[W. K. Lis]

Before 1954, the Toronto Transportation Commission ran streetcars within the old city of Toronto.

From link.

The streetcars ran in the old city, and served them well.

From link.

Then in 1954, the Toronto Transit Commission took over the old city and transit in the other 12 municipalities of Metropolitan Toronto.

From link.

Unfortunately, the spell of the propaganda machines put forth by the bus and petroleum companies was working. In the newly emerging suburban subdivisions, instead of putting in streetcars, they went with buses. With wide open spaces, they could have put in streetcar right-of-ways, but went with very wide traffic lanes and genuflected before the automobile gods with buses, instead. Public transit, of any kind, was an afterthought.

 

[W. K. Lis]

This history lesson has nothing to do with the subject of this thread, Crosstown LRT, even though the posts just before yours just mentioned streetcars.

In the 1950's, they would have been called: streetcars, trolleys, interurbans, radials, or trams. Today, the suburban rails would be called light rail transit.

Today, we're building a subway, tube, metro, light metro, or underground light rail under part of Eglinton Avenue, that should have been with some sort of rail from the start.

 

[steveintoronto]

Eglinton was not ripe for LRT, it should have been heavy rail.

I agree, as that is how Brussels and other cities do it. Build it to "Metro" size, and then run it with streetcar/LRT until such time as it can be or is upgraded to full heavy rail.

[...]
The Brussels Metro (French: Métro de Bruxelles, Dutch: Brusselse metro) is a rapid transit system serving a large part of the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium. It consists of four conventional metro lines and three premetro lines. The metro-grade lines are M1, M2, M5, and M6[1] with some shared sections, covering a total of 39.9 kilometres (24.8 mi),[1] with 59[citation needed] metro-only stations. The premetro network consists of three tram lines (T3, T4, and T7) that partly travel over underground sections that were intended to be eventually converted into metro lines.[5]Underground stations in the premetro network use the same design as metro stations. A few short underground tramway sections exist, so there is a total of 52.0 kilometres (32.3 mi) of underground metro and tram network.[1]There are a total of 69 metro and premetro stations as of 2011.[1]

Most of the common section of the first two metro lines (between De Brouckère metro station and Schuman station) was inaugurated on 17 December 1969 as premetro[6] tramways, converted in 1976 to the first two lines of the metro, then considered as one line with two branches, between De Brouckère and Tomberg and De Brouckère and Beaulieu.[3] The metro is administered by STIB/MIVB (French: Société des Transports Intercommunaux de Bruxelles, Dutch: Maatschappij voor het Intercommunaal Vervoer te Brussel). In 2011, the metro was used for 125.8 million journeys,[7] and it was used for 138.3 million journeys in 2012.[2] The metro is an important means of transport, connecting with six railway stations of the National Railway Company of Belgium, and many tram and bus stops operated by STIB/MIVB, and with Flemish De Lijn and Walloon TEC bus stops.

[...]
Premetro
Line 3 and Line 4 are tram lines using the North-South Axis tunnel which crosses the city center from Brussels-North railway station to Brussels-South railway stationand Albert premetro station. Line 3 runs from Churchill in the south to Esplanade in the north. Line 4 runs from Brussels-North railway station to the Stalle car park in the south.

Line 7 is the main line of the greater ring, replacing Tram 23 and Tram 24 as of 14 March 2011. It services the Heysel/Heizel, runs under the Laeken Parc and then via the greater ring to the terminus of Line 3 to terminate one stop later at Vanderkindere for connections to tram lines 3, 4 and 92.
[...]

Map of the Metro Network of the Belgian capital Brussels. The so called PREMETRO sections, which are shown by blue, thinner lines, are underground sections of the tram network and continue further above ground, which is not shown on the map. There are two more PREMETRO-sections which cover only one station each, so I decided not to display them for a clearer view. Stations with two names have different names in the French and Dutch language. The French name is always shown above the Dutch one. Stations with only one name don't have an expression in the other language or both names are the same.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_Metro#/media/File:Metro_Brussels.svg

 

[11th]

From link.

Unfortunately, the spell of the propaganda machines put forth by the bus and petroleum companies was working. In the newly emerging suburban subdivisions, instead of putting in streetcars, they went with buses. With wide open spaces, they could have put in streetcar right-of-ways, but went with very wide traffic lanes and genuflected before the automobile gods with buses, instead. Public transit, of any kind, was an afterthought.

Off topic, but something's caught my eyes on that second last map: proof that Oriole station was at York Mills Road.

 

[micheal_can]

Off topic, but something's caught my eyes on that second last map: proof that Oriole station was at York Mills Road.

I wonder why it moved.

 

[steveintoronto]

Off topic, but something's caught my eyes on that second last map: proof that Oriole station was at York Mills Road.

CNR Oriole Station
The station is named for the old Canadian Northern Railway Oriole Station, built in 1905 as Duncan Station on the south side of York Mills west of Don Mills Road.[4] The two storey station closed and abandoned as Oriole was relocated in 1978 and was finally demolished in 1987.[5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriole_GO_Station

 

[11th]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriole_GO_Station

Interesting how the station will eventually be at Sheppard, but keeping the same name (as in the current released plan).

 

[TransitBart]

Who do I have to bribe to be on that train?

Can't we simply ask politely? If they were smart, the'd be charging and making money from the testing. Ah. pipe dream.

 

[steveintoronto]

Can't we simply ask politely?

I thought SNC-Lavalin were part of the consortium...a bribe is a requisite.

 

[JamesKoole]

The tunnels are way larger than I expected. The pictures don't really give a good sense of perspective. I'm almost 6'2 and the tunnels are close to 3 times my height.

Neat tour and pics, thanks! I was looking at some stuff from the Confederation Line in Ottawa and they dug a single tunnel with both directions rather than one tunnel for each. You can see it here in this video timelapse of the line:

Makes for a different feel than the single tunnels and feels similar to some of the T lines in Boston.

 

[W. K. Lis]

From link:


They’re not quite finished yet, but work is ongoing to install escalators at Mount Dennis Station!

 

[thettctransitfanatic]

Neat tour and pics, thanks! I was looking at some stuff from the Confederation Line in Ottawa and they dug a single tunnel with both directions rather than one tunnel for each. You can see it here in this video timelapse of the line:

Makes for a different feel than the single tunnels and feels similar to some of the T lines in Boston.

Interesting!

 

[thettctransitfanatic]

From link:


They’re not quite finished yet, but work is ongoing to install escalators at Mount Dennis Station!

Holy, MTD Station is really ahead of the eve when it comes to the station construction

 

[W. K. Lis]

Holy, MTD Station is really ahead of the eve when it comes to the station construction

Mt. Dennis Station may just be ready for Open Doors 2019, in May 25-26, 2019. Unavailable that weekend. Take photos, for those who may go.

 

[thettctransitfanatic]

Mt. Dennis Station may just be ready for Open Doors 2019, in May 25-26, 2019. Unavailable that weekend. Take photos, for those who may go.

I hope so, I'd love to go to that!