Transit Fantasy Maps

[dunkalunk]

It's been a busy week transit-news-wise with announcements of a new Scarborough subway plan to build subway corridor parallel to a SmartTrack corridor with no intermediate stops as well as a technically unfeasible Eglinton spur on SmartTrack

So, forget SmartTrack! Instead, why not build...

SUPERtrack!

Click here for MyMaps

SUPERtrack (Scarborough Union Pearson Express Rail track) in spite of having a slightly redundant name supplants both the UP Express and SmartTrack with a similar electrified heavy rail rapid transit corridor. The UP Express and Scarborough RT corridors would be re-purposed as part of the SUPERtrack corridor. A new heavy rail tunnel and elevated spur connecting the Stouffville GO line to STC would need to be built, but doing so would still be less expensive and make more sense than building a competing subway tunnel under city streets.

SUPERtrack features both express and local operations. The location and frequency of local stations would be up for debate, instead of just blindly following the plan of some guy on the internet who can draw lines on a map. The key component of SUPERtrack is the express stations and network. It's imagined that this line would co-exist with some variant of the Relief Line, so station frequency would depend on proximity of RL stations, and whether or not the line is extended west of University.

Express operations would use GO Right-of-Way and have similar schedules and operations as GO RER. Express stations would be built at key transfer nodes and connect to local service at Pearson, Highway 27, Mt Dennis, Bloor, Gerrard Square, Kennedy, and STC.

 

[gweed123]

It's been a busy week transit-news-wise with announcements of a new Scarborough subway plan to build subway corridor parallel to a SmartTrack corridor with no intermediate stops as well as a technically unfeasible Eglinton spur on SmartTrack

So, forget SmartTrack! Instead, why not build...

SUPERtrack!

Comical name aside, this proposal is bang on.

 

[nfitz]

The name is the best part of this satirical post!

 

[44 North]

I don't see what's satirical about it. The majority of this is being studied as we speak, and the spur to STC seems like a logical possibility that could inevitably be shortlisted. There's an ROW north of Ellesmere that soon enough will be sitting vacant. And the curve needed to get from Stouffville onto the SRT right-of-way can easily be modified, particularly since on the inside of the curve is City-owned land. I actually would be more surprised if something like this wasn't brought up by the City.

 

[nhui06]

It's been a busy week transit-news-wise with announcements of a new Scarborough subway plan to build subway corridor parallel to a SmartTrack corridor with no intermediate stops as well as a technically unfeasible Eglinton spur on SmartTrack

So, forget SmartTrack! Instead, why not build...

SUPERtrack!

Click here for MyMaps

SUPERtrack (Scarborough Union Pearson Express Rail track) in spite of having a slightly redundant name supplants both the UP Express and SmartTrack with a similar electrified heavy rail rapid transit corridor. The UP Express and Scarborough RT corridors would be re-purposed as part of the SUPERtrack corridor. A new heavy rail tunnel and elevated spur connecting the Stouffville GO line to STC would need to be built, but doing so would still be less expensive and make more sense than building a competing subway tunnel under city streets.

SUPERtrack features both express and local operations. The location and frequency of local stations would be up for debate, instead of just blindly following the plan of some guy on the internet who can draw lines on a map. The key component of SUPERtrack is the express stations and network. It's imagined that this line would co-exist with some variant of the Relief Line, so station frequency would depend on proximity of RL stations, and whether or not the line is extended west of University.

Express operations would use GO Right-of-Way and have similar schedules and operations as GO RER. Express stations would be built at key transfer nodes and connect to local service at Pearson, Highway 27, Mt Dennis, Bloor, Gerrard Square, Kennedy, and STC.

Yes, I do believe UPX should be rolled into SmartTrack. It will take a few years before Metrolinx will allow this though (mainly to save face), but it is the only efficient way of doing it, and there is pressure from certain groups to convert UPX back to more local transit. Not sure once they electrify the line if they will need a new set of trains, but that will be the time to decide whether to do that, as they will need to design new trains to carry more people.

On the eastern side though, not sure if they can squeeze the SmartTrack trains on that tight turn towards STC. People also say they cannot, but I wonder if they can just redesign that turn so it goes underground for that portion (to make it wider if they don't have the land to do it yet. If it really cannot be done, then at least run SmartTrack to Sheppard or even Finch and let the Subway extension take care of STC.

 

[robmausser]

Yes, I do believe UPX should be rolled into SmartTrack. It will take a few years before Metrolinx will allow this though (mainly to save face), but it is the only efficient way of doing it, and there is pressure from certain groups to convert UPX back to more local transit. Not sure once they electrify the line if they will need a new set of trains, but that will be the time to decide whether to do that, as they will need to design new trains to carry more people.

On the eastern side though, not sure if they can squeeze the SmartTrack trains on that tight turn towards STC. People also say they cannot, but I wonder if they can just redesign that turn so it goes underground for that portion (to make it wider if they don't have the land to do it yet. If it really cannot be done, then at least run SmartTrack to Sheppard or even Finch and let the Subway extension take care of STC.

There is one problem with UPX being serviced by Smarttrack right now: The platform at Pearson is very short, and it would take a lot of engineering to lengthen it.

Since Smarttrack will just be an expansion of GO RER services, using GO RER trains, we might see something like the Stadler KISS being used:

While the bridge to Pearson can handle the weight (it was overbuilt to mainline standards, its a rule of Transport Canada) the platform is WAY to short.

 

[gweed123]

You're right about the platform being too short. Personally, I think UPX is still needed as a premium service, but I see no reason why an RER service can't terminate at Malton and still serve the airport, especially if the People Mover is extended to Malton to meet it. That would then also make Malton a natural terminus for the FWLRT (south on 27 to Woodbine, west to Malton GO).

 

[dunkalunk]

While the name SUPERtrack is definitely satirical the plan is actually comically logical in comparison to other officially-presented plans with similar names. I've had versions of this line in fantasy maps for a while. As stated before by nhui06, it's going to take until the end of Tory's first term for Metrolinx to agree to repurposing the UPX corridor and hopefully by that time, council will be more willing to accept other elevations of subway, even if they are on the surface. If I actually lived in Toronto I'd be advocating the SUPERtrack plan to my representatives. If anyone with interest wants to borrow the SUPERtrack idea, by all means, tell your politicians!

 

[dunkalunk]

You're right about the platform being too short. Personally, I think UPX is still needed as a premium service, but I see no reason why an RER service can't terminate at Malton and still serve the airport, especially if the People Mover is extended to Malton to meet it. That would then also make Malton a natural terminus for the FWLRT (south on 27 to Woodbine, west to Malton GO).

In the SmartTrack Western Corridor Feasibility Review, they depicted a SmartTrack station at Viscount to interface with the people mover. I don't expect building a platform for SUPERtrack off to the side of the UPX guideway to be more infeasible than the UPX's guideway was to build.

 

[Midtown Urbanist]

I don't see what's satirical about it. The majority of this is being studied as we speak, and the spur to STC seems like a logical possibility that could inevitably be shortlisted. There's an ROW north of Ellesmere that soon enough will be sitting vacant. And the curve needed to get from Stouffville onto the SRT right-of-way can easily be modified, particularly since on the inside of the curve is City-owned land. I actually would be more surprised if something like this wasn't brought up by the City.

Plus it can be extended to Malvern and Seaton.

The province just sold the Seaton lands to developers. This is an opportunity to bring a GO-RER level of service to there.

 

[ottbike]

So, forget SmartTrack! Instead, why not build...

SUPERtrack!

If the Scarborough Subway wasn't such a political "must-have", I could see SUPERtrack to STC being a great proposal. It would pretty much kill the UPX, but since the tracks to the airport are already there, why not.

 

[robmausser]

In the SmartTrack Western Corridor Feasibility Review, they depicted a SmartTrack station at Viscount to interface with the people mover. I don't expect building a platform for SUPERtrack off to the side of the UPX guideway to be more infeasible than the UPX's guideway was to build.

Btw I really do like this idea but I would not stop at STC.

I would do what was proposed here, continue to Malvern Town Centre:

This could be done in a "phase 2" approach.

Secondly, I would do a third phase along the CP corridor in its own right of way (new trackage) to the Toronto Zoo.

And then call it SuperDuperTrack

 

[ILuvTO]

For distant travel - too many stop and too slow to be an alternative to car.

On the official crosstown website, Metrolinx claims that the Bloor-Danforth line reaches an avg speed of 32km/h while the crosstown will hit an avg of 28km/h. What am I missing here?

 

[rbt]

On the official crosstown website, Metrolinx claims that the Bloor-Danforth line reaches an avg speed of 32km/h while the crosstown will hit an avg of 28km/h. What am I missing here?

You're not missing anything. Eglinton will be a little faster than BD in the tunnel, and a little slower on the surface; averaging out to roughly the same overall speed from Kennedy to Yonge.

 

[reaperexpress]

Here's my latest pondering on the integration of DRL, RER, Scarborough Subway and SmartTrack.

The main issue I'm aiming to solve here is that Union wouldn't be able to handle all the local railway services that we'd like to run. So I diverted all local services either through a 2-track downtown tunnel, or along the Midtown Corridor to Summerhill. A relatively unique feature here is a peak-period direct service from Burlington to Summerhill - convenient for commuters to Uptown/U of T, Midtown or North York Centre.

Unlike my last fantasy map, I've kept the DRL as a conventional Metro line, rather than commuter rail. That way we can run subway-level frequency, making it as attractive as possible for intercepting east-west bus passengers from Scarborough.

Like many other recent maps here, I've connected Scarborough Centre by elevated RER rather than by money pit.

In this scenario, there would be complete fare integration between TTC and GO Suburban services. In other words, a given trip would always cost the same by subway as by Suburban rail. But that doesn't mean you can ride from Osgoode to Scarborough for $2.90. There would be a regional zone system with reasonably large zones, perhaps 2 from downtown to Scarborough Centre and 3 from downtown to Pearson. Regional and Express services would use this same zone system, but with a flat surcharge (say $2 for example). The UP Express would have an even higher surcharge ($5 perhaps).

I'm thinking that headways would be around 10 minutes for each RER branch (5 minutes combined), and 30 minutes for Regional branches.

EDIT: I just saw Dunkalunk's SUPER map, and it looks like it's more or less included here. That is actually just a coincidence - I posted this before I looked back to see his map. I guess SUPER is just the obvious thing to do.