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TheTigerMaster said:
Any plan to densify the plan would be nice. I can't believe this pedestrian hostile design is what we're building.
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It's all probably out of scope. The parking lot lands are owned by the City of Toronto. I would love to see the Eglinton-Kennedy area urbanized, but I suspect that when it is, it will look a lot like the area around Kipling Station. Lots of condo towers, but a poor interface with the transit links and a less than ideal pedestrian realm.
 
I couldnt agree more with ShonTron, Kipling was done wrong outright right from the start. An intermodal hub could have been constructed right where all the condos are currently located for a seamless connection between the GO, TTC, and MiWay; but instead of that we're getting some half baked solution.

Kennedy has the potential to be done right but knowing all of the political games we see happen in the city and province, it's unlikely we'll see that.
 
ShonTron said:
It's all probably out of scope. The parking lot lands are owned by the City of Toronto. I would love to see the Eglinton-Kennedy area urbanized, but I suspect that when it is, it will look a lot like the area around Kipling Station. Lots of condo towers, but a poor interface with the transit links and a less than ideal pedestrian realm.
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Yes. If we do urbanize the areas around Kennedy Station, it'll cost a lot of money to remove the pedestrian-hostile elements. Obviously the Eglinton Avenue bridge would be a significant barrier.

I figure that we'd either have to lower the GO RER corridor, such that Eglinton Avenue can cross the rails without an elevation change (thus making the bridge easier for pedestrians to access), or we might have to build a berm up to the level of the bridge, so that it's accessible to pedestrians without a large detour. It would also be nice to see an entrance to the station on the north side of Eglinton Avenue, perhaps near the No Frills. Without that new entrance, people walking to the station from that plaza (which I presume could eventually be redeveloped) have to deal with a 250 metre detour to get into Kennedy Station.

The two service roads adjacent to Eglinton Avenue, which TTC buses use to access the station, would also have to be either moved underground, or removed entirely (buses could still access the station from Transway Crescent).

Expensive, yes. But it's well worth the cost to develop a critical transit node. I bet it would cost less than the Six Points interchange reconfiguration
 
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Just curious, is there any significance to the name “Eglinton Crosstown LRT”. I understand it goes along Eglinton Avenue, it goes “across the town” and it is a LRT Line. Where specifically does “Crosstown” come from?
 
I noticed a business on Eglinton with “Crosstown” in its name. Not sure if they named their business before or after the ECLRT proposal. Other than that, I’ve never heard it used in any context other than the LRT.
 
The name Crosstown comes from the fact that it crosses all 6 of the former municipalities that make up Toronto today (Etobicoke, York, East York, North York, Scarborough, and Old Toronto). Although technically it doesnt even touch Etobicoke.
 
Amare said:
The name Crosstown comes from the fact that it crosses all 6 of the former municipalities that make up Toronto today (Etobicoke, York, East York, North York, Scarborough, and Old Toronto). Although technically it doesnt even touch Etobicoke.
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Should the LRT western extension to the airport actually happen, then it will truly be "Crosstown". Should happen with the Liberals or NDP in charge of the province, the Progressive Conservatives only if they truly are "Progressive".
 
W. K. Lis said:
Should the LRT western extension to the airport actually happen, then it will truly be "Crosstown".
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Wish we would hear a firm date of when Eglinton West is suppose to begin. You would think that there would be a lot of smarttrack money left over since there is no actual smarttrack.
 
sixrings said:
Wish we would hear a firm date of when Eglinton West is suppose to begin. You would think that there would be a lot of smarttrack money left over since there is no actual smarttrack.
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We would've had a somewhat of a time frame had John Tory not voluntarily put his hand up and offer to pay for the whole thing and take the province off the hook for the project. Chances are we wont see Crosstown West extension happen until whenever the Scarborough subway extension begins construction.
 
sixrings said:
Wish we would hear a firm date of when Eglinton West is suppose to begin. You would think that there would be a lot of smarttrack money left over since there is no actual smarttrack.
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Smarttrack doesn't meet the vision statement largely because it didn't have a funding stream to use. $7B (2014 dollars) would have purchased 5 minute all-day frequencies with a chunk left-over for operations subsidies.

The big-cost item that limits east-end frequencies is the $1.5B 4th track on LakeShore East and triple tracking through Scarborough to allow express trains through; of course, you could kill the express trains and make everything all-stop on that line and reduce the number of tracks required.

Congestion at Union was never an issue. The LakeShore tunnel proposal was priced at about $2B (todays dollars) and would have fit the funding envelope.

The concept on the east-side was pretty sound. West-side had problems. What killed it is it was a $7B proposal that *might* receive $3.5B in funding.


I'm pleased to see progress on the DRL. Less happy about it becoming an election carrot.
 
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