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Transit Fantasy Maps

Made a fantasy streetcar map for Toronto. None of these routes are really new ideas as many of them have been proposed at one point or are currently proposed (except the Queensway Streetcar, that one is new). The lack of a streetcar connection to St.Clair still irks me and I heavily considered extending the Dufferin Streetcar to St.Clair Avenue with the line looping at Earlscourt Loop. A western extension of the Ontario Line would also be pretty good since at least under this plan it would connect to 5 routes at Roncesvalles (obviously though a western extension of the OL should come after a northern extension to Sheppard).

Streetcar.png
 
I like it; The lack of a St Clair connection is pretty easily fixed with a Junction car. To which I’d add a Dupont car through routed to Union down Bay…

I do like the concept of a Dufferin car, but I really think it probably has to fully replace the bus to work. My thinking on it has tended toward mixed traffic but heavily prioritized otherwise and built for two car trains…
 
Made a fantasy streetcar map for Toronto. None of these routes are really new ideas as many of them have been proposed at one point or are currently proposed (except the Queensway Streetcar, that one is new). The lack of a streetcar connection to St.Clair still irks me and I heavily considered extending the Dufferin Streetcar to St.Clair Avenue with the line looping at Earlscourt Loop. A western extension of the Ontario Line would also be pretty good since at least under this plan it would connect to 5 routes at Roncesvalles (obviously though a western extension of the OL should come after a northern extension to Sheppard).

View attachment 360938
Idk if it is feasible, but maybe an extension of the 511 Bathurst to St. Clair West could happen.
 
Thought I would write about what is happening on the map since the site downscaled its size, so it may be hard to see what is going on. The routes are as follows:

501 Queen: From Neville Park Loop to Sunnyside Loop. A split of the 501 is something that is already being discussed and this is one of the proposals.
503 Kingston Road: From Bingham Loop to Dufferin Loop via King Street
504 King: From Broadview Station to Parkside Loop
505 Dundas: From Gerrard Station to Dundas West Station
506 Carlton: From Main Street Station to High Park Loop
507 Long Branch: From Long Branch Loop to Dundas West Station. This is an idea that local residents have been asking for since the 1990's. With the 504 out of Dundas West the 507 could take its place while also offering a better more consistent service in southwest Toronto.
509 Harbourfront: From Union Station to Parkside Loop. This is essentially the Waterfront West LRT.
510 Spadina: From Spadina Station to Union Station
511 Bathurst: From Bathurst Station to Exhibition Station
512 St.Clair: From St.Clair Station to Gunn's Loop
513 Broadview: From Broadview Station to Woodbine Beach via Unwin Blvd. and Lake Shore Blvd. East. Once again a route already in planning although I have extended it to Woodbine Beach.
514 Cherry: From Dufferin Loop to Woodbine Beach via King Street, Unwin Blvd. and Lake Shore Blvd. East.
515 East Bayfront: From Union Station to Woodbine Beach via Queens Quay East, Commissioners Street, and Lake Shore Blvd. East.
516 Queensway: From Riverside Loop to Sherway Gardens. With the 501 split the 516 would be a new route assisting the 501 in the downtown core. the current plan is to retain 501 service to Long Branch, however with the 507 running that service, instead why not isntall a ROW down Queensway to Sherway Gardens.
517 Dufferin: From Dufferin Station to Union Station via Bremner Blvd. A merger of the Dufferin Streetcar and the planned Bremner Streetcar.
518 Parliament: From Castle Frank Station to Union Station via Queens Quay East.

Of all the routes the 516 Queensway is probably the one you can do away with and nothing really changes. You could move the 503 onto Queen for suppliemental service while the 504 recieves help from the 514. Maybe running 3 streetcar lines down King Street is overkill. The intersection at Roncesvalles would become a hotbed for streetcar activity with up to 5 lines passing through it. No doubt this would increase the value of extending the Ontario Line to it. Lastly the cars in Port Lands are really interchangeable and you can just pick and choose which ones should run on Commissioners and which ones should run on Unwin.
 
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Made a fantasy streetcar map for Toronto. None of these routes are really new ideas as many of them have been proposed at one point or are currently proposed (except the Queensway Streetcar, that one is new). The lack of a streetcar connection to St.Clair still irks me and I heavily considered extending the Dufferin Streetcar to St.Clair Avenue with the line looping at Earlscourt Loop. A western extension of the Ontario Line would also be pretty good since at least under this plan it would connect to 5 routes at Roncesvalles (obviously though a western extension of the OL should come after a northern extension to Sheppard).

View attachment 360938

I would add a 505 extension through the Junction to Jane station, a 506 extension to Keele station, a 512 extension to Kipling station, a Bay-Dupont-Davenport line, a Coxwell line, and maybe lines on Ossington and Church.
 
Made a fantasy streetcar map for Toronto. None of these routes are really new ideas as many of them have been proposed at one point or are currently proposed (except the Queensway Streetcar, that one is new). The lack of a streetcar connection to St.Clair still irks me and I heavily considered extending the Dufferin Streetcar to St.Clair Avenue with the line looping at Earlscourt Loop. A western extension of the Ontario Line would also be pretty good since at least under this plan it would connect to 5 routes at Roncesvalles (obviously though a western extension of the OL should come after a northern extension to Sheppard).

View attachment 360938

This is really great!

I know it's standard on TTC maps to have all surface routes in red, but I personally would love to see a version of this exact map where the streetcar lines were each different colours.
 
Made another streetcar map. This time its a what if? What if Toronto didn't tear up large portions of its network and expanded some lines to adapt to the growing subway network.. Now this map only includes past and present routes; no proposed future routes. As well not every dead line is on this map as many just became part of other routes over time, or in the case of the Yonge and Bloor cars; replaced by the subway. Instead the past routes on this map are the ones that could stand alone. I also colour coded the lines as for this map it is absolutely necessary. Trying to decipher it with just a single colour would be a chore. Most lines are unique colours except those which share a large portion of a route (i.e. the routes on King, Queen, and Dundas). In this case a opted for the NYC colour coding system of lumping similar routes together under the same colour.

Also this really shows the disparity between York and East York. While York is inundated with streetcars, East York isn't. For whatever reason the lines planed for East York were never built. The Millwood Bridge was even built to carry streetcar traffic so there was definitely an appetite for streetcars into East York and Leaside.

Streetcar_Old.png
 
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If you have a Mac, great news!

Ortelius is perpetually free with unlimited licences and is completely legal:


Ortelius is a vector-based cartography software, useful for drawing both real-life subway maps and even fantasy subway maps (both based on existing real-life systems and completely fictional subway systems like RM Transit's Patreon subway map).


Edit:

Added tutorial video:

 
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Hey guys, I've been working on this for a while now. It's basically a full Metrolinx system map including every bus route.

That is a seriously impressive map! The layout is fantastic (I'm a big fan of using either right angles or 45º lines).

The one suggestion I might make is to add some type of striping or something to the bus routes to further differentiate them from the rail routes. I know you have the different line weights to denote that, but in some places you have multiple bus routes running next to a rail route, and bunched together they have a similar appearance (colour and weight) to the rail line. Just a suggestion though.
 
There's been some chatter on the Finch West LRT thread about if/how it should be extended east to serve Seneca College. I propose an network alternative to provide service to Scarborough at a much better value than what has been proposed officially.

1) Line 4 would curve upwards east of Fairview Mall, running elevated in the 404 ROW, and terminating in a new station on Seneca College campus. This line is really just too expensive to bring all the way into Scarborough and this is a cheap option to get great transit service to Seneca without extending the Finch LRT all the way east.
2) Assuming the Ontario Line north extension to Don Mills station is a no brainer, curve the line east along Sheppard to Agincourt GO in an elevated alignment. The OL is just much cheaper per km to build-out over long distances compared to TTC-spec'd subway and more flexible with curves. The OL would then run elevated along the Stoufville GO ROW and existing SRT ROW to reach STC. I see this line running elevated from there on Progress Ave over to Centennial College, along the 401 ROW, then up Neilson Rd to Malvern Centre, replacing the last leg of the planned ECLRT East extension. The cost of this OL extension from Don Mills to Malvern would probably cost the same as extending Line 4 to McCowan and serve waay more trip generators.
3) Build out the Finch East RapidTO line (BRT) from Yonge to Malvern Centre.
4) (Too late but...) Trim the Line 2 Scarborough extension back to STC instead of Sheppard/McCowan and use the budget savings to pay for Item 1).

View attachment 370185

So make the Stubway even more useless? Why not use it and extend it down Sheppard?
 
Because that would cost more per km, and derive less value (light metro technology allows the route to hit STC and Centennial, which would serve riders in the area way better than going straight down Sheppard.)
So, put it to a mall and make it even more harder to extend it? Or, do nothing till there is enough demand to dig.
 
Because that would cost more per km, and derive less value (light metro technology allows the route to hit STC and Centennial, which would serve riders in the area way better than going straight down Sheppard.)
Sheppard is a six-lane stroad. We can give it a road diet and tighten it to four lanes, then use the middle two lanes (or side, depending on which one you prefer) to elevate any Sheppard Subway extensions.
 

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