doady
Senior Member
I'd rather see a busway in that corridor, to link the 407 and Mississauga Transitways.
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north-of-anything
Active Member
I like that idea, but where would the two meet up? Could the Etobicoke Transitway end at or intersect with Jane so buses can go up to the Highway 407 and Vaughan TTC stations?
Leo_Chan
Senior Member
Isn't the Highway 427 Transitway also a proposed thing? That would mean an interchange station at 427/407 would work. It also may be possible that the Eglinton West LRT from Renforth to Pearson could be made bus-compatible.
doady
Senior Member
I think such the transitway should go north along Keele so the buses can also serve York University similar to JSF-1's map. Better connecting Etobicoke to York U and the Spadina subway line is a good idea, but with busway you can also connect to Mississauga and Markham and beyond. It would be very heavily used not only by TTC buses, but also GO and MiWay buses. It would be great for regional transit in addition to local transit.
Woodbridge_Heights
Senior Member
Hwy 427 transitway is to terminate at Pearson airport if memory serves. However I don't see there being much difficulty in extending that route to Renforth Gateway and Kipling station, aside from space constraints.
robmausser
Senior Member
A busway is fine too, and probably has a greater chance of happening
micheal_can
Senior Member
Have we not learned from Ottawa? The conversion to LRT is a painful one. In our larger cities, we should avoid busways/transitways as much as possible. Build rail transit or don't waste the money. With so few transit dollars, we should only build on things that will bring the most benefit. Problem is, busways/transitways are a great political tool during an election.
H4F33Z
Active Member
Transitways are great for cities and towns that don't need the full power and capacity of a lrt, like London ON, and the surrounding GTA cities. Busways are great for corridors that don't need the capacity of the lrt and is Cheap! Buses are also very maneuverable.
A busway would be much more feasible, as Hydro doesn't generally like permanent structures inside of their right-of-ways. At least with a busway it's just a road, not a fixed guideway like rail.
M II A II R II K
Senior Member
Some Fordesque leader could come along and promise the 905ers to turn a transitway into a highway making more of a case to put rail down.
doady
Senior Member
There are three problems with the BRT in Ottawa:
1. It is the backbone of the entire system in the city of Ottawa.
2. Not only is it the backbone of the entire transit system, but the busiest, central portion of the route, Albert and Slater, is on-street rather than off the street and grade-separated. In other words, the busiest portion of the route has the lowest capacity.
3. It snows a lot in Ottawa, and articulated buses can't operate in snow.
An Etobicoke transitway would not act as the backbone of the TTC system. Even in Etobicoke, it would still be a secondary corridor compared to the two main corridors, Bloor and Eglinton. The Mississauga/Etobicoke/407 Transitway system as a whole would be a crosstown service rather than directly connecting to downtown as the Ottawa Transitway did. It would connect to lines connecting to downtown rather than connect to downtown by itself. Every station would be suburban. Even Kipling Station is suburban in nature.
And since the transitway would be entirely in suburban areas, it would easier to build an entire off-street, grade-separated system with bypass lanes at stations that can match LRT in terms of capacity (LRT lines typically do not have full grade-separation or quadruple-tracked stations).
The ridership of a BRT corridor in Etobicoke will very high but not enough to justify LRT. Ottawa Transitway had 240k weekday riders on it, around half of OC Transpo ridership, and more than all of the TTC buses in Etobicoke combined. It was just an exceptional case.
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adrianaliu
Active Member
brt is so op in the suburbs. living in ottawa right now and i love the way land is reserved for future transitways in their new subdivisions. brt is basically a cheap subway with more flexibility and less capacity so its perfect for the sparsely populated suburbs. imo finch hydro corridor brt should have been built all the way decades ago instead of sheppard subway, it would likely be undergoing conversion to lrt right now and would rival line 2 in terms of speed, the conversion not requiring property accquisition or tunneling.
robmausser
Senior Member
The other advantage of BRT in lower density areas is the ability for buses to leave the transitway and drop people off at less nearby destinations, all without a transfer. This is vital in areas where things are further spread apart.
WislaHD
Superstar
BRT should not be considered a downgrade from LRT.
They are better than LRTs in many respects, if the service is designed well.
They are better than LRTs in many respects, if the service is designed well.
doady
Senior Member
I think LRT and subway only makes sense for corridors with a lot of redevelopment potential. In Etobicoke, the corridors that fall into this category are Wilson-Albion, Eglinton, Dundas, The Queensway and Lakeshore. I don't think building LRT along a residential corridor like Finch or a hydro corridor makes much sense. We should expect a corridor to transform when we build LRT. The LRT should increase the density and concentrate people and jobs in a smaller area. Otherwise, it would be better to build BRT, which is cheaper and can serve people in a larger area.