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After years of waiting, the new Toronto Rocket subway cars will enter service in just a few weeks, and they’re stuffed with new features designed to make riders’ lives easier. Articulations! Electronic maps! Bacteria-killing handholds!
Of course all of these bells and whistles are moot if you can’t squeeze onto the train. That’s why rush hour riders on the overcrowded Yonge side of the line should be especially excited about one of the Rocket’s less touted benefits: increased capacity.
The Rockets only have driver’s cabs at the front and back of the train, instead of one on every car. Combined with the additional room provided by the articulations, a packed Rocket train will hold about 10 per cent more people.
While that may not sound like nearly enough, the Rockets are just the first step toward major capacity improvements on the Yonge-University-Spadina line. Unfortunately the next steps are a whole lot steeper.
The TTC’s desire to run trains closer together on the 47 year-old line has opened up a pandora’s box of expensive projects. The trackside signalling system keeps trains too far apart, so it must be replaced with a computerized system. Long loading times at Yonge and Bloor create congestion, so the station must be renovated. The track layout at terminals causes delays when trains have to turn back; the Spadina extension will add a new, better-designed terminal while the Yonge side will need new tunnel past Finch just to improve turnaround times.
Once the TTC has fixed all three of these limitations they can reduce headways on the line and make the trains longer so that they take up the whole platform. However, none of these projects are fully funded and for now any capacity improvement is hypothetical. And it doesn’t stop there. These are just a few of the most prominent projects to add capacity on the line.
Meanwhile, condo construction is booming, the downtown office market is thriving, and the Eglinton LRT is a go. All of this will put further strain on Toronto’s most important transportation corridor. The TTC seems intent upon squeezing more and more downtown-bound passengers onto a single line, but they’re running up against fundamental design constraints at every turn.
The Downtown Relief Line (DRL) presents a much more straightforward alternative. The line would eliminate the need for additional capacity on Yonge by diverting huge volumes of traffic, especially from passengers coming from the east. In addition, the DRL would bring rapid transit access to new areas of the city and provide an alternate route to downtown during service disruptions. It’s more expensive, but it’s a solution that will provide Toronto with enough subway capacity for decades.
But with clean, bright and new Rockets motoring through the tunnels it’s hard to be negative. Brave Yonge-University-Spadina riders, enjoy 10 per cent more elbow room. Let’s hope there’s more to come.
Thanks to Steve Munro's blog for background information.
