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I'll predict this proposal is dead in the water, with all the issues raised. Sad, as they haven't even started building the new subway tail tracks and running tunnel at Kennedy. Metrolinx and it's engineering consultants really cocked this up. They were 100% aware of the LRT alignment and elevations.
Screenshot 2022-06-04 at 10.59.04.png

Draw your own conclusions.
 
Edit: Turns out I can't tell sarcasm if it hit me in the face! 😅😅



I'm sorry, but this comment is so far from the truth. Eglinton East of Don Mills has seen a massive increase in number of development applications. Here is UrbanToronto's own map with all the black pins being new applications for development.

View attachment 404525

@FutureModelTO also released a picture of the developments currently submitted for the Golden Mile:
View attachment 404526

LRTs do indeed spur development. Arguably to the same level as a subway would.
clearly this is either the left trying to trick you into thinking these things will be built or the left are paying unions to build these buildings. You probably are a Toronto Star reader and a CBC advocate while biking with your Starbucks. Save our streets from Street cars. Anyone been to that disaster of St Clair lately? Also did you notice that most of that new St Clair development is right beside the subway station. People love Subways. Subways, subways, subways.
 
Draw your own conclusions.
Wow. Mind boggling ...

Let's hope it wasn't the same engineers who botched this, who designed the rest of the line. They have gone so bizarrely deep at Lawrence, that there's some challenging geology, that could be challenging.
 
Still would prefer a connection to ECLRT. Then they could, say, run 1/2 of ECLRT 3-car trains to the Guildwood station, serving the busiest route section along Eglinton and never venturing north of Eglinton, while the shorter trains would run between the Kennedy station and the northern terminus. But, the physical constraints at Kennedy must be taken into account.

You can prefer it all you want. It doesn't mean that it makes sense to do so.

I would question the idea that an extra transfer is convenient for the riders who have a one-seat bus ride to Kennedy Stn today, but will not be served by the LRT directly and will have to take a bus to LRT. RapidTO lanes should provide about same level of reliability as LRT lanes. Even if LRT is slightly more reliable, that wouldn't compensate the extra transfer.

Transfers are generally an inconvenience, but they are also a necessary evil. It's not possible to build a subway from every single rider's origin to their destination - thus at some point riders will need to to transfer (and some twice or more).

Years ago, the TTC's own metrics regarded each transfer as an equivalent to taking another 10 minutes of travel time - meaning that the average rider would take a trip 10 minutes longer to avoid a transfer. But more recently, the TTC has realized that most riders don't view transfers nearly as extremely, and in fact different transfers get weighted different depending on the mode (say, subway-to-subway transfer is viewed far less negatively than a bus-to-bus transfer).

As for reliability, any non-separated transit lane is subject to delays that a lane with some physical separation lane would not be. I don't know how often you've been out there - admittedly I'm not out there that often - but I still see buses getting caught behind cars turning right or even pulling back out into traffic with the RapidTO lanes. That wouldn't happen if the lanes had been separated, and it won't happen with an LRT.

I'd rather send those buses directly to the subway, taking a new route if TTC doesn't want any buses in the EELRT corridor:
- The #116 Morningside north of Sheppard could be replaced by a branch of the #85.
- The #905 Canmore, by a branch of the #38.
- The #86ABC Meadowvale and a section of Kingston, by a branch of #54
- Not sure about the Coronation Drive and the Guildwood Parkway services, maybe a new route to Warden Stn via Kingston and St Clair.

To be fair, these ideas may be in play. I don't think that they've gotten to the point of having a plan ready to present to the public.

More importantly, the report should estimate the growth in total ridership due to the construction of LRT. Riders transferring from the local buses to LRT, or taking the new local bus branches to a subway, should be added to the LRT Option count, if they have been added to the Base Case (RapidTO lanes) count due to their bus running in the corridor.

If the estimated growth in total ridership is substantial, then the case for LRT exists. Otherwise, if no major growth can be forecast even with the above corrections to the model, then one has to question the utility of this LRT.

You may be asking for a practical or pragmatic answer when one isn't likely to be forthcoming.

Dan
 
clearly this is either the left trying to trick you into thinking these things will be built or the left are paying unions to build these buildings. You probably are a Toronto Star reader and a CBC advocate while biking with your Starbucks. Save our streets from Street cars. Anyone been to that disaster of St Clair lately? Also did you notice that most of that new St Clair development is right beside the subway station. People love Subways. Subways, subways, subways.
How do you expect people to respond to you seriously when you make these strawmen about what other people argue?
 
How do y'all feel about this project being spearheaded by the city rather than Metrolinx?
 
There is a ton of new development along St Clair since the ROW was put in.
I'm not arguing that point, I absolutely agree the LRT spurs development, I'm just saying can we not have have these "the left trying to trick you into thinking these things will be built or the left are paying unions to build these buildings" hotshots? Its not helpful or in any way productive to the discussion.
 
How do you expect people to respond to you seriously when you make these strawmen about what other people argue?
You've progressively gotten more refined and relaxed since getting your subways subways subways..... I miss the old hot and bothered Coffey1 and then OneCity... maybe the two -three years between accounts you've just been calmer or you've simply gotten your way... I don't care either way anymore... was just having fun. Congrats on the ford win.
 
Yep, that's the concern. Did they perform the study with the intention to get something built in that corridor? Or, just to enrich our massive collection of stillborn transit plans ..
Then we complain about the outer 416 complaining, not realizing this is why Ford is in office. The same thing happened in the west end and now we're paying for a 5 billion dollar tunnel in an area with mansions.
 
How do y'all feel about this project being spearheaded by the city rather than Metrolinx?
The city will water it down as much as possible (as evidenced by what they were doing with Eglinton West), and it will be built ions into the future.
 

After reading the summary, the changes seem reasonable. If the route to Sheppard /McCowan is built as proposed, all the better.
 
The other thing to remember - is the transformative effect of having a project reorientate the entire street. New trees, new sidewalks, narrower/less car lanes, hopefully green track!
At some points Eglinton is 7 lanes across - very car centric!

It's challenging to quantify that in a business case - annoyingly we haven't seen a completed streetscape light rail project in the GTHA yet!

Technically, the same transformative effect can be achieved without any new transit line at all, or with a BRT line. Just rebuild the street and repurpose the lanes :) Not sure it can be seen as a benefit of LRT specifically.

Of course, if LRT is needed anyway (the forecast demand exceeds the bus route capacity), then it makes sense to do all at once, LRT plus streetscaping. Rather than disrupt the street two times, first for the streetscaping and then again for the LRT construction.

Speaking of the sample LRT projects, we should have a small variety in operation come 2023, or 2024 at the latest:
- Regular street-median LRT: all of Finch West, and the eastern segment of Eglinton
- Tunneled LRT plus a narrow street with wider public space: Eglinton Connect, Avenue Rd to Mt Pleasant Rd (?)
- Tunneled / elevated LRT without much other changes to the streetscape: Eglinton in Etobicoke

EE LRT is a long shot. We will have the stats on the changing boarding counts and ridership counts for the first few years of FW LRT and EC LRT, before Eglinton East gets funded and any contracts get signed.
 

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