[TheTigerMaster]

Ahh yes, that is correct.

 

[innsertnamehere]

Yes, its completely possible that another politician would propose such a thing and that Tory would agree to it, but it wouldn't make rational sense for Tory to be the one actually proposing such an extension.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

You also have to consider that there was no mayor of Mississauga at the time. He would just have to hope that the next mayor would be cooperative

 

[ehlow]

Thanks innsertnamehere. That section you showed is the narrowest part of the Eg W SmartTrack routing, correct?

It seems there is quite a lot of room south and even some room north of the street.

If it's getting to Renforth & Eglinton, then maybe it can elevate starting there and continue on the elevated structure over the highway interchanges.

Metrolinx should be looking into the feasibility & cost of the Eglinton W routing, so it should be interesting when they report the results on what the options are. Elevated seems to make sense to me.

 

[mdrejhon]

Square One (from Airport Corporate Centre) is actually less of a distance of extension than the current proposed Eglington spur from the Georgetown corridor to Airport Corporate.

In other words, slightly less than double the length of the current proposed spur, and it already reaches downtown Mississauga!
Shorter than the Scarborough subway away.

There are also some intermediate useful stops (e.g. Business parks near Dixie).

It potentially could be feasible, depending on how it is designed.
Mississauga, already a boom, will be a lot bigger in 2030, assuming SmartTrack extension construction starts after Tory 2022.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

Elevated seems to make sense to me.

I fear that the NIMBYs will kill the elevated option.

 

[Tuscani01]

You also have to consider that there was no mayor of Mississauga at the time. He would just have to hope that the next mayor would be cooperative

Hazel was still Mayor of Mississauga, and endorsed Tory.

Crombie and Mahoney were the two frontrunners in the Mississauga election, and both endorsed Tory and included SmartTrack in their transit plans for Mississauga.

Tory didn't need to hope for anything. He had all the support he needed.

Mahoney was already proposing to look into the feasibility of converting the Transitway to LRT in his transit plan, so its not that far fetched to assume a Mississauga candidate would not be willing to extend it into the city.

 

[innsertnamehere]

Yes, that little diagram I did is the skinniest part. Actually, the skinniest part I could find is 45 meters, but I did 40 just to be safe. Its often hard to find exact ROW widths without actually looking up property maps.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

So on the campaign SmartTrack map, they have a stop at Gerrard & Carlaw, connecting with the streetcar there, and one at the existing GO station south of Main & Danforth.

Would you guys add another station between those two? Would you add one on the west between Liberty Village and Dundas West? If so, where? (and why)

I'd put it on Lansdowne & Dundas. The residential community there is quite dense, there's plenty of commercial along College and Dundas, and you'd have the College and Dundas cars feeding the route.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

Took a deeper look at whether Eglinton can in fact fit a trenched Smart Track, and it may be possible, even if it ends up being a little tight.

Looking at other double track underpasses for mainline rail trackage elsewhere in the GTA (Specifically the Stouffville GO lines structure for passing under CN's bypass tracks and 14th avenue in Markham), it appears that for a trenched track to be constructed, you need 12 meters of ROW. Presuming a 40 meter ROW, which is conservative as this stretch of Eglinton seems to vary between 45 and 50 meters, the line will fit. Stations shouldn't be a problem as there are large unused sections of property at all proposed locations, including a theoretical Islington stop. Even if stations took an addition 20 meters of ROW, it would be issue free.

Some of the dimensions are tight, I will admit (landscaping buffers around the trench, bike lanes, sidewalks), but if you widen it to 45 meters for what appears to be the true ROW width of Eglinton, you would have plenty of space to fit those.

Now, for the the proof:

Did you make this diagram?

Also, why is that 1.2m landscaping buffer to the right of the rail ROW necessary?

 

[innsertnamehere]

to give a bit of space to adjacent property owners from a large, trenched area (I was unable to create a trench in the program used to make this diagram, but the tracks would likely be lowered 10 meters below ground).

Yes I made it, using this website. Remarkably simple, actually.

http://www.streetmix.net/

 

[Tuscani01]

Yes I made it, using this website. Remarkably simple, actually.

http://www.streetmix.net/

That is awesome! Thanks for sharing the link!

 

[TOareaFan]

Mississauga, already a boom, will be a lot bigger in 2030, assuming SmartTrack extension construction starts after Tory 2022.

Most of Mississauga's population growth has happened.....their own figures expect less than 100k new residents by 2031

 

[TheTigerMaster]

to give a bit of space to adjacent property owners from a large, trenched area (I was unable to create a trench in the program used to make this diagram, but the tracks would likely be lowered 10 meters below ground).

Yes I made it, using this website. Remarkably simple, actually.

http://www.streetmix.net/

Ohh. I was just about to praise you for your graphic design skills

I'm amazed that someone felt there was a need for this site. I can't imagine too mamy people being interested in this.

 

[WislaHD]

Travel time end to end of Smart-Track will likely well exceed an hour, and will be approaching an hour and a half if you add an extension to Square One as well, so that sort of end to end use might not be too useful.

Square One is about as far away from the downtown core as Scarborough Town Centre. A commute people are already willing to make and a place we are planning on building a slower subway to.

Anyway, I'd like to reference these posts from the transit fantasy thread which I felt are relevant to present discussion:

Thought experiment.

What if SmartTrack is essentially the early beginnings of an 8th GO line, theoretically GO RER Eglinton?

Look at this map on page 18 of Metrolinx GO RER PDF. This theoretical 8th new GO line almost exactly between GO Kitchener and GO Milton, with nice-looking vertical spacing between the horizontal lines of Lakeshore, Milton, Eglinton(new) and Kitchener. Perfect alignment for a brand new western GO corridor that can continue to be extended over time. It also says Metrolinx and Toronto are establishing a joint program to advance SmartTrack as a major element to RER. So it is quite feasible and realistic that this is a brand new GO corridor. (Let's forget about brand names for now -- whether it's called GO REX, GO RER, SmartTrack, whatever -- Metrolinx has now defacto confirmed SmartTrack is GO RER, and if Ontario money is involved, Ontario will make sure SmartTrack is GO RER as a string attached to funding, even if it uses the SmartTrack "brand name")

Now wanted: New fantasy map of GO RER/REX Eglinton, extended beyond Airport Corporate.

Hmm, a GO RER line with a station at Hurontario and Eglinton. That is one way to expand Mississauga's downtown core north of the highway up to and around Eglinton in the long-term.

Looking at the map. [pg 18]
Then cross-referencing with Google Satellite View.

I just realized... SmartTrack alignment is aligned in such a way that makes Airport Corporate only two SmartTrack stops away from a theoretical Missisagua Square One stop!

Airport Corporate Centre is only as far away from Mississauga Square One, as Airport Corporate Centre is from when it spurs out of the Kingston line (just before Weston). So that's a relatively short extension. That brings a theoretical Square One tunnel for far less price than the Scarborough subway extension!

They could bend it slightly south (after Airport Corporate or a subsequent stop such as Dixie/Tomken -- another obvious first stop for a SmartTrack extension) into the north edge of downtown, or even the existing GO bus station there. That makes SmartTrack even more brilliant (assuming province forces the use of longer GO RER trains instead of tiny UPX trains, as a condition of funding Tory). SmartTrack would continue onwards and interchange GO Milton Erindale(existing) or GO Milton Eglington(new). If SmartTrack reaches both Mississauga downtown (only needs doubling of the Eglington spur length), and the extension to interchange with GO Milton (only needs a tripling of the Eglington spur length).

Downtown Missisauga/Square One gets a subway via a small SmartTrack extension costing far less than the Scarborough subway, even if it has to be underground all the way from Airport Corporate! (15-min allday, 5-min peak underground GO RER trains that are branded as "SmartTrack" or other brandname)

So, within less than one generation -- we can catch a "subway" from Mississauga downtown to Scarborough downtown, if living in one and working in the other. Faster than by car.

Tory, brilliant, Tory. (whether you like him or not). He's thinking more ahead than I thought.

So now everyone is thinking it, what do we think?

(btw mdrejhon, FFS it is Eglinton not Eglington )