Red October
Senior Member
Seriously the "problems" with St. Clair are waaaaaayyyyy overblown.
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Midtown Urbanist
Superstar
We've had lengthy discussion on this topic, either in this, the Finch West or the Transit Fantasy Maps thread. I wish I knew which pages, because people posted rather detailed route options. Would be nice to review them again.
I used it for the first time in ages the other week. It was an exceptional experience compared to most other transit in Toronto. I don't know why anyone would complain about it.
TheTigerMaster
Superstar
By the way, he original scope of the St. Clair ROW came in approximately as budgeted, if I recall correctly. That's commendable considering all the crap the TTC had to put up with from the community and Hydro. It was all the stuff that was added on to the project by Councillors that made it go "over budget"
TheTigerMaster
Superstar
It just hit me that a Finch-Eglinton LRT would be a resurrection of the Etobickoe RT from the 70s (SRTs lost cousin)
Voltz
Senior Member
If the City can build streetcar tracks, roads and bridges. then they can build these LRT's.
Metrolinx would just waste two years with some needlessly over bureaucratic P3 bid with Infastructure Ontario for something that is not more complex than what we are already building.
That delay will guarantee the cancellation of these lines, since the political support will wane, and some other plan will pop up in the next election.
And the Crosstown East is supposed to be funded with city money that was meant for the Scarborough Subway, and the tax increase for that money has already been put in place.
Metrolinx would just waste two years with some needlessly over bureaucratic P3 bid with Infastructure Ontario for something that is not more complex than what we are already building.
That delay will guarantee the cancellation of these lines, since the political support will wane, and some other plan will pop up in the next election.
And the Crosstown East is supposed to be funded with city money that was meant for the Scarborough Subway, and the tax increase for that money has already been put in place.
Midtown Urbanist
Superstar
Having read Ed Levy's book, it has become evident that all our transit plans are rehashes of things that were proposed decades before.
Only 'new' idea that I can think of is a subway under Don Mills.
nfitz
Superstar
Other than there isn't a single piece of shared alignment ... I thought the Etobicoke RT was up the hydro alignment near Kipling north of the 401, a short spur into Pearson, and then along the , then along the Finch Hydro alignment. I don't think any of it was on Eglinton, Finch, or any of the proposed Eglinton LRT alignments into Pearson.
TheTigerMaster
Superstar
I meant it's similar in spirit. Etobockoe RT was a north/south connection between Finch West, Airport and Bloor. This new proposal is north/south connection between Airport, Finch West and Eglinton. Both proposals accomplish more or less the same thing.
Palma
Senior Member
its the car drivers and the issue with left-hand turns and how long it takes at a stop due to having the u-turns, etc, etc
TheTigerMaster
Superstar
Our plans are very much a rehashing of this proposal from 1969. Modes may have changed, and alignments slightly shifted, but overall very similar.
The above proposal called for a central underground subway on Eglinton, running underground from Mt Dennis to Laird. I know at least one permutation of this proposal called for a streetcar in exclusive right-of-way to be built from Laird to Kennedy Station, just like we're getting today. West of Mt Dennis, it would've been an allen-expressway style subway in ROW. Very similar to what we're getting today, with light rail running at 30 kph speeds (same as subway).
The Finch ICRT system shown is similar in spirit to the Finch West LRT, and it's connection to the airport and Eglinton Crosstown is similar to what's being proposed today.
The ICRT system shown in Scarborough is remarkably similar in spirt to the Crosstown East. Incredible considering that Scarborough Centre wasn't a thing, and Scarborough was largely undeveloped back then
And of course, they wanted to bring the Relief Line to Don Mills. You can even see that they identified a Relief Line extension to Jane Street, which is something City Planning is apparently examining to deal with University capacity issues.
TheTigerMaster
Superstar
Toronto's plans over the decades have generally included an inner U, outer U, Bloor-Danforth rapid transit, and more recently (and by recently, I mean 70s), Eglinton rapid transit. Everything is in place now but that damn outer U.
Palma
Senior Member
isn't the outer U basically SmartTrack?
TheTigerMaster
Superstar
Ha, no. Not at all. SmartTrack is on the fast track to irrelevance.
Outer U is Relief Line, running from Dundas West or Mt. Dennis to Sheppard & Don Mills via downtown.
jcam
Active Member
Very true. And the project manager was actually the City, not the TTC as I recall. Streetcar surface projects are generally managed by the City's transportation department.
