I am really interested as to why people don't like surface LRT, but they'll embrace BRT. I finally had the chance to check out the YRT busway on Highway 7, and I was quite impressed by the infrastructure, but one thing that stood out for me was the busway wasn't entirely grade-seperated., and no signal priority (from my observations). Yet, I heard nothing but accolades for it.
Other than the tech, there isn't much operational difference between a median busway and a median LRT. So why the hatred towards SELRT? I don't get it.
A couple reasons why:
1) BRT has a lower construction cost than LRT. Even with the gold-plated BRT that VIVA built, it's still 33% less expensive ($20 million/km less) than in-median LRT. If VIVA had gone with shoulder lanes and nice stops on the sidewalk, it may very well have been half the cost of LRT, or even less.
2) BRT can be built in stages, with high-demand sections getting an upgrade first. With BRT, if you're running from Point A to Point D, and the congestion is worst from A-B and C-D, you can build BRT from A-B and C-D, and keep it running in mixed traffic (or with only minimal improvements) from B-C. With LRT, you would need to build the entire thing from A-D. Ottawa's Transitway still has some sections that run in dedicated shoulder lanes on highways, despite being open for nearly 30 years. No way you could do that with an LRT.
Those two factors combined means that BRT projects can be broken down and phased, leading to a smaller budget impact overall, and an even smaller one if it's a couple of small sections every couple of years. If I were planning BRT on Sheppard, I would start out with doing queue jump lanes at every major intersection. After that, I would identify choke points in between intersections, and likely put in dedicated shoulder lanes hooking up to the queue jump lanes. The end result would probably be partially dedicated lanes over the 404 (vehicles turning onto the 404 allowed into the lane), fully dedicated lanes from the 404 to McCowan, and queue jump lanes from McCowan to Meadowvale.
As for the hatred of the SELRT, 2 big reasons:
1) The transfer at Don Mills. It's annoying, and with an LRT to HRT transfer, it's most likely a permanent one. At least with a BRT to HRT transfer, there can be a sense that the subway could be extended further east one day. The SELRT pretty much cuts that possibility off for at least a generation.
2) It's overkill. The only section of the SELRT that really NEEDS LRT is from Don Mills to Victoria Park, maybe to Warden. East of there, it's squarely in the wheelhouse for BRT. Even the peak point peak period ridership is only 3,100 pphpd. The Southwest Transitway in Ottawa, which operates a significant section of shoulder bus lanes, carries more than that, and it does just fine.
The scheme that I described above could likely be done for around $300 million. That's less than 1/3rd the cost of the SELRT. That extra 2/3rds is paying for capacity that isn't needed, and for a transfer that will be a PITA for a generation or more. If the 404 area does become problematic for travel times, it would be a much wiser expense to extend the Sheppard Subway to Victoria Park to bypass it, and build a new HRT to BRT transfer location there.