quicksilver
Active Member
Love my lattés, espressos and cafe americanos!
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Love my lattés, espressos and cafe americanos!
TheTigerMaster
Superstar
This has nothing to do with Scarborough in particular. If someone were to propose building an elevated park through the Portlands (assuming none of the planned development happens), the idea would be just as ridiculous.
TheTigerMaster
Superstar
Wait.. I thought latte sipping downtown elitists were too good for Starbucks. Does this mean that I can start drinking Starbucks again?
quicksilver
Active Member
Wait.. I thought latte sipping downtown elitists were too good for Starbucks. Does this mean that I can start drinking Starbucks again?
No, you're right. A true blue blood elitist would refuse to sip from anything less degradable than ceramic and would scoop with nothing less than stainless steel.
quicksilver
Active Member
I wish I could agree, and look just north of the Portlands for my reference. When Toronto as a whole decides it wants to build up an area rather than tearing it down, nothing gets in its way. Even if that means building parks where nobody currently lives and building whole new neigbourhoods from industrial wastelands.
By contrast to some of the cost of some of the city's mega redevelopment projects, the expense for an elevated linear park from an existing transit guideway, if it didn't turn out to be a positive cashflow project, wouldn't buy enough peanuts to feed the Zoo's monkey population for a year.
An updated review of the area for the city's official plan could be warranted given the much larger decision to extend the Bloor/Danforth subway here. I certainly hope the the city-owned low-rise buildings and lots in the area are not sold off to developers before the city does a re-evaluation of all its landholdings in the area to account for the average increase in value subway stops and LRT stops typically bring. That was a good game played downtown. The McDonalds across from the ROM and Addison's Cadillac's surface lot come to mind immediately. (McDonlad's was on leased city land and Addison's was on provincial land, just to be clear.)
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ehlow
Senior Member
An elevated park in the Portlands would have amazing views of the skyline! Not to mention the Portlands already have the Leslie Spit and Cherry Beach, some of our best parks. It's very popular for cyclists & joggers and even has a dog park.
Wait.. I thought latte sipping downtown elitists were too good for Starbucks. Does this mean that I can start drinking Starbucks again?
They would be at an indie coffee place with all the specialized Breaking Bad coffee equipment and communal tables of course.
W. K. Lis
Superstar
There are bicycle paths that pass close to the Humber & Ashbridges Wastewater Treatment Plants. The fragrance would depend if downwind or not.
44 North
Senior Member
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TheTigerMaster
Superstar
The Toronto Zoo Monorail is almost as long as the SRT.
D
Duck
Guest
Rip my heart right out why don't you.
44 North
Senior Member
SRT to get a makeover: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/tra...carboroughs-creaking-srt-gets-a-makeover.html
Scarborough's creaking SRT gets a makeover
The TTC is refurbishing the little trains inside and out so they can run reliably and comfortably until the Scarborough subway is built.
By: TESS KALINOWSKI Transportation Reporter, Published on Thu Feb 26 2015
Nearly crippled by old age, the 30-year-old Scarborough RT is getting a makeover while riders wait for the subway extension that's supposed to replace it in eight or nine years.
The little trains that deliver 4.7 million rides a year and resemble small subway cars are being overhauled inside and out so the line can operate reliably and comfortably for the next decade, said TTC deputy chief operating officer Mike Palmer.
The SRT, which passed its best-before date years ago, is increasingly unreliable, particularly in winter.
For years the TTC has tried to keep the SRT running on a shoestring while the city debated whether to upgrade it or replace it with a different transit technology.
"It's got to that point where we can't patch it up any more. We have to do something about it," said Palmer, who says the makeover will see the SRT through the next decade.
Last year, it was out of service for about 291 hours, more than twice the 136 out-of-service hours it logged in 2010.
"We've had two significant shutdowns in the last month, though the second one is directly down to snow. The shoes that pick up the current were being pushed around by the snow," he said.
As part of the makeover, the TTC will replace the motors and all the under-car parts that contribute to the SRT's infamous rattle.
"It is not going to give you a much smoother ride and we'll still get the same whining noise, but it will push that reliability back up to where it used to be," said Palmer.
The TTC is partnering with Vancouver, which uses the SRT technology on its SkyTrain, and is sourcing parts from Bombardier and other suppliers to address the SRT's mechanical issues.
The first of the 14 cars is already getting a fresh blue wrap to cover its "scrappy" fiberglass and metal exterior. The Line 3 name and its six stops will be part of the new look and an updated train will run for a while before the rest of the fleet is wrapped, to give riders a chance to offer feedback.
The interior will also get a floor-to-ceiling overhaul, making it cleaner and brighter and, designating space for wheelchairs, mobility devices and strollers.
In April, the TTC plans to shut down the SRT for three or four weekends while it clears the guideway of leaves and refurbishes the old Thales signal system before the Pan Am Games. It's considered a key transit link to the aquatic centre at the U of T Scarborough campus.
While all the cars won't be refurbished this year, Palmer said, "We're accelerating the work as much as the funding will allow because I want to get as much benefit as quickly as possible. There's no point taking three or four years to renew the line piecemeal if we're only going to extend it for 10 years," he said.
Rebuilding the SRT is more economical than the other potential solution, which was to replace it with buses. It would take about 50 new buses and a garage to carry the same number of TTC riders.
Still, that was the plan when the city was still planning an LRT in Scarborough. Riders were going to be consigned to buses for up to four years while the SRT was torn down to make room for the LRT. Keeping the SRT in service during construction was a point in favour of a subway when council debated changing course on the technology.
Even before that, the TTC had considered renewing the SRT technology, but its linear induction propulsion was considered orphan technology in the fleet. Transit officials thought there would be efficiencies in going with vehicles that were used elsewhere in the system. When LRTs were introduced as the choice for Eglinton, Finch West and Sheppard East, that made sense.
So far, though, the only new LRT under construction is Eglinton. While Finch and Sheppard are officially still part of the plan, there's less political support for those lines.
It's expected to cost $132 million to refurbish the SRT and keep it operational for a decade, including $16 million that was approved in this year's TTC capital budget.
Had the city opted to stay with a provincially funded LRT to replace the SRT, the buses and garage needed during construction would have been part of the package.
The SRT is the first generation of the technology that is used in Vancouver's Skytrain. Its Thales-built signal system is the same as that employed in Hong Kong and London, said Palmer. But some of the SRT's hardware and software will be renewed.
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Johnny Au
Senior Member
The refurb would look much better than the 1980s-style striped design.
44 North
Senior Member
I think I'd prefer the striped design over having the SRT's station names painted on the car, as seen in the render. The blue should be interesting though.
CDL.TO
Moderator
Oh god no.
http://media.giphy.com/media/12XMGIWtrHBl5e/giphy.gif
A refurb is a good idea but that's so damn ugly. Does the TTC think that people don't know what line they're on or where it stops?! Are they TTC's colours not red, white, and black?
Dammit TTC.
http://media.giphy.com/media/12XMGIWtrHBl5e/giphy.gif
A refurb is a good idea but that's so damn ugly. Does the TTC think that people don't know what line they're on or where it stops?! Are they TTC's colours not red, white, and black?
Dammit TTC.