GenerationW
Senior Member
Seems to me they've washed their hands of Sheppard for the immediate future, and they'll let a future government deal with it in the next decade.Why don't they use the money to connect Sheppard to Downsview?
|
|
|
Seems to me they've washed their hands of Sheppard for the immediate future, and they'll let a future government deal with it in the next decade.Why don't they use the money to connect Sheppard to Downsview?
Why don't they use the money to connect Sheppard to Downsview?
Seems a lot of people would rather hold hope for a future subway instead of an LRT and would rather be happy with buses. This would give them some hope of the subway being built.
The SMLRT could be rigged into costing approximately the same as the SELRT and will have close to the same ridership as the ECLRT. That's just one example, but I really don't foresee a Sheppard-Downsview connection being of as much use as something on that order of magnitude, good as it may look on a map.
If we're talking closing the loop between the two arms of Line 1, then to me the far superior solution is extending the FWLRT from Finch West station (Spadina line) to Finch station (Yonge line).
This delay could be a good thing. It allows the city to re-study Sheppard and determine if the LRT is still justified east of Victoria Park given SmartTrack at Agincourt GO and Line 2 at Sheppard-McCowan. I do think, regardless, that they should work to extend the subway east to Consumers or Victoria Park given the development/offices there and given that this underground link would have to be done anyway if they followed the LRT plan.
I think the Sheppard West link makes a lot of sense. It gives people who live north of Eglinton station and on the Sheppard line a quick 2-stop rapid transit access (vs 11 stops on the proposed Finch LRT connection to Yonge) to the Spadina lines with reasonable distances to York U and Yorkdale.
Although I don't have the numbers to prove it, I think extending Sheppard to Downsview would actually exacerbate Yonge's capacity issues. Or at the very least do absolutely nothing to relieve it.
Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but I can't help but think—okay, hope maybe—that this is all still some sort of mix-up. Sheppard being effectively cancelled is really an out-of-left-field move.
I mean, I know and agree that the SELRT was never the perfect plan for Sheppard, but it was something, and furthermore something which travelled across almost the entire length of Scarborough. If this is really the case, and Sheppard gets nothing, this is terrible. Absolutely terrible.
We can kiss all of our dreams of a multimodal hub at Sheppard & McCowan goodbye now. Same as a once-wishful former Mayor of Toronto can kiss goodbye his hopes of using LRT to improve the quality of lives in mid-northern Scarborough neighbourhoods...Malvern especially.
However, as was mentioned above...a very good use of the funds freed up by effectively cancelling Sheppard would be resurrecting the Scarborough-Malvern LRT. Now there's a line I could get behind.
Mrs Nesbitt always great to see, but I disagree. I think you and Adjei should know that subway will come. They have to push for it now. The Bloor Danforth subway is now the south Scarborough Subway.Why don't they use the money to connect Sheppard to Downsview?
Seems a lot of people would rather hold hope for a future subway instead of an LRT and would rather be happy with buses. This would give them some hope of the subway being built.
This delay could be a good thing. It allows the city to re-study Sheppard and determine if the LRT is still justified east of Victoria Park given SmartTrack at Agincourt GO and Line 2 at Sheppard-McCowan. I do think, regardless, that they should work to extend the subway east to Consumers or Victoria Park given the development/offices there and given that this underground link would have to be done anyway if they followed the LRT plan.
I think the Sheppard West link makes a lot of sense. It gives people who live north of Eglinton station and on the Sheppard line a quick 2-stop rapid transit access (vs 11 stops on the proposed Finch LRT connection to Yonge) to the Spadina lines with reasonable distances to York U and Yorkdale.
Mrs Nesbitt always great to see, but I disagree. I think you and Adjei should know that subway will come. They have to push for it now. The Bloor Danforth subway is now the south Scarborough Subway.
The problem is you can do the same with Finch. But I digress, we are revisiting the subway, and we will have a big debate.
I agree that Consumers would make a far more natural terminus for the Sheppard subway than Don Mills. Whether that one-stop addition alone is worth the almost-billion it would take to tunnel under the 404...I'm not sure. But in an ideal world Consumers would definitely get service.
We also have to be careful in considering spending those billions on extending Sheppard west to Downsview. Yes it gives a quick link between Yonge and University, but we need some serious numbers to justify that enough riders would switch to Spadina to significantly relieve Yonge before spending billions on that particular project. The costs in particular of crossing the river between Senlac and Bathurst would be significant.
The Sheppard East LRT budget was about $1 billion, though that didn't include the yard (which was part of the Scarborough RT replacement budget. So about $1.2 billion available. So roughly 4 km of subway. Hmm, might just be able to do it, if you just build one station at Bathurst, and another at Downsview.Why don't they use the money to connect Sheppard to Downsview?
The Sheppard East LRT budget was about $1 billion, though that didn't include the yard (which was part of the Scarborough RT replacement budget. So about $1.2 billion available. So roughly 4 km of subway. Hmm, might just be able to do it, if you just build one station at Bathurst, and another at Downsview.
Though I doubt the ridership justifies it in comparison to other projects. I'd think the Sheppard East LRT ridership would be higher entering Don Mills station.
Something like that (as part of the original $billion). Though when the committed to it, the province was promising a 2013 completion. Then 2014. And so on.Aren't the Feds also contributing $300 million for Sheppard?