Hipster Duck
Senior Member
Back to the original question of whether this should be a subway or an LRT, I am fairly adamant - and I might be alone, here - that we should not bow down to LRT-mania, and we ought to build a proper heavy rail "subway". What I mean is that it should feature 6-car subway trains traveling on a separate ROW that utilizes the rail corridors as much as possible.
My reasoning for having a subway from the get-go is that, too often, a transit project in Toronto becomes a victim of its own success. We only have to look at the example of the SRT, overcrowded and orphaned, which in hindsight should have been an extension of the Bloor-Danforth subway line.
Steve Munro has indicated on his website that an LRT would be a low-floor system using uncoupled trams. If a DRL-LRT involved something similar to, say, Calgary or Edmonton, I would be much more willing to concede. What we are going to get, of course, is a glorified streetcar that will be over-capacity from day one. I am especially concerned when he opens his mouth and says that one of the constraints of a subway is the construction of a 300 ft tunneled station; what this says to me is that, in the event that we do build underground stations, they are going to be puny Queens Quay-sized hovels that won't be able to make any provisions for future growth.
My reasoning for having a subway from the get-go is that, too often, a transit project in Toronto becomes a victim of its own success. We only have to look at the example of the SRT, overcrowded and orphaned, which in hindsight should have been an extension of the Bloor-Danforth subway line.
Steve Munro has indicated on his website that an LRT would be a low-floor system using uncoupled trams. If a DRL-LRT involved something similar to, say, Calgary or Edmonton, I would be much more willing to concede. What we are going to get, of course, is a glorified streetcar that will be over-capacity from day one. I am especially concerned when he opens his mouth and says that one of the constraints of a subway is the construction of a 300 ft tunneled station; what this says to me is that, in the event that we do build underground stations, they are going to be puny Queens Quay-sized hovels that won't be able to make any provisions for future growth.