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Transit Fantasy Maps

mdrejhon said:
Looking at the map.

I just realized... SmartTrack alignment is aligned in such a way that makes Airport Corporate only two SmartTrack stops away from a theoretical Missisagua Square One stop!

Airport Corporate Centre is only as far away from Mississauga Square One, as Airport Corporate Centre is from when it spurs out of the Kingston line (just before Weston). So that's a relatively short extension. That brings a theoretical Square One tunnel for far less price than the Scarborough subway extension!

They could bend it slightly south (after Airport Corporate or a subsequent stop such as Dixie/Tomken -- another obvious first stop for a SmartTrack extension) into the north edge of downtown, or even the existing GO bus station there. That makes SmartTrack even more brilliant (assuming province forces the use of longer GO RER trains instead of tiny UPX trains, as a condition of funding Tory). SmartTrack would continue onwards and interchange GO Milton Erindale(existing) or GO Milton Eglington(new). If SmartTrack reaches both Mississauga downtown (only needs doubling of the Eglington spur length), and the extension to interchange with GO Milton (only needs a tripling of the Eglington spur length).

Downtown Missisauga/Square One gets a subway via a small SmartTrack extension costing far less than the Scarborough subway, even if it has to be underground all the way from Airport Corporate! (15-min allday, 5-min peak underground GO RER trains that are branded as "SmartTrack" or other brandname)

So, within less than one generation -- we can catch a "subway" from Mississauga downtown to Scarborough downtown, if living in one and working in the other. Faster than by car.

Tory, brilliant, Tory. (whether you like him or not). He's thinking more ahead than I thought.
Click to expand...

If that becomes a reality, then it would be pretty brilliant. First time I've heard a suggestion where the Eglinton spur is actually worthwhile.

This makes a lot more sense than a Crosstown or B-D extension to Square One in Mississauga. The mayor in Mississauga endorsed Tory's SmartTrack during the election as well, maybe for this given reason?
 
Another thing I found out when looking at Google Maps.... (for distance clarity, rather than London Underground-style transit maps)

If Metrolinx realistically does this:
- Use full-size GO RER trains for SmartTrack, so it can replace a lot of existing GOtrains (saves track capacity)
- Turn the 8 GO lines (including Eglington) into several through GO RER routes going through Union.
.....Use 4 or 5 route color codes, via the merger of GO pairs (Lakeshore East+West | Eglington+Stoufville |
.....This maximizes Union capacity (which can only support ~3x train traffic after Union revitalization and the $200M train signal upgrade), allowing frequent 15-min service on all GO routes
.....Make all central GO RER sections frequent (5-min peak, and no less than 15-min offpeak)
- Add extra GO RER stations on all GO lines.
.....More density of 416 stations
.....3 times as many stations in 416 (SmartTrack style station density on all central sections of GO routes)

And subsequently we also theoretically:
- Add TTC DRL on either King or Queen
- Activate the GO Midtown line,
.....This de-stars the GO system, and even route some trains through that route instead, if service traffic flows warranted
- Add lots of interchanges between TTC+GO RER (e.g. TTC DRL+GO RER Don Valley at Queen)

Then we'll finally we'll have a world class "subway" system, realistically in less than 25 years. In theory.
We'd have good vertical density of crosstown routes, in order from southernmost to northernmost at the Yonge axis:
- Lakeshore: Lakeshore GO RER/Milton GO RER/Kitchener GO RER(SmartTrack)/Stoufville GO RER(SmartTrack)
- Front: TTC Union
- Queen/King: TTC DRL
- Bloor: TTC Bloor-Danforth
- Dupont: GO Midtown
- Eglington: Metrolinx Crosstown

Then most people south of Lawrence Avenue, east of Keele/Weston, west of Don Valley, would ALL be within 15 minutes walk of a dedicated-right-of-way "subway" station at a realistic cost! Not New York world class, but this beats the Chicago low density (outside the loop) and places Toronto in North America 2nd place after New York City for central core access dedicated "subway".

If you want to throw in the streetcars (including St. Clair), as well as Sheppard subway, and the funded current/upcoming LRT lines, plus a Lawrence Ave line (unfunded), then the whole 416 area code become nearly completely within 15 minute walking distance of any rail-based transit station. That's world class density. Imagine Toronto being that!
 
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I have to say that that map is seriously impressive. Amazing work on the quality and the comprehensive nature of it all.

Although I'll probably return to it at some point for a more detailed overview (probably also with accompanying nitpicks haha), one thing that does stand out to me at least, in my neck of the woods in Durham, is that there should probably be at least one extra stop on the pink GO service utilizing the CP mainline across urban Durham. One station in Seaton and then the next at Hopkins St in Whitby is a very long gap, and I'm sure, given that the line would take riders through areas in which a sizeable number of Durham residents work, that additional stations across Ajax and/or Whitby would see very decent ridership indeed.

Similarly, if we're looking at this in pure fantasy, a case could be made to justify extending the Sheppard East LRT from Morningside down to Kingston Road to interchange with the Scarborough-Durham BRT, or even (in a more ludicrous move still) down Port Union Road to Rouge Hill GO.
 
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If only we had a DRL in the 20's....


SfdQpGg.jpg
 
If those streetcars were buses, it would look like today's Eglinton morning rush hour.

Except unlike streetcars, you have a row of 4-5 buses causing even more congestion by changing lanes in traffic to pass over the 6th bus collecting passengers at the bus stop. :p

Having grown up with a window facing an Eglinton bus stop, I did not like Olivia Chow's simplistic bus plan over the election for this reason. Adding more bus frequency to a route is after a certain point, not longer a solution. Not mentioning the other myriad of problems with her bus plan. I hope Tory's campaign bus plan promises involving real solutions such as express routes and queue lane jumping have not been forgotten.
 
TTCMAP2-01.png
Hello everyone!

I've been traveling around Spain for the past few weeks and I've been amazed with how good their transit wayfinding is. I've noticed that I rarely stop to look at the signs, their design is so good that I don't even remember using them and somehow I get to my destination.

Before my trip I was working on a map that incorporates the subway and the streetcars as a personal project, and now I've taken a few minutes to mock up the TTC's signage inspired on Madrid's metro signage. This is a work in progress, let me know what you think :)

View attachment 39700
signage2.png
 

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Decided to make some maps showing walking distance coverage to rapid transit stops in the GTA. anything covered in Blue is within 800 meters of a rapid transit stop.

Today:

IY8ITRE.jpg


After funded TTC projects are completed:

SroNKXx.jpg


After GO RER / Smart Track (note that these are subject to change, GO RER stops will likely be added, while some smart track stops such as 14th avenue are simply impossible, or vague such as Scarlett/Jane):

2Zb2pE1.jpg


After DRL and yonge extension as well as GO RER:

v5wb5LL.jpg



Zooming into downtown to show the difference in coverage compared to today:

Today:

JeO0imX.jpg


Tomorrow:

pHpqSIC.jpg
 
Nice map mujicaed! Welcome to UT!

And very interesting analysis insertnamehere. It's incredible how much GO RER will increase access to transit in a lot of areas.

I was bored at work today, and my mind got wandering to an alternative option for my GO REX implementation, so when I got home I decided to make an alteration to a map that I had been working on to include it. The basic premise is this: Rather than using Lakeshore East and the southern part of the Stouffville corridor, have the Scarborough and Markham GO REX lines use a combination of the DRL tunnel and the Gatineau Hydro Corridor to connect up to the Stouffville line just south of Lawrence.

It offers some pretty important advantages to just using existing rail lines:

1) Relieves congestion on Lakeshore East, which even with just Lakeshore GO REX will be seeing a sizeable boost in traffic, let alone any increases in Via service (HSR?).
2) Eliminates the need to expand the southern end of the Stouffville line, which is quite tight as it is.
3) Increases the frequency in the DRL tunnel by adding 2 pairs of GO REX routes to it. That would bring it up to TTC subway-level frequencies pretty much all day.
4) It brings service to new areas that wouldn't be served by overlapping the Scarborough and Markham lines on the Lakeshore line.

Thoughts?

GO%20REX%20Scarborough.jpg

Link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43869799/GO REX Scarborough.jpg
 
mujicaed said:
View attachment 39699Hello everyone!

I've been traveling around Spain for the past few weeks and I've been amazed with how good their transit wayfinding is. I've noticed that I rarely stop to look at the signs, their design is so good that I don't even remember using them and somehow I get to my destination.

Before my trip I was working on a map that incorporates the subway and the streetcars as a personal project, and now I've taken a few minutes to mock up the TTC's signage inspired on Madrid's metro signage. This is a work in progress, let me know what you think :)

View attachment 39700
View attachment 39701
Click to expand...

very nice work mate, yet again someone doing work in their spare time puts the TTC to shame. my only concern is it might be a bit hard to read for some people. I would increase the contrast on the lettering by making it brighter and check if it's usable for colour blind people, there's a filter for illustrator that helps with that. I also have a strong distaste for the new 'modern' wheelchair symbol but that's a personal preference.
 
gweed123 said:
I was bored at work today, and my mind got wandering to an alternative option for my GO REX implementation, so when I got home I decided to make an alteration to a map that I had been working on to include it. The basic premise is this: Rather than using Lakeshore East and the southern part of the Stouffville corridor, have the Scarborough and Markham GO REX lines use a combination of the DRL tunnel and the Gatineau Hydro Corridor to connect up to the Stouffville line just south of Lawrence.
Click to expand...

Good stuff. I feel like our hydro corridors have a lot of untapped potential. I’ve seen many a transit enthusiast write them off completely (with reason). But there’s no denying the opportunity that can be had by using a barren grassy strip that runs for such considerable length.

A few things; not really a critique, rather my opinions on using the CPR corridor:

One: Using the CPR “Midtown Corridor” to run RT/RER trains between Don Mills and Kennedy seems to make a lot more sense...provided that some kind of rapid transit connection along Ellesmere is used to hook up with the SRT.

Two: Using this theoretical 2km Kennedy-to-Warden Ellesemere-CPR connector tunnel (or EL) would allow SmartTrack/SRT/Unionville RER to connect to Don Mills/Eglinton...which has a lot of potential to be a semi-important transit hub in the near future.

Three: The costs of tunnelling this 2km gap on Ellesmere and refurbishing the CPR corridor for RT/RER couldn’t be all that much more expensive than the new bridges or underpasses required when building along the hydro corridor.

Four: I feel another added benefit of using the CPR corridor is how it’s situated geographically, and that it’s at least somewhat equidistant between Sheppard and Eglinton. This provides adequate coverage in Scarboro with local service on Sheppard and Eglinton, and rapid commuter service bisecting the two. One could argue that because the hydro corridor is so close to Eglinton, why not just build on Eglinton to begin with. Or alternately, combine the Crosstown with the hydro corridor proposal and not build anything on Eglinton.

@mujicaed
Agreed with others, nice map. I also particularly like that you took the time to make a POV rendering of how a map would look in our subway station. Sometimes it helps to see presentations in their natural setting.
 
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