No thanks, I'd rather not wait 40+ years to get off the stupid bus on Eglinton. We have a funded solution which has the option of turing into a subway when the need arises. I really don't see the need for this to be cancelled so we can debate using money we don't have to build something we don't need and wait using time we don't have. Talk to me about subways when we need it. I'd use this subway everyday, but I don't live in a fantasy. This whole "SUBWAYS OR NOTHING!" bothers me. It does a lot more harm than good, because we'll more likely end up with option number 2 in that equation.
We actually do need subways right now! I think you misunderstand just how much we do. We most definitely don't have a healthy network. Eglinton is needed as a RT, to provide relief to the Bloor line in the west end, and as a connection to the Airport. If you can't see that need, I guess you can go amongst the ranks of Miller and Giambrone that think that LRTs will save the city and will turn all the desolate suburban wastelands into pretty european avenues with trams chugging past coffee shops and a smiling sun gracing the masses as they take the neighborhood LRT to work. This is not a reality, and it's a completely unsound basis for proper network transit planning.
I've said again, it's not a subways or nothing argument. The government was basically handing out written checks with Move Ontario 2020, which could easily have been fueled into a subway. But instead, we got LRT. Of course, there's still plenty of room to get a subway on track now, and even more funding will become available once Metrolinx gets on track to help with transit improvements through local revenue-generating activities. Even if we got absolutely no money, there would still be enough money in the current Eglinton funding to build the subway from Pearson-Don Mills, and you yourself said we don't need Subway through Wal-Marts, so I don't quite understand why LRT is exempt from that.
Your right, LRT wouldn't work on Yonge. But it works on Eglinton.
Just a question, why exactly does it work on Eglinton and not Yonge? By what seems like all the pro-TC posters here, the Yonge line should have stopped at Eglinton, and Bloor should have gone from Keele-Main, if even. Subway does not have to be anywhere near the levels of the Yonge or Bloor lines to be successful, and we won't ever have a sound network if we stay happy with "what works." In fact, the Yonge and Bloor lines are getting pretty close to not working, and we need more lines to supplement the network we already have. LRT might provide some of those concessions, but it doesn't do the job nearly as well as a true RT. Sure, Eglinton will work as LRT, but it'll be nowhere near the line's full potential. It'll do a very poor job of supporting Etobicoke, and will in no way provide a rapid connection with the airport.
I take the bus on Eglinton every day. Compare the densities of Bloor or Yonge to Eglinton. It isn't in the same league. I'm sure looking on a map from Markham, it must look like a major urban centre but, it's not. Yonge and Eg is only NOW starting to be developed to what is should be. And I'm afraid I can't say anyting more of the subject; this is what I feel. (Of course I could say the same thing AGAIN and AGAIN on different threat while having nothing new to say. People here have certainly found away to turn it into an artform. Say a lot, but don't really saying anything at all!)
I love how you assumed that I've never seen Eglinton in my life. I actually have quite a lot of spare time on my hands, which leads to expeditions to places like Eglinton and Islington at 6:30 in the morning with my bike, zipping back form Eglinton West to Islington, Scarlett or Martin Grove sometimes three times during rush hour to look at just how crowded the lines are at what times. I know where all the apartments are, and I've closely looked at travel patterns.
I never said that Eglinton was any more developed than Bloor, but I think it's unfair to compare Yonge and Eglinton to B-Y. B-Y is really part of Downtown, and the rest of the corridor doesn't draw off that. It doesn't really make sense to base an entire corridor on a single point. B-D has some high density around Dundas West and Landsdowne, as well as Islington, Main, Victoria Park and Old Mill (kind of.) Eglinton has tonnes of high density around Martin Grove and Scarlett Road, as well as a corridor similar to B-D from Black Creek to Laird, and a much fairer scattering of apartment buildings and condos than the B-D does on average, with plenty of space to improve.
But really, it's an apples to oranges comparison. We can't expect all our lines to be exactly like the B-D and YUS, and if you do, then again, I can't respect your opinion.
I think that it's the pro-TCers that have started this chain of the exact same information being passed over. Whenever a new point is raised about ridership, cost or whatever, they ignore it and go back to an already unanswered question. All you can say is "we already have it so why ask for more," and "it's not justified," which are hardly specific and who's logic has been broken time and time again.
Also, if you could change the name in your last quote, I didn't say that.