innsertnamehere
Superstar
Stand and watch the bus traffic along Yonge St. south of Steeles in morning rush hour and get back to me. You'll probably have a different opinion.
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Richmond Hill Yonge Line 1 North Subway Extension | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx
- Thread starter 299 bloor call control.
- Start date
Until the Ontario Line is operating from Don Mills and Sheppard southwards, yeah, extending the Yonge Line further north is asinine. Improve GO service to get more Region of Yorkers south in the meantime.
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Haydenpoon
Active Member
Stouffville and Barrie lines are all under construction.
WislaHD
Superstar
As a Midtown resident who would suffer the most from a Yonge North extension due to crowded trains before they even reach Eglinton, I still think the Yonge North extension should proceed.
The situation at Finch Station is ridiculous. First, the trains literally cannot turn around quickly enough to adequately service the line at rush hour, with or without ATC. Second the multitude of Steeles buses that have to turn onto Yonge to head to Finch is tremendous, and quite clearly one of the worst sections of our TTC bus network at current from an operations, public realm, and customer experience perspective.
There is ample development opportunity at Cummer, Steeles, and at Langstaff which is unlocked with the construction of the Yonge North extension and I do remind everyone we are in a housing crunch.
If we weren't so cash-strapped for transit funding, we would simply proceed ahead with Yonge North alongside our other transit priorities. It is a no-brainer extension.
The situation at Finch Station is ridiculous. First, the trains literally cannot turn around quickly enough to adequately service the line at rush hour, with or without ATC. Second the multitude of Steeles buses that have to turn onto Yonge to head to Finch is tremendous, and quite clearly one of the worst sections of our TTC bus network at current from an operations, public realm, and customer experience perspective.
There is ample development opportunity at Cummer, Steeles, and at Langstaff which is unlocked with the construction of the Yonge North extension and I do remind everyone we are in a housing crunch.
If we weren't so cash-strapped for transit funding, we would simply proceed ahead with Yonge North alongside our other transit priorities. It is a no-brainer extension.
robmausser
Senior Member
I believe the "CP Don Branch" that uses the old CP line than the CN one is preferred by Metrolinx because it misses the don flooding issues, and it also is straighter, but they have to figure out how to not piss off the people around the Leaside Spur, which is now a rail trail.
I think if they used Tram Trains for the GO RER portion, like some kind of similar project as the REM and the Deux Montagnes line conversion in Montreal to Langstaff, and kept the existing GO trains on the existing line express to Richmond Hill-Bloomington, it could be done.
From a legal perspective, Metrolinx owns the Leaside Spur trail, with a provision to keep using it in the future, but if they used Tram Trains, there might be enough space to keep the trail along side the tracks, and use trains quiet enough to not piss off the NIMBYS.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
Between ATC and the Ontario Line to Eglinton, there should be more than enough capacity.
Recall that the city was ready to say OK to this like with the old Relief Line, which only ran to The Danforth.
Recall that the city was ready to say OK to this like with the old Relief Line, which only ran to The Danforth.
More needs to be done to figure out how to speed up and make frequent the Richmond Hill line.
And @WislaHD, while the Yonge line definitely needs a way to handle more turning trains, building an extension all the way to Highway 7 is not the answer to that problem; that extension is for different (political) purposes. If they were just extending to Steeles right now and designing it with two median platforms to handle more trains… well then great.
@innsertnamehere The City was only ready to say okay because they were knuckle dragging, or at least knuckling under to pressure from the Province. All parties want to claim they answered the call of York Region types to grab their votes, but studies were showing that the Ontario line will not provide enough relief to the Yonge line to make a real difference unless it goes all the way to Sheppard. Even Eglinton as a terminal for the Ontario line will not be enough to really help the Yonge line, but you can't win every fight.
Maybe now that Covid has changed so much, we've got a fair bit more breathing room before transit ridership builds again.
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WislaHD
Superstar
The line should be built to Steeles, regardless. Sending it to Highway 7 is just to get political buy-in from the province and feds for funding, whether we like it or not.
Highway 7 is a logical terminus anyway, it is a planned transit hub.
Streety McCarface
Senior Member
It actually does, at least within Toronto. Extending the subway up to Richmond hill opens up the Finch Tail tracks for short-turning service, and shifts the main turn-around points to Highway 7, creating a huge buffer zone along the Yonge line for trains to wait, the length of which is not in the City of Toronto.
There's also the huge improved terminal at RHC, which will include 3 rail tracks capable of handling 2 trains each, and a southern crossover. If train traffic becomes too much, you can always run a train into the tail tracks without blind tripping the train and turn it around that way.
Improved turnarounds could be accomplished at Steeles with the appropriate design. As I've mentioned, heading north into York Region is a political move, pandering to voters up there, while screwing ones to the south. Extending the Yonge Line into York without extending the Ontario Line significantly is not one that's sensible in terms of a properly functioning Yonge Line within the 416.
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mdu
Active Member
Like it or not, York Region's transit decisions have long been based on a YSS which goes up to Hwy. 7. The Finch-Hwy.7 section of the Blue/Pink route has not been BRTified, because the subway system is anticipated. (Come to think of it, this is the exact situation as the Steeles bus turning down Yonge, but with more kilometres on Yonge. Almost as if the border between North York and Thornhill is just that -- a line).
Viva Orange and Purple both have a terminus at Hwy. 7. While extending the subway all the way up is not the most cost-effective, it will provide the greatest integration with transit in York Region. And if extending it there ensures the necessary funding from the feds, consider it another advantage.
Viva Orange and Purple both have a terminus at Hwy. 7. While extending the subway all the way up is not the most cost-effective, it will provide the greatest integration with transit in York Region. And if extending it there ensures the necessary funding from the feds, consider it another advantage.
micheal_can
Senior Member
I am confused, are you for or against it going to Highway 7?
Long subway lines make sense providing there is a method to switch to some sort of express. Going to RH makes sense if there is GO RER integration.
Leo_Chan
Senior Member
Hypothetically speaking, if the Province a decade ago didn't announce the plan for the Yonge Subway Extension to Highway 7 and York Region built the Yonge Rapidway between Highway 7 and Finch (with the TTC building the section between Steeles and Finch), instead of diverting funds to the Highway 7 East Rapidway as Phase 1, how would the Yonge corridor have changed? Would building the BRT lanes along a more demanding corridor have changed people's view of "bus lanes wasting road space"? How would the strech of Yonge between Longbridge and Clark have changed with the widened road? Would the TTC Steeles buses and other non-Yonge YRT buses have used the bus lanes to get to Finch instead of general traffic lanes? Would agressive signal priority be a must for such a corridor?
11th
Senior Member
If TTC and YRT (non-viva) buses all use the rapidway, there couldn't be proper signal priority. They wouldn't be able to squeeze in any green phase for the cross streets.
mdu
Active Member
Aggressive would be putting it lightly. How many busses run that Finch-Steeles gauntlet? TTC has 53 and 60, but YRT also has: 88, 23, 5, 77, 99, 2, 91, 300, 303, Blue, and Pink. Signal priority won't cut it. That being said, I don't think any of the YRT busses stop south of Steeles, so I suppose they could have used the BRT lane.