Richmond Hill Yonge Line 1 North Subway Extension | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx

The matter of Royal Orchard station is coming before the YRRTC Board of Directors meeting on May 8 (Private session)

YR has made it clear they want it. A few months ago I'd have said, good for them - now try to convince TTC/Toronto Council.
But once bill 107 passes, it'll be in the Province's hands so, good luck, I guess.
 
Ontario Presses Federal Government for Transit, Transportation Support
Time to support Ontario priorities to get people moving, help economy
May 15, 2019 11:20 A.M.
Ministry of Infrastructure

TORONTO - The provincial government is welcoming a commitment by federal Infrastructure Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne to put Ontario's priorities first and ensure 54 key projects - including five historic transit projects in the GTA - are expedited for approvals.

The government's call for action comes on the day Monte McNaughton, Ontario's Minister of Infrastructure, formally requested funding for the Yonge North Subway Extension.

"For months, we've heard the federal government ask us to be quicker sending them projects for approval," said Minister McNaughton. "Today we have nominated our 54th project to the federal government. The ball is now in their court. We are looking to them to say yes so we can get shovels in the ground and get people moving."

In a release May 10, 2019, Minister Champagne made a "commitment to the people of Ontario that I will continue to put your priorities first and will ensure the projects that matter most to your communities ... are expedited for approvals."

Minister McNaughton said Wednesday he was "encouraged" by his colleague's commitment.

"I have enjoyed a positive and productive relationship with Minister Champagne. He is someone I hold in high regard," said Minister McNaughton. "Our governments need to focus on picking up shovels rather than picking fights."

The Yonge North Subway Extension, an estimated $5.6 billion project in the Greater Toronto Area, would stretch the Yonge subway line from Finch station all the way to Richmond Hill Centre. The project would create a truly regional subway transit system that connects people and communities to one of the fastest growing regions in the area.

Wednesday's request follows a list of four projects sent for approval May 6, including the Ontario Line, the Bloor-Yonge Capacity Improvement Project, the three-stop Scarborough Subway Extension and the SmartTrack Stations Program.

The five nation-building projects will help reduce gridlock in the GTA region, deliver real transit relief to commuters, and boost the local economy by connecting more people to new jobs and opportunities.

"People have waited long enough for an integrated regional transit system that extends outside of Toronto's city limits," said Jeff Yurek, Minister of Transportation. "We're building a 21st century transit network that better serves transit riders' needs and extends into the growing communities and new employment centres across the region."

Earlier this month the province introduced legislation to give it authority over transit expansion.

"Transit in the GTHA is a generation behind where it should be due to years of inaction by government," said McNaughton. "We are taking action because the province has the power to get these projects done. We have a world-class procurement agency to lead development. We have the power to cut red tape that has bogged down the city in the past. And most importantly we are putting up the money to fund these projects. It's time the federal government joined us."

In March, Ontario opened the first stream of a 10-year infrastructure program that will unlock up to $30 billion in combined federal, provincial and local investments. A second stream was opened in April. The two streams cover rural and northern transportation projects and non-GTA public transit projects.

Quick Facts
  • The five GTA transit projects will require a combined $28.5 billion, of which the province has committed $11.2 billion.
  • The Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program is a $30 billion, 10-year infrastructure program cost-shared between federal, provincial and municipal governments. Ontario’s share per project will be up to 33.33 per cent, or $10.2 billion spread across four streams: 1. Rural and Northern, 2. Public Transit, 3. Green, and 4. Community, Culture and Recreation.
 
The Yonge North Subway Extension, an estimated $5.6 billion project in the Greater Toronto Area, would stretch the Yonge subway line from Finch station all the way to Richmond Hill Centre.

How's the average person going to know where Richmond Hill Centre is? It makes it sound like it's being extended to Major Mack, rather than Hwy. 7.
 
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How's the average person going to know where Richmond Hill Centre is? It makes it sound like it's being extended to Major Mack, rather than Hwy. 7.

It's been known for years now that the area around Yonge and Highway 7 has been marketed and branded as "Richmond Hill Centre". Where's the confusion here?
 
It's been known for years now that the area around Yonge and Highway 7 has been marketed and branded as "Richmond Hill Centre". Where's the confusion here?
The confusion is that in their infinite wisdom, Metrolinx call the GO Station at Richmond Hill Centre, near Highway 7 and Yonge, near where the new Richmond Hill Centre subway station will go ... as Langstaff GO. Meanwhile Richmond Hill GO is north of Major Mackenzie!

A bystander would assume that the proposed Langstaff subway station is at Langstaff GO and the proposed Richmond Hill Centre subway station is at Richmond Hill GO - and yet neither are true.
 
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Must have been a very quick glance. I'm not sure what you were looking at and I don't have time to mark up a map but there is plenty visible to the naked eye. It is a designated Heritage Conservation District, on both sides of Yonge (and indeed, IIRC, the Markham side was the first in Ontario). The District designation comes with a lot of restrictions on what you can do.
If you care to read or scan them, the plans for Vaughan and Markham are online; you can see the maps and the rules in place.

And that's why it won't get a station. As you can see , this will never happen. It's effectively "illegal." Overall, the coherence of the heritage, particularly on Yonge, hasn't been maintained as one might have wished but the rules are in place to ensure it's not degraded any further.

Here is an example of a home I just sold for a client in the Heritage District. This house is not itself listed as heritage but since it's in the zone the addition had to be sympathetic to the style of the neighbourhood and the front of the home left mostly original. There may be an opportunity for Dormers to be added but with the approval of the Heritage Committee. There is some opportunity for Live/Work situations in many of the Heritage Zone streets.
MPP_1931.jpg
 
The confusion is that in their infinite wisdom, Metrolinx call the GO Station at Richmond Hill Centre, near Highway 7 and Yonge, near where the new Richmond Hill Centre subway station will go ... as Langstaff GO. Meanwhile Richmond Hill GO is north of Major Mackenzie!

A bystander would assume that the proposed Langstaff subway station is at Langstaff GO and the proposed Richmond Hill Centre subway station is at Richmond Hill GO - and yet neither are true.
It's probably Richmond Hill's fault. Their downtown is Yonge, north of Major Mackenzie, but they want to build a new downtown at Highway 7/Yonge.
Downtown Richmond Hill is never referred to as Richmond Hill Centre.
I don't think they should change the name of Richmond Hill GO. Maybe they can change the RHC station name instead, as a suggestion to Richmond Hill Gateway (Langstaff Gateway + Richmond Hill Centre).
 
It's probably Richmond Hill's fault. Their downtown is Yonge, north of Major Mackenzie, but they want to build a new downtown at Highway 7/Yonge.
Downtown Richmond Hill is never referred to as Richmond Hill Centre.
I don't think they should change the name of Richmond Hill GO. Maybe they can change the RHC station name instead, as a suggestion to Richmond Hill Gateway (Langstaff Gateway + Richmond Hill Centre).

The simplest solution is to rename the two subway stations. The terminus could be called Langstaff, and the station south of 407 could be called Longbridge, after the road on the west side of Yonge. Since the stations aren't build yet, renaming them is an easy matter.

But if they really -need- to call the terminus "Richmond Hill Centre", then I guess the Richmond Hill GO station should be renamed at some point during the subway construction. Just call it "Major Mackenzie", or "Newkirk".
 
This is no different than how Vaughan City Hall is located up at Major Mac/Keele, near the Maple GO station, nowhere near the Vaughan Metropolitan Center station.

It's just a quirk of being suburbs patched together from multiple old settlements and now trying to create urban centres, which is the opposite of cities typically grow. (It's also a reminder to people in 416 who are concerned about a subway going WAY out to Richmond Hill, that's really only barely making its way into Richmond Hill.)

It's all a bit counter-intuitive but I don't know that it's really confusing. Are there people who've gotten off the subway at VMC, frustrated they couldn't find City Hall? Perhaps but I doubt it's common. It might make sense to rename the GO stations to something like RH Centre and Old RH but I generally - and this is hard to admit - think oust human beings are smart enough to handle these discrepancies. Just like I know I can get to Yorkville from Bloor Station or figure out when I want to get off at Queen and when Osgoode makes more sense, and how weird it is both Dundas and Queen access the Eaton Centre - even though neither is called "Eaton Centre," and so on.

Besides, once the province is done with its government review later this year, RH might not even exist anymore.
 
Something along the lines of RH Metropolitan Centre for the subway and RH Old Town for GO to delineate the areas would leave little confusion.
 
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Something along the lines of RH Metropolitan Centre for the subway and RH Old Town for GO to delineate the areas would leave little confusion.
I don't think we should be using the term "Metropolitan" for either RH or Vaughan considering neither are Metropolitan Areas or have ever been referred to as such. It just screams of Cities trying to use terms improperly to make themselves feel good. The use of the word Metropolitan in VMC will always be stupid and only happened because Vaughan thought simply being referred to as "Vaughan Centre" was not good enough for them. The real "Metropolitan Centre" up there is actually in Newmarket since that is where the seat of Regional Council is.
 
The simplest solution is to rename the two subway stations. The terminus could be called Langstaff, and the station south of 407 could be called Longbridge, after the road on the west side of Yonge. Since the stations aren't build yet, renaming them is an easy matter
The station on Yonge between Longbridge and Langstaff could be called Longbridge. But I don't see that calling the terminus as Langstaff works, given how much further north it is than the Langstaff GO station! It's centred under High Tech Road!

As they have an entrance to the subway planned to Langstaff/Longbridge station near the southwest corner of Yonge and Langstaff, calling station much further north of Langstaff seems unlikely. Isn't it more likely they will be moving the GO platforms further north towards the proposed subway terminus?

Langstaff/Longbridge station
186381


Richmond Hill Centre station
186382
 

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