But...I thought the provincial government taking over meant economies of scale, cheaper costs and faster construction?!

It seems as though the EWLRT and SSE are immune to 'efficiencies'.
They should elevate or outright cancel the EWLRT and redirect those funds to the OL. Can’t believe we’re here building massive underground stations within the vast fields of Eglinton/Kipling while simultaneously being faced with potential OL cutbacks.
 
Just to clarify, I think you're under the impression that I suggested building an OL station at Yonge Street (the existing Queen Station) without a station at University (the existing Osgoode Station). What I actually meant was that Yonge and Osgoode could be consolidated into a single "City Hall Station", located in front of Toronto City Hall. Connections to Queen Station (Yonge Street) and Osgoode Station (University Avenue) would be achieved via extensions to the underground PATH network. Perhaps a movator would be utilized to speed up the transfer time.

By no means is this an ideal arrangement, but its possible if money is tight. Rather than building an expensive interchange station at Queen, and an expensive interchange station at Osgooode, we'd just have to build a "normal" station at City Hall with inexpensive PATH connections to the existing stations at Osgoode and Queen Station (Yonge Street). City Hall Station itself would be considerably cheaper than either proposed OL stations at Osgoode Station or Queen Station, because City Hall Station would not have to be built under an active transit line.

This would be the dumbest of all the dumbest ideas Metrolinx can propose.... If they really want a true Relief Line it has to have 2 separate stops at Osgoode and Queen. The whole point is to divert people away from line 1.

Remove Corktown, Moss Park, Queen/Spadina, King/Bathurst, Exhibition. Any more cuts after this I certainly would not accept and would ruin the whole point of relief line imo.

For some odd reason I am confident that this project will happen in its entirety reason being that this is Doug Ford's legacy project. This will define his premiership and be a catalyst for his family to one day continue in his political footsteps. If they get Ontario Line wrong it causes a lot of problems for him and his legacy.
 
This would be the dumbest of all the dumbest ideas Metrolinx can propose.... If they really want a true Relief Line it has to have 2 separate stops at Osgoode and Queen. The whole point is to divert people away from line 1.

Remove Corktown, Moss Park, Queen/Spadina, King/Bathurst, Exhibition. Any more cuts after this I certainly would not accept and would ruin the whole point of relief line imo.

For some odd reason I am confident that this project will happen in its entirety reason being that this is Doug Ford's legacy project. This will define his premiership and be a catalyst for his family to one day continue in his political footsteps. If they get Ontario Line wrong it causes a lot of problems for him and his legacy.
Removing Bathurst is unacceptable IMO. Bathurst is a major corridor, with huge ridership. It absolutely needs as stop.

My preference would be to cut Exhibition Station and have the line terminate at Bathurst Station, before implementing any other cutbacks. We could always extend the line to Exhibition (or wherever) in the future, but it’ll be very expensive (or impossible) to add Bathurst station in the future if the original line does not include it.
 
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This would be the dumbest of all the dumbest ideas Metrolinx can propose....

Remove Corktown, Moss Park, Queen/Spadina, King/Bathurst, Exhibition. Any more cuts after this I certainly would not accept and would ruin the whole point of relief line imo.
Cancel all the new downtown stations?

Are you trying to out do the original suggestion!
 
I have a hard time believing the 14 cm difference between the width of the slightly narrower OL trains and the rockets would much different at all between using overground versus underground.

As for truncating the alignment - Metrolinx has been dreaming of this Exhibition to East Harbour link though Queen for years. If they were to truncate anything, it's east of East Harbour. Or north of Danforth.

With early works starting soon at Exhibition station (and isn't that the TBM launch location as well), and the planned yard in Thorncliffe, that precludes any shortenings unless there is a monumental shift.
So if MX absolutely wants a station at Exhibition and East Harbour, and with the MSF in Throncliffe the line absolutely cannot be truncated. What cutback options does that leave us with?

(1) Consolidation of the interchange stations at Yonge and Osgoode into a single "City Hall" Station. I'd image this would save a few hundred million dollars.

(2) Dropping other in-line station. King/Bathurst, Leslieville, Gerrard, Cosburn, and Flemingdon Stations are likely candidate for removal.

Both of these options are very, very bad. Please don't think that I at all favour these options.

If MX is willing to give up on Exhibition Station, the TBM launch shaft could likely be moved to East Harbour or Toronto City Hall (IIRC, City Hall was proposed as a launch shaft for the RLS)
 
The premise behind the cross-platform transfers was to make it as seamless as possible for inbound GO customers to continue their journeys Downtown, thus reducing strain on Union Station. I was skeptical of this idea since Day 1, as we know customers are reluctant to make transfers, even with potential travel time savings (why get up from your seat, transfer, and risk having to wait another 5 minutes for a train?). But now with cross-platform transfers being eliminated from the Ontario Line altogether, there are now even more questions surrounding the attractiveness of these transfers.

It's important to have an understanding of the demand here, because the sole reason we have an Exhibition Station is to relieve Union Station. If we don't understand how passengers will behave, we could waste hundreds of millions of dollars on a station that commuters will have little interest in using.
 
The stations could get more use if that stretch of Queen St. East could be gentrified and have its height increased to look more like Bloor St. East.
 
The premise behind the cross-platform transfers was to make it as seamless as possible for inbound GO customers to continue their journeys Downtown, thus reducing strain on Union Station. I was skeptical of this idea since Day 1, as we know customers are reluctant to make transfers, even with potential travel time savings (why get up from your seat, transfer, and risk having to wait another 5 minutes for a train?). But now with cross-platform transfers being eliminated from the Ontario Line altogether, there are now even more questions surrounding the attractiveness of these transfers.

It's important to have an understanding of the demand here, because the sole reason we have an Exhibition Station is to relieve Union Station. If we don't understand how passengers will behave, we could waste hundreds of millions of dollars on a station that commuters will have little interest in using.
I smell Downsview Park 🤣
 
If you work on the north side of the CBD - like at Eaton Centre - the transfer may be shorter / less harrowing than power walking from Union Station with the other lemmings.
However, an evening commute transfer would mean you probably won't get a seat on the GO train (I wouldn't expect one on the Ontario Line subway), plus taking the subway for a timed transfer at East Harbour can be more risky than walking to Union Station.

I could see Corktown Station becoming an elevated station closer to the Don River bridges instead of underground - that would save some costs.
 
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I could see Corktown Station becoming an elevated station closer to the Don River bridges instead of underground - that would save some costs.
You could do a trenched/cut and cover station here, you would then still be low enough to pass under the 2 tracks of the GO Richmond Hill line.
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Media article of today's protest.

Also, next project public meeting.


Interesting the letter doesn't actually mention the parks in question.

When this plan was announced the issue of GO capacity was brought up. It appears people were justified in doing so, as this corridor clearly needs all the GO capacity it can use.
 
If any stations are getting removed it is probably Corktown, Cosburn or Flemington Park - those are the ones the initial business case experimented with removing.

Removing any of the west stations means they shouldn't bother with that entire segment.

Removing Cosburn would leave a very large gap. Flemington Park is closeish to Eglinton so I'd say that's most likely of the three, but it's an elevated stations so the impact for cost savings is reduced. Which leaves Corktown, if they really want some big savings.

Hope it doesn't come to that. I wouldn't call any of the current stations redundant.
 
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