[Translude15]

If ridiculousness is the theme of the day, then why not bury the railway tracks from Dufferin to the Don Lands, demolish the Gardiner to open up Lakeshore Rd., rebuild it on top of the buried railway tracks, and then stick the first segment of the Downtown Relief Line in the middle of it, a la Dan Ryan Expressway in Chi City. I'll bury the railway tracks myself to save up some cash. Shouldn't be too hard.

 

[gweed123]

I would be assuming that Rossi would pay for his tunnel using tolls.

The Windsor - Detroit tunnel (single lane each way, built by 1930) has tolls of $4.50 CDN Windsor to Detroit and $4.75 Detroit to Windsor, at a length of 1,573 m. That's today's dollars. Estimates of Rossi's tunnel is 7 to 8 km, or 5 times the length. Do your own calculations.

Make sure your expense account is in order before you use it.

To be fair, the Ted Williams Tunnel in Boston between the Airport and the I-90 & I-93 interchange has a toll of only $1.25. I'm not sure of it's length, but I would imagine it's similar to the crossing under the Detroit River.

 

[Justin10000]

I do not think the length of tunnels dictates the toll rate. The Windsor tunnel is international, and the rate probably helps pay for the border agents.

 

[W. K. Lis]

New York City tunnels tolls:

* Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. (1.7 miles, 2.8 km) The longest continuous underwater vehicular tunnel in America, it connects Brooklyn to the Wall Street area. Toll = $4.50 each way.
* Holland Tunnel. (1.6 miles, 2.7 km) Built in 1927, it was the first trans-Hudson River vehicular tunnel. It connects Downtown Manhattan to Hoboken, NJ. Toll = $6.00 inbound to the city.
* Lincoln Tunnel. (1.4-1.6 miles, 2.3-2.7 km) Connecting Midtown Manhattan to Weehawken, NJ, it is the world's only three-tube underwater vehicular tunnel. Toll = $6.00 inbound to the city.
* Queens-Midtown Tunnel. (1.3 miles, 1.92 km) A product of Roosevelt's "New Deal," it opened in 1940 and connects Queens to Midtown Manhattan. Toll = $4.50 each way.

Rossi Tunnel (7-8 km) priceless.

 

[ssiguy2]

Windsor/Detroit is an international border, there is no analogy.
As for a toll....................who the hell is going to pay a toll when there are a myriad of other routes to take and due to being only 7km the time savings would not be that much.

 

[MileHigh]

Nothing to worry about here... IMO, this plan is slightly less short sighted than RF's idea, which is not saying a lot about it. I'm extremely confident that it'll never happen.

 

[Electrify]

Happened to catch an interview with him on CP24. He is saying that he would commission a study, this is opposed to the quotes I saw yesterday that shovels would be in the ground within 4 years. Secondly, when pointed out that the Gardiner is already clogged by this point, he points out that one of the reasons the Gardiner is overcrowded is because of traffic using the 427. I suppose it could work like a 427 relief route. In my limited experience, the 427 ain't great during rush hour, but it could be far worse. It would be much more cost effective to fix the interchange from the 400 south to the 401 west, as that is the weakest link from the Barrie/Vaughan corridor to downtown Toronto.

 

[nfitz]

I find the 427 between the 401 and Gardiner flows better than any other expressway in the City ... other than perhaps the 409 and 2A. The only time I see a problem is when there is an incident, or it's having problems flowing onto the 401, or onto the Gardiner.

 

[Dan416]

Yes the 427 seems to move just fine.

 

[junctionist]

When I read about this yesterday, all I could think was... not even the most crazy forumers have ever come up with a plan this crazy, this stupid, and this unrealistic. Quite an achievement.

Maybe you're thinking of the wrong forum, because crazy and stupid aren't how I'd describe the overwhelming majority of ideas here. Sure, there are often unrealistic ideas, but if they're reasonable or desirable, there's nothing wrong with hypothetical plans; the reality could change tomorrow, allowing some of what's deemed unrealistic today to become possible.

 

[Justin10000]

I don't know. Fresh Start and Ssigy2 came up with some pretty crazy ideas.

 

[TrickyRicky]

Name recognition. There really isn't anything else you need to know about this announcement. Of course they will never build this tunnel. Of course it's completely idiotic. All of the mayoral candidate transportation plans are nothing but little nuggets of bait thrown out to chum the water for strategic reasons. What Rossi needed was exposure and from this perspective you've got to hand it to his team it was a brilliant move. You may say "but this is a bad strategic move with respect to Rossi's credibility". I think that misses the point. Municipal politics is about name recognition.

 

[nfitz]

All of the mayoral candidate transportation plans are nothing but little nuggets of bait thrown out to chum the water for strategic reasons.

Pantalone's seems doable. Smitherman's doesn't seem undoable. Rossi transit plan hasn't been real clear on what he'll build ... but not much with only 2 km a year (we've already committed to more than that for the next few years). That only leaves 2.5 plans out to lucnh.

 

[Calrissian]

Pantalone's seems doable. Smitherman's doesn't seem undoable. Rossi transit plan hasn't been real clear on what he'll build ... but not much with only 2 km a year (we've already committed to more than that for the next few years). That only leaves 2.5 plans out to lucnh.

All of the candidates could've just won over the transit vote by simply saying; "Toronto has come a long way to get the current funding and plans in place that is desparately needed now, and therefore, not disrupting the current pace of projects, I propose to augment the current plan by wroking with metrolinx & gov by getting one of the missing pieces in place that will link up the current set of projects: the DRL, currently under study by the TTC"

That would get everyone on this forum (minus the Scarb fans possibly) creaming their pants, and I would think/hope sit well with most of Toronto, too.

 

[Dan416]

Any candidate who thinks Transit City alone is going to win them votes is pretty delusional.