I really, really love the design of this map. It definitely looks a lot more fluid and interconnected than what it is now. Probably my favourite part is how you distinguished express trains as a separate service, and listing cross-streets and intersections for every station.
Thank you! It's been an evolution in the design language, but I think I've found something that works. The naming in particular strikes the right balance between the desire for unique station names, while still maintaining geographic relevance if people aren't familiar with neighbourhood names.
I'm not really as fond of the decision to implement a unified branding for all of the light rail and bus routes, though,
My thinking for this was that with each municipality having its own branding and naming (or colouring) scheme for its BRT routes, it makes navigating from one system to another more challenging. I went with a universal X## system to make that easier. It also simplifies things because there are several routes that cross municipal and operator boundaries.
The numbering is based off the US Interstate system, with major routes ending in either 0 or 5, and other routes filling in the gap. X5 is in Hamilton because its the furthest west, and X95 is in Oshawa.
and I'm really confused as to why interlining is back on the subway lines,
It really comes down to reducing the pressure on Bloor-Yonge. With the Relief Line (which is back as a subway here, since I think the OL will be toast after Ford loses in 2022) connecting directly with the Spadina Subway, it opens up the opportunity to use the wye again. This allows 3 patterns on the Bloor-Danforth Line, with the possibility of running trains through downtown. This would likely eliminate the need for a multi-billion dollar reconstruction of Bloor-Yonge.
Line 3 was put in there just to maintain a route for the Spadina Line customers wanting access to the Yonge-University Loop. It terminates at Davisville because that's where there is an additional platform for it.
or why Mississauga's eastern Transitway got a rail upgrade and not Hamilton.
For Mississauga, I think that Mississauga Centre is a much more natural terminus than Renforth. By upgrading it to LRT, both the Eglinton and Finch lines can terminate there, with the latter going up to Pearson, providing a direct rail connection between Mississauga Centre and Pearson. That upgrade would also be relatively easy (much like the upgrade of the Transitway in Ottawa), since the guideway and stations are there.
For Hamilton, I just think that it's more likely that BRT will be the chosen mode, so I chose to show a BRT-based system. An LRT system would look pretty similar, except that the two N-S segments of X8 would terminate at McMaster and Parkdale, respectively.
Also, extending Line 1 to Steeles, but not up to Clark to meet with Pearson East is an odd choice in my opinion.
My thinking for that was that the transfer volume between the N-S service on Yonge and the E-W service on Steeles would likely be higher than the transfer volume to the Pearson East line. By extending the subway an additional stop, you would in essence be forcing an additional transfer for those people.
[Edit: Also, on the Barrie Express Line (which is a weird name since it doesn't go up to Barrie anymore), Mulock and Aurora are in the wrong places. Mulock should be the one in the north.]
Good catch, thanks! I've done a review myself to catch those little mistakes, but given the size of the map there are likely some that will slip through. And yeah, I kept the names based on the corridor name, so that it's clear that the lines with different stop patterns still run on the same corridor.
