[Fresh Start]

Junction - L
Bloor/Dundas West - X,L, BD
Lansdowne/Parkdale - L
Dufferin-Queen - L
King-Liberty - X,L
Fort York - L
Spadina South - L
Union - X,L, YUS
St. Lawrence - L
Donlands - L
Queen East (Leslieville) - L
Pape-Gerrard - L

That's essentially the DRL alignment and most stop locations right there. Makes me wonder whether if we got this S-bahn system up and running; we could route the DRL along a different corridor more akin to the original Queen subway line proposal. It's redundant and wasteful to give over-coverage to areas like Liberty Village for instance while poorer innercity "slums" like Regent, Alexandra Pk and Parkdale continue to stagnate.

 

[M II A II R II K]

Have the original DRL up Don Mills & Queen St., and the GO Local service on it's same Waterfront routes. But on the west side the DRL could terminate and Parkdale Station and anyone who wants to continue north west toward the airport can transfer to the GO Local on that side.

 

[ssiguy2]

So you are sort of recommending a Sydney or Melbourne type system is that right?
It could work well using some of Toronto's many rail lines. As it is right now Toronto doesn't use a single rail corridor. The trains serving Toronto could be smaller and certainly not the double decker monsters of GO. I guess something like a CTrain or DART system that use existing rail corridors and merge closer to downtown. These city trains could always use a DRL under a Queen tunnel like Syd/Mel have but would negate having to build huge new lines. It could work very well but only if the lines are TTC lines so the fares are the same.

 

[nfitz]

And this whole plan is contingent on:

1) Full fare integration being implemented, so that it doesn't cost any extra for a TTC rider to ride GO in Toronto.

2) That the headways on the GO lines are tight enough that there is actually room left to absorb the subway tranferrees, without packing them in like sardines.

3) That Union (GO) can handle headways of 3 minutes, and that people would actually have enough time to get up to the platform, etc. Say in the evening rush hour, you wanted the next train out of Union, heading west to Dundas West. What platform do you take? There are 3 options, and it's pretty much a toss-up as to which one to take. It's nearly the same scenario that occured at Lower Bay when interlining was in place. You needed to play the guessing game.

All sounds great. But still doesn't do much to relieve Yonge-Bloor.

 

[M II A II R II K]

Maybe they could cheap out and just build a parallel Bay Street line and send half the trains down Bay St. and the other have down Yonge. That would do alot of relieving.

 

[Jonny5]

All sounds great. But still doesn't do much to relieve Yonge-Bloor.

Yeah, or to explain it bluntly: even if all the people that should be riding in the rail corridors to get downtown, but aren't, due to lack of service or extra cost, there will still be a critical backlog of people at Yonge and Bloor within 20 years.
20 years is about how long we need to build the DRL (given time for full EAs, planning and finding funding).

 

[lead82]

At the rate ridership is growing on the yonge line we will need a relief line built by 2020, especially once the sheppard lrt opens and all the sheppard line developments dump a whole slew of new riders.

 

[M II A II R II K]

But they'll probably start the EA for it by 2018, then the shovels will appear by 2025 and maybe it'll open by 2032.

 

[Paleo]

All sounds great. But still doesn't do much to relieve Yonge-Bloor.

Indeed. All CBD bound passengers coming in from the east and west must transfer at St. George or Bloor-Yonge because the politicians voted to have the line running along the northern edge of downtown rather than through the middle.

The problem with the railway ROW and Union is that it's at the very southern edge of downtown. This is my problem with any proposal involving running any sort of rapid transit following that alignment.

This particular item is more likely to shift more problems to Union station and pushes off the problem at Bloor-Yonge and St. George for a few more years at best.

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

I agree with the rest. Even with a system like this (which I agree is needed) I don't think it would provide that much relief that makes the DRL unecessary.

 

[urbandreamer]

How about a sky train route? It would operate in a loop around the city.

 

[valkoholic]

But they'll probably start the EA for it by 2018, then the shovels will appear by 2025 and maybe it'll open by 2032.

Optimist

 

[Fresh Start]

The Sheppard subway project started in 1997 and was completed by 2002. Scarcely six years. By contrast an at-grade, preexisting streetcar line took close to five years to rebuild. I'd give subway ROW the advantage here for being able to plow anywhere necessary with minimal disruption to the surface and to surrounding communities and businesses.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

FS:

"Minimal" disruptions? Have you even been on Sheppard during the construction of the line? I mean, subways are beneficial, but let's not understate the impact. You can't have "minimal" anything when you are building stations by cut-and-cover.

AoD

 

[leopetr]

Maybe they could cheap out and just build a parallel Bay Street line and send half the trains down Bay St. and the other have down Yonge. That would do alot of relieving.

Bay street has an impossible zig-zag at Queen. You can't fit a subway tunnel in without demolishing Old City Hall.

Edit: Also, this line is pretty impossible to connect at Union unless you go very, very deep.