[allengeorge]

End of the year....

I mean, clearly in the quote I referenced, but I was curious if there was anything official.

At any rate, a simple Google search does pull up an article with the end of 2023 timeline:

Ford government promises fare integration between Toronto, surrounding regions by end of 2023 | Globalnews.ca

Associate minister Stan Cho said fare and service integration is "happening this year and will include Toronto," adding the province is "committing to full funding" the program.

globalnews.ca

 

[APTA-2048]

This is the first time I’ve heard “SmartTrack” in a long while.

View this content on Instagram

View this content on Instagram

 

[ShonTron]

Yeah, I was out that way on the weekend and it’s quite clear that utility relocation is well underway at Finch Avenue for the new underpass.

I’m hoping the branding disappears, much like an LRT project in Peel Region.

 

[nfitz]

I'd hope, that like GO Expansion, once the project is done, that we don't call it that anymore. Which would hopefully be true of "Crosstown" as well.

 

[NoahB]

I'd hope, that like GO Expansion, once the project is done, that we don't call it that anymore. Which would hopefully be true of "Crosstown" as well.

As far as I can tell, they call it "the Smart Track Stations program" and not the "Smart Track Line" or whatever. The Smart Track branding is just a useless holdover to keep some politicians' egos from bruising. These stations will be branded as regular GO stations once they open.

The "Crosstown" is also just branding for the project itself, not the line. Once it opens it will be called Eglinton Line 5.

 

[smably]

I don't think I've seen this view of Bloor-Lansdowne Station before (via Metrolinx):

The glass colour and the railing design on the pedestrian bridge looks a bit different from the other renders we've seen, e.g.:

As usual with Metrolinx, it's unclear whether the new image reflects the latest design or if it's just a sloppy or out of date render.

 

[milkycontent]

I don't think I've seen this view of Bloor-Lansdowne Station before (via Metrolinx):
View attachment 528746

The glass colour and the railing design on the pedestrian bridge looks a bit different from the other renders we've seen, e.g.:
View attachment 528747

As usual with Metrolinx, it's unclear whether the new image reflects the latest design or if it's just a sloppy or out of date render.

It would be such a miss to have the bike lanes down with the cars instead of up with the sidewalk. I visited Japan earlier this year and they have bike lanes painted or indicated with paving on big wide sidewalks, as opposed to separated from cars with paint and plastic bollards. Cyclists were all very considerate of pedestrians as well. The cyclists were quite adept at navigating around people walking slowly but also didn't expect to travel very fast, unlike the cyclists here (I'm one of them btw!). Hardly anybody wore helmets because it always felt safe. I guess it just gave me a new perspective about what bike lanes should look like -- wider sidewalks shared with pedestrians vs narrow strips on the road shared with cars.

This is a great example of why I think the Tokyo approach would be better. With the arrangement seen in this rendering it would be really hard for the cyclists to stop here and get on the train. They'd have travel another 100m or so to the next spot where the road rises back up to become level with the sidewalk again, safely stop, get off their bike and walk it back all that distance on a narrow sidewalk boxed in by a fence. If the bike lane was at sidewalk level, cyclists could just check for pedestrians, slow down and pull over. Right outside the station entrance would be an obvious spot for some bike racks and a BikeShare station.

 

[EnviroTO]

The Smart Track branding is just a useless holdover to keep some politicians' egos from bruising.

It is the name of the initiative that led to these stations getting funded and prioritized. It was a strategy to put urban rail / metro into an existing rail corridor plus vacant space along Eglinton West, and evolved into agreements between the city and the province to achieve similar benefits through combined initiatives. Stations the city committed to funding to some degree are called Smart Track stations because they were included in a Smart Track agreement. The combination of the Eglinton West LRT, Smart Track stations, electrification from Bramalea to Union and Union to Unionville, and service improvements expected when this is done will provide a similar service to what Smart Track was trying to achieve.

Will they be GO stations? Sort of... they will be Metrolinx owned stations served by equipment that if it showed up today would have GO branding. Would an EMU running Bramalea-Union-Unionville have GO branding? I have no idea. As Metrolinx builds and owns more of the transit infrastructure irrespective of operator and delivers payment solutions irrespective of operator including fare harmonization initiatives, the terms "GO Stations" and "TTC Stations" become less relevant. For example Mount Dennis is a Metrolinx owned station branded "T" and serviced by UP branded DMUs, GO branded bi-levels, Line 5 barely TTC branded LRTs, and TTC branded local buses... the operators might be Alstom employees, Metrolinx employees, TTC employees, other company employees. I would expect that at some point it will be obvious to everyone that the existing TTC subway infrastructure should be transferred to Metrolinx as well because with the city not funding much of new transit infrastructure any more they are going to own less and less of the stations that exist. The TTC can focus its ownership of infrastructure on bus and streetcar infrastructure (busways, tracks, shelters, garages).

As for Crosstown... I would prefer no line name at all (i.e. only show the roundel and in speaking just call it Line 5), but I would prefer "Crosstown Line" over "Eglinton Line" due to over use of the word "Eglinton" in wayfinding.

 

[dowlingm]

.

It would be such a miss to have the bike lanes down with the cars instead of up with the sidewalk

Absent significant expensive relating to drains or utilities, one wonders if there is intent to placate bike lane sceptics that “we could just take that space back one day”, like Jarvis

 

[rdaner]

Considering the crazy amounts of development happening on Dupont west of Dufferin I wonder if a Smarttrack station on DuPont was ever considered?!