click to expand...


innsertnamehere said:
uptown bypass needs to go to pickering, but other than that, good job!
Click to expand...

Not just agreeing because I'm a Pickering guy myself but I do agree that the uptown bypass line and maybe the midtown one as well would be better served ending in Pickering (as a gateway to other riders from Durham) than in the Rouge Park. The uptown bypass is a great idea though and I've long thought something like this—that is, a far northerly ring route around the city—would be a huge benefit.

I like a lot of what I see on this map, very good job :) the lines staying true to their real-life routing would also lend an identity to the network by making the map very easily recognizable.

Two notes though: the northerly Pickering line might be better-suited to head to Seaton (Brock/Taunton area) than ending in the still-uncertain airport lands, due to the plans for large-scale (although sprawling) growth there. The other is, no further extensions through to east Hamilton / Confederation / Stoney Creek?
 
Yeah the express train towards pickering airport is supposed to be the UPX for Toronto Pickering and will only be done as long as the airport is made. Now that I look back on the Lakeshore West Line, I think that I should of extended it to at least Stoney Creek. And both the Midtown and Uptown Bypasses would be better if they went into durham.
 
Here’s an update of my map old map, but with some tweaks I did last night in response to murmurings of whether the SELRT and FWLRT will be canceled. I wanted to see how an affordable Sheppard East subway extension would look, so I added it in. It’s mostly a copy of Neptis’ idea of creating a ‘Scarboro Wye’; with track mostly built overtop/under the 401. As well I added a subway on Finch West using the hydro corridor, but it’s as a looped Y/U-S: with the Yonge section instead going to VMC, and U-S to Jane/Finch.

There are a few other changes, like a waterfront light metro line going to the mammoth Hearn site, and a more express RH-King relief line.

44N_King-DRL_Crosstown.png
 

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My minivan moves more people per hour than a Finch subway would. The Sheppard east subway... Well we all know the situation with that. I cringe at the thought of what kind of operational subsidies these would necessitate.

Is that red line subway rapid transit?
 
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Well in a world with infinite money that is a good network 44North. I would maybe complete the map with a Sheppard West extension.

IMO a Sheppard East subway will only make sense paired together with the B-D extension. I would have the B-D extension go northwest from STC to Agincourt, then it is 3 stops (Birchmount, Warden, Victoria Park) to Don Mills. That is roughly 4.2 KM of tunnel between Agincourt and the Don Mills tunnel.
 
@TigerMaster

I agree about how Finch West and Sheppard East would have low ridership and high costs if built as subways. I was actually hesitant to draw them in for this reason. Basically I wanted to see how Shep East could look if built affordably (i.e – using Neptis’ idea of conversion, and building along the 401 corridor).

I also don’t agree all that much with a subway on Finch West. However, there is the hydro corridor which could lower costs of tunnelling, trenching, or elevating. There was a plan to use it ~25 years ago to “close the loop†between Y and U-S, which makes sense from an operations pov. And I think it looks kinda cool to have a line interline with itself.

Although the Red line I’d categorize as RER because of the service it offers, it’s interlined with the Crosstown on the map – so it would use Light Rail in this fantasy. I recall presenting something like this before, and Gweed mentioned using trains of different length for each branch. So the RH branch could use 3-car operation, and the Morningside branch could use 4 or 5 car. Or something, I’m not really sure – but I’d prefer to keep it more in-line with the Crosstown than GO RER. Somewhat like a tram-train or Stadtbahn (not to be confused with S-Bahn). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadtbahn

@wisahd

I agree, anything like this would be costly. But for the most part it is surface rail – either as upgrades to existing corridors, or new elevated/surface lines/extensions. Aside from a few sections of tunnel on Don Mills, Finch, Yonge, and King – most additions would run in the open air.

And personally I don’t really want Sheppard extended; either east or west. I think with B/D, Lakeshore, Crosstown, 407 Transitway, and maybe the Midtown corridor - we have cross-city service pretty well covered. Any added E/W service is overkill IMO. And although I agree that looping B/D with Sheppard could be cool, for the most part I don’t want to extend our existing subway system if there are light RT options that can be used instead. IMO converting Sheppard to a light mode seems more optimal than having it run as 6-car subways. Any next map of mine would probably be much more bare bones and realistic.
 
From all the talk of elevated rail that was going on in the Smart Track thread, I thought I’d try to make a schematic of Vancouver’s Skytrain. Not sure if it's geographically accurate...it’s mostly a basic trace of Translink’s current map - but using the standard I made up for my other map (i.e - black background, hard angles, bold colours, retro font/look). I also added Evergreen, the proposed Broadway ext to UBC, and made WCE into an RT service. I like Skytrain...it's a shame we've underinvested in the SRT and allowed it to deteriorate.

Skytrain-future-schematic_Evergreen_Broadview.png
 

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Great work on the Vancouver map but your Millenium/Evergreen Line extension is incorrect.

Currently the line ends at VCC Clarke with the BLine bus serving Broadway/UBC. The future extension will not take it to UBC for at least 20 years. The current plan will now only take the line to Arbutus. After that people will use the shortened BLine to UBC. Also there is no plans to have either Millenium or Evergreen trains short turn.............both will terminate at Arbutus.
 
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