Again, the LRT system itself was flawed. They do not allow for seamless transfers between the existing system, or the bus network, which, in my eyes, makes them extremely flawed. The reason the grade separated option wins is because of the transferability between other routes. Eglinton East works because it serves the corridor it travels on, not to be fed by other bus routes, and it connects directly with the Eglinton Crosstown. The SRT replacement LRT wins on transferability between buses, but not to existing transit, and, capacity is decreased, while dwell times increase. The beast solution for that corridor without a subway is to replace the SRT with ICTS, it's even cheaper than the SRT replacement with LRT. The Subway wins because of a seamless transfer at Kennedy, and the fact that you (should) easily be able to transfer from a bus terminal to the subway. The Sheppard East LRT loses on all accounts because it's just a capacity increase of the 85 bus, which, quite frankly, isn't the best bus to replace with LRT right now. I can think of at least 10 other routes that would be better suited for LRT than the 85.
Also, more stops does not equate to better service. Redundant stops only increase trip time and reduce the willingness of people to take transit. I'd much rather bike to a subway station or take a bus to a seamless transfer at a subway station (even if it ends up taking 5 minutes longer) than taking a bus or walking a long way to the LRT stop. Why? It's far less stressful, and it means there's storage for my bike if that's my choice off transit. Scarborough is, generally, not dense enough for LRT, but it is dense enough for 1 or 2 dedicated transit priority corridors that everywhere else feeds into. With the LRT plan, not much is changed.
Neither do buses.
You're looking at transit from a very suburban perspective. The goal of transit is to move people and provide access. Making things easier for drivers is a product of that, not the goal.
The Eglinton LRT is underground where necessary, and should provide great service in Scarborough. The time estimates for rides to the Yonge Line from Kennedy aren't that far off of subway travel times. Best of all, if stop spacing proves to be problematic, it's relatively easy to adjust.
Mississauga seems quite excited for their LRT. Friends in the area certainly are. Scarborough would be excited for an LRT too if they actually had to take responsibility for it.
McCowan has arguably the worst transfer or one of the worst transfers to rapid transit on the Bloor-Danforth SRT corridor. When you factor in the time it takes to get to Kennedy, 33 minutes increases to 48 to 53 minutes.
That seems to be inaccurate.
I did a time estimate for this morning at 9am. The time to Yonge Station, which seems to be the benchmark everyone uses, is 1 hour and 13 minutes (from Morningside & Neilson)
From Kipling & Finch (the other example provided), it's 1 hour and 5 minutes.
That's a grand total of 8 minutes difference lol.
With a more transit friendly street grid configuration (something mentioned in the report), you could probably shave a decent amount of time from the Scarborough estimate.
How about from Kipling and Eglinton? The ride is 44 minutes. If you're at Kennedy and Eglinton, the trip is only 23 minutes, or close to half the time.
For all the 'woe is me' oppression nonsense coming from Scarborough, the travel times really aren't that much different than they are in the western suburbs of Toronto, and in some cases the travel times are much better.
We're spending $5 billion for an extension that won't make things easier given the ridiculous walking distances, all while there are people still struggling with overcrowding and poor streetcar service downtown.
The more news they release about this extension, the more ridiculous it seems.