[denfromoakvillemilton]

3 car LRV trains at high frequency are very high capacity. It's almost as long as the trains on Sheppard. Each LRV car has capacity of 251, so a train of 3 has capacity of 753.

By comparison the new subway Rocket trains have crush load 1100

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexity_Freedom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Rocket

Fair enough. I would agree with this but Hudak would not, I think.

The Danforth extension is planned to go up to Sheppard & McCowan. Whether a Sheppard LRT or subway are built or not, it's a good thing for the McCowan subway (or LRT) to go up to Sheppard to connect to the Sheppard east bus.

Right but in that same vein if the Sheppard East LRT is build, that bus will be eliminated. I would rather have the subway fall the RT path.

 

[Palma]

It's big, if you ignore that schools have been building new classrooms etc. for several years but then, as we saw with Scarborough, such sunk costs don't necessarily fit into some people's conceptions of what constitutes gravy. I'd say that ship has sailed but, with a majority he can undo whatever he wants. With a minority, I doubt that's going anywhere.

We'll see what kind of detailed platform Hudak can put through. There may well be people willing to go a few steps back towards what Mike Harris did. Certainly one can re-align priorities) OTOH, amalgamation wasn't as "efficient" as promised) but I would expect he ditches the Big Move writ large and placate people here and there with subways. It couldn't possibly be as bad (on transit) as Harris was, for whatever that's worth. Actually, "Can't be as bad as Harris," would make a good campaign slogan for him.

By build you don't mean add inf space to schools. They may be reallocating space within the schools for the JK/SK (I know one school is asking the Japanese school that uses the 3rd floor to move out). Many of these puiblic school are not filled to capacity with kids. There are way too many teachers anyways

 

[TJ O'Pootertoot]

By build you don't mean add inf space to schools. They may be reallocating space within the schools for the JK/SK (I know one school is asking the Japanese school that uses the 3rd floor to move out). Many of these puiblic school are not filled to capacity with kids. There are way too many teachers anyways

Without going totally off-thread; all-day classes require a classroom with a washroom so any older school is almost certainly building new purpose-built rooms to accommodate all-day. There are, I suppose, worse things than having "too many" classrooms but some of that money is for capital work that's already been done, and is still going on, is my point.

There maybe ways to save $1.5B and put it towards transit but I don't trust Hudak to either a) find the efficincies or b) spend it in the right place (or, more to the point defer to the experts who know the right place.)

 

[Midtown Urbanist]

I've always been of the opinion that Finch West and Sheppard East can be accommodated by BRTs.

LRTs are excessive as is and subways are just completely idiotic for the corridor.

I'd rather Sheppard be extended West to the Spadina line, instead of East to nowhere. Too bad transit is planned by politicians.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

I've always been of the opinion that Finch West and Sheppard East can be accommodated by BRTs.

As detailed in the EA, Bus Rapid Trasit can accommodate demand on those routes.

LRTs are excessive as is and subways are just completely idiotic for the corridor

This was also discussed in the EA. LRT is the superior choice for the Sheppard East and Finch West corridors. Light Rail was found to be better than Bus Rapid Transit in just about every category including lower ongoing operations/maintenance costs, higher ridership generation, higher development potential and lower environmental impact. Bus Rapid Transit was only better than Light Rail when analyzing initial capital expenditures. The initial capital expenditure for Bus Rapid Transit was only a fraction that of Light Rail.

 

[Midtown Urbanist]

I'm fond of the idea of BRTs on those routes because should ridership demand increase, LRTs can be easily built on them.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

I'm fond of the idea of BRTs on those routes because should ridership demand increase, LRTs can be easily built on them.

So you'd rather spend millions of dollars on operating and maintaining dozens of busses and building BRT lanes, so when they reach the point where BRT can no longer accommodate demand we'll shut down the thing for years to built the LRT? This won't even save us money. How about we just do it right the first time. The demand for LRT is already there.

 

[ehlow]

I'm fond of the idea of BRTs on those routes because should ridership demand increase, LRTs can be easily built on them.

That almost never happens because you'd have to shut down the BRT for a long time, and if it's that successful it would clearly cause a huge disruption.

Same problem with SRT->LRT, or Sheppard Subway->LRT, it's very difficult to do changes like that which shut down a well used line for years.

But I mean, it also depends on what kind of BRT we're talking about (as always), I'm assuming you mean something identical to LRT except the vehicles are on tires instead of tracks.

 

[salsa]

As detailed in the EA, Bus Rapid Trasit can accommodate demand on those routes.

In theory it can, but the ridership projections are at the upper range of BRT capacity, which would leave little room for future growth or passenger comfort.

 

[nfitz]

And do you think Hudak cares about any of this? Hell they guy might want 6 subway cars per train for all we know. If he does switch, it will all be political.

He's promised to cancel the Eglinton LRT, and not start spending any money on subways for 5 years or so. Hasn't he also promised that DRL is highest priority?

What is with you guys underestimating Eglinton? It's one of the most prominent streets in the city.

What's that got to do with anything. There's 30+ years of consistent studies and models indicating what the range of the passenger demand on Eglinton. And it's alway significantly less than 10,000, even as subway.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

He's promised to cancel the Eglinton LRT, and not start spending any money on subways for 5 years or so. Hasn't he also promised that DRL is highest priority?

He's said he would bury Eglinton, cancel the LRT's (all of them) and build the DRL, yes. I don't recall any statement about delaying the subways for 5 years.

What's that got to do with anything. There's 30+ years of consistent studies and models indicating what the range of the passenger demand on Eglinton. And it's alway significantly less than 10,000, even as subway.

Find it hard to believe Eglinton is any worse then the outer parts of the Bloor Danforth line.

 

[nfitz]

He's said he would bury Eglinton, cancel the LRT's (all of them) and build the DRL, yes.

Exactly, He will cancel the LRTs ... including Eglinton.

I don't recall any statement about delaying the subways for 5 years.

He said there was no money available to do this until after the budget was balanced. He also said he'd cut taxes. That will delay balancing the budget from about 2017 to at least 2019. He made it clear the budget had to balance first; this will take years.

Find it hard to believe Eglinton is any worse then the outer parts of the Bloor Danforth line.

Despite not a single study in over 30 years of many studies agreeing with you?!?

 

[TheTigerMaster]

And when the budget isn't banced as promised in 2019...

 

[innsertnamehere]

No party will have a balanced budget in 2019.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

And when the budget isn't banced as promised in 2019...

No party will have a balanced budget in 2019.

He can if he makes DEEP cuts...