Can we channel the expertise in this forum to work on SmartTrack 2.0?
SmartTrack 2.0
Convert the Stouffville line to EMU with 3-4 minute headways. The route goes along the Lakeshore (4th track installed), then at Gerrard and Pape we go down the DRL tunnel, switching the DRL technology to EMU as well. The Crosstown under Queen is now EMU avoiding all the Union Station issues. There are suggests to curve to run under King or Wellington for greater functionality. Either way, we meet up with the UPX, which we then salvage by converting it to EMU and add a few more stations and serve west Toronto. With the DRL now underground EMU we go up Pape, build a couple of bridges across the Don Valley and then up Don Mills Road.
The Don Mills/Stouffville tunnel would be triple track.
A less effective alternative would be to merge the two lines together, the outside track requiring a flying junction. The most effective method is to use 4 tracks.
The cheapest would to terminate one line at Pape and Gerrard and continue in town with the other line, not sure riders would go for it.
Apparently the triple track function doesn’t work well in New York because the return track can’t handle the load of two tracks. Maybe using station bypasses to let trains pass each other to help move trains out of the tunnel on the middle track. The idea is to have both dedicated tracks inbound in the morning and outbound for the evening. At some point after the morning rush hour all trains on both lines have to pull into a station and all crews have to reverse direction. Both lines require signals in both directions. You can tell, I don’t have transit knowledge.
This idea is for brainstorming. The idea is to get Metrolinx to work on a digestible project where they can gain experience with PTC and EMU’s. It would be easy on Stouffville and UPX. Toronto needs both crosstown and RL (DRL) so it would be a good connector. We can isolate all the Union Station issues.
http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threads/transit-fantasy-maps.3005/page-292#post-1109076