Second_in_pie
Senior Member
Really, there isn't actually that huge a market for Eglinton as a crosstown line. Sure, there'll be some riders going from random point to random point, but it won't be the mass of Scarborough to Pearson trips that the TTC sold the line as having. But that's exactly the same as the B-D; the masses don't go from Kipling Station to Kennedy, but lots of people go from Kipling and Kennedy to other points. Eglinton will see the same thing as that, if not more. It's got the Airport which, while maybe not attracting huge amounts of passengers in Scarborough, will surely get a lot of people west of Yonge at least, as well as anyone close on the Yonge or Spadina lines. It'll intercept a large number of medium-ridership bus routes, many of who's passengers would switch to Eglinton. It'll also extend the RT network's range of cover further into the suburbs, attracting more riders. A LRT just can't do that, from a psychological and physical capacity/time standpoint. It's needed for such an important corridor that Eglinton is.
A subway on Eglinton will be needed, and if a real subway is to cost $220 million/km, a trenched Richview subway could cost no more than $200 million/km, probably around double that of the LRT that's being built at $150-170. For the relatively huge increase in speed, network reliability, psychological draw, and not having to worry about future capacity concerns, that's a pretty good deal for perhaps the second most important corridor in the city (after Yonge.) Eglinton could support very high density nodal development that, while maybe not being the kind of pretty European avenues that TC sells, would be almost fully transit oriented, and is an opportunity that almost no other corridor in the city has along most of it's length.
A subway on Eglinton will be needed, and if a real subway is to cost $220 million/km, a trenched Richview subway could cost no more than $200 million/km, probably around double that of the LRT that's being built at $150-170. For the relatively huge increase in speed, network reliability, psychological draw, and not having to worry about future capacity concerns, that's a pretty good deal for perhaps the second most important corridor in the city (after Yonge.) Eglinton could support very high density nodal development that, while maybe not being the kind of pretty European avenues that TC sells, would be almost fully transit oriented, and is an opportunity that almost no other corridor in the city has along most of it's length.