[NoahB]

JFK AirTrains are carriages that are 3.0 m wide, so it's feasible with the Bombardier MK models.

Many of these trains serve as customizable platforms. Sydney's Alstom Metropolis (Same platform used for REM), for example, can be configured with "a width ranging from 2.30m to 3.2m and a length between 13m and 25m", and can be made of aluminum or stainless steel and is attached with either steel or rubber tire wheels "depending upon the customer’s requirement", driven or driveless.
From Railway Technology

If the REM Line in Montreal works well in winter, I think they'd be well advised to adopt the rolling stock they use there.
(as opposed to, say, Ottawa).

I sure hope so.
Here's a tweet fo them saying they have been testing the platform doors for two winters so far:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1222514313644204033

 

[crs1026]

^The words “private meeting with developers” should elicit a nonpartisan response. It’s crooked, period.

So long as the Ontario Line and the Eglinton West line are designed similarly, it can be above ground or below, I’m easy.

- Paul

 

[officedweller]

WRT the Thorncliffe Park alignment, is it possible to divert the line from Overlea across the Costco parking lot to the hydro RoW then across the valley? SkyTrain in Burnaby cuts across a Home Depot parking lot the same way.

Stations would be located on the mall parking lots allowing for cheaper "side-of-road" configurations instead of median stations which require mezzanines and have to be taller.

This is what I could see based on the way SkyTrain has been fit into the urban fabric in Metro Vancouver.
It would also explain why Metrolinx would be in discussions with stakeholders - for station sites and rights-of-way.

That would also put the line next to the proposed Maintenance and Storage Facility site with a short spur.

This is the alignment that makes sense to me:

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.ca

Gilmore lougheed burnaby

www.google.com

Burquitlam Station · Coquitlam, BC V3J 0A3, Canada

âââââ · Subway station

www.google.ca

 

[MisterF]

What's wrong with what I said? They did a good job exposing Metrolinx speaking privately to developers. Still doesn't excuse the almost daily weekly negative articles about the Ontario Line from them. Yes we get it. They hate the Ontario Line, but at least they could try to show some partiality. They did the same thing or are doing with the Scarborough subway. Constant negative articles. Back then we heard that the LRT was cheaper per kilometre, longer, and with more stations. We could also say these apply to the Ontario Line vs the Relief Line. I wonder why they dont mention that. They objected to underground in Scarborough and were pushing elevated LRT, but that was ok because it was in out in the boonies. But when it closer to home, now elevated is so evil. Hypocrites.

There's zero hypocrisy in opposing elevated rapid transit through Leslieville while supporting it in Scarborough. I know I'm repeating myself but some people seem to refuse to get the point so I'll try again. The SRT route is largely through low density industrial areas nowhere near any residential, and what does go near residential is at grade behind a sound fence. Only in Scarborough Centre itself is the line elevated near people's homes, at a minimum of 25 m from the closest residences, which were built after the SRT opened. The route is perfect for at grade/elevated rapid transit. Leslieville, on the other hand, is a much more tightly packed urban area where an elevated subway is proposed as close as ~10 m from existing homes. There's no room for an above ground subway without impacting a lot of people. Sure it wouldn't be the end of the world, but this is the type of area where new rapid transit tends to be underground. It's not complicated.

New York, Sydney and London all tend to put their rapid transit underground in central areas and above ground in the suburbs. Ditto Edmonton, Ottawa and Vancouver. Are they all hypocrites too? The entire reason that underground subways were invented in the first place is because it was too disruptive to put trains above ground through dense cities.

There's no hypocrisy. There's no partisan media conspiracy against Scarborough. One part of the city doesn't "deserve" underground transit just because another part of the city has it.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

There's zero hypocrisy in opposing elevated rapid transit through Leslieville while supporting it in Scarborough. I know I'm repeating myself but some people seem to refuse to get the point so I'll try again. The SRT route is largely through low density industrial areas nowhere near any residential, and what does go near residential is at grade behind a sound fence. Only in Scarborough Centre itself is the line elevated near people's homes, at a minimum of 25 m from the closest residences, which were built after the SRT opened. The route is perfect for at grade/elevated rapid transit. Leslieville, on the other hand, is a much more tightly packed urban area where an elevated subway is proposed as close as ~10 m from existing homes. There's no room for an above ground subway without impacting a lot of people. Sure it wouldn't be the end of the world, but this is the type of area where new rapid transit tends to be underground. It's not complicated.

New York, Sydney and London all tend to put their rapid transit underground in central areas and above ground in the suburbs. Ditto Edmonton, Ottawa and Vancouver. Are they all hypocrites too? The entire reason that underground subways were invented in the first place is because it was too disruptive to put trains above ground through dense cities.

There's no hypocrisy. There's no partisan media conspiracy against Scarborough. One part of the city doesn't "deserve" underground transit just because another part of the city has it.

The Scarborough Subway is going through Eglinton and McCowan to Sheppard. It's not using the SRT corridor. If it was, it would be in service already and we wouldn't be talking about this. And yeah there is hypocrisy. Just because you say saw otherwise doesn't erase the perception. The OL is still a bad plan.

 

[Streety McCarface]

The Scarborough Subway is going through Eglinton and McCowan to Sheppard. It's not using the SRT corridor. If it was, it would be in service already and we wouldn't be talking about this. And yeah there is hypocrisy. Just because you say saw otherwise doesn't erase the perception. Doesn't mean the OL isn't a bad plan on it's own.

Except it is a bad plan, but elevating part of the line (if technically feasible with existing rolling stock) is not an aspect of the plan that makes it bad.

 

[OneCity]

Throw in the requisite media bashing and intimation of collusion with the activist set, and this post is basically a conservative municipal politics bingo card.

The usual twisting of opinion to gloss over the legitimate problem of hypocrisy and bias in this City. Lets keep it simple.

Do you really disagree the Star on the surface is mainly Liberal leaning, Sun mainly Conservative, Metroland mainly NDP?

I mean really? Does this need to be pointed out? But anyhow, there is the starting point of the bias

Do you really believe the Toronto based media has reported fairly between downtown and the suburbs?

99% of Scarborough politicians of all stripes and levels and supported the subway. Most of them were Liberal, and you wouldn't know that well as the downtown Star reporters were busy propping up the local downtown 'Liberal' with a non stop barrage of useless, unsupportive, divisive rhetoric. The entire body of work speaks for itself, it is truly out of sync with the climate in Scarborough and was really shameful bias

Do you really not believe the fancy sign carrying activist /union groups highlighted weekly in my local Metroland papers for over a decade propagating Transit City far past its expiry didnt align with the outside Scarborough 'NDP' Councillors?

Our previous Scarborough 'NDP' Councillor Neethan Shan certainly wasn't impressed and often fought vocally against the rich, arrogant entitlement by outisde councilors enjoying their special platform to talk over our residents. But again you'd hardly know it was an overly problematic issue if you didnt live here to see the prejudice first hand and you wouldn't know by reading the 'NDP' media that was busy supporting inner Toronto Councillors on their issues. And it is truly fascinating and so extremely hypocritical that after decades of promoting only above ground (poorly designed at that) transit, the same group changed their fancy signs now promote underground transit.

To continuously wash over the bias in the media, to say there is no hypocrisy in these activist groups and to say our suburban voters have been fairly treated in media is complete horse-crap. It has very been problematic for the City for sometime and likely deserves it's own thread to throw all the articles out on the table and draw out the political connections so it can be better understood. This downtown centric, stop Ford at all costs reporting and activism has created great apathy in parts of the City and is truly one of the biggest reasons Ford and Tory have be running away with elections and partly why transit planning was thankfully taken away from the City. Our suburban voters have no no loud voice outside of what Ford did to bring the apathy to the surface, there is not direct Mayor anymore to voice for the true collective concerns and no supportive Left wing voice in the Citys media which is busy feeding outsiders divisive, one-sided narratives which are far out of touch from the reality and has been glossing over residents legitimate and common concerns.

It is very much political and make no mistake is a big underlying problem politically in the City.

 

[Adjei]

It is true. The Toronto Star hates Scarborough so much. I heard in a meeting they discussed charging Scarborough residents twice as much for the news because they didn't want to have to drive so far from downtown where there were no Starbucks for their delivery drivers.

Sorry I don't live in Scarboorugh. I just cant stand blatant hypocrisy.

 

[H4F33Z]

WRT the Thorncliffe Park alignment, is it possible to divert the line from Overlea across the Costco parking lot to the hydro RoW then across the valley? SkyTrain in Burnaby cuts across a Home Depot parking lot the same way.

Stations would be located on the mall parking lots allowing for cheaper "side-of-road" configurations instead of median stations which require mezzanines and have to be taller.

This is what I could see based on the way SkyTrain has been fit into the urban fabric in Metro Vancouver.
It would also explain why Metrolinx would be in discussions with stakeholders - for station sites and rights-of-way.

That would also put the line next to the proposed Maintenance and Storage Facility site with a short spur.

This is the alignment that makes sense to me:

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.ca

Gilmore lougheed burnaby

www.google.com

Burquitlam Station · Coquitlam, BC V3J 0A3, Canada

âââââ · Subway station

www.google.ca

That's perfect! I live in Thorncliffe. The food basics parking lot is always empty and full of pigeons and bird poop. This is an excellent way to use the empty parking spots. Although convincing Costco to temporarily remove spaces could be difficult. And watch the NIMBYs ensue

 

[Hopkins123]

then explain why its ridiculous. Doesn't seem that crazy to me.

Vindication for OneCity and all the pro subway advocates! Here, here!

 

[asher__jo]

The usual twisting of opinion to gloss over the legitimate problem of hypocrisy and bias in this City. Lets keep it simple.

Do you really disagree the Star on the surface is mainly Liberal leaning, Sun mainly Conservative, Metroland mainly NDP?

I mean really? Does this need to be pointed out? But anyhow, there is the starting point of the bias

Do you really believe the Toronto based media has reported fairly between downtown and the suburbs?

99% of Scarborough politicians of all stripes and levels and supported the subway. Most of them were Liberal, and you wouldn't know that well as the downtown Star reporters were busy propping up the local downtown 'Liberal' with a non stop barrage of useless, unsupportive, divisive rhetoric. The entire body of work speaks for itself, it is truly out of sync with the climate in Scarborough and was really shameful bias

Do you really not believe the fancy sign carrying activist /union groups highlighted weekly in my local Metroland papers for over a decade propagating Transit City far past its expiry didnt align with the outside Scarborough 'NDP' Councillors?

Our previous 'NDP' Councillor Neethan Shan truly certainly wasn't impressed with this plan and moreso often fought vocally against the rich, arrogant entitlement by outisde councilors enjoying their special platform to talk over our residents. But you'd hardly know it was an problematic issue if you didnt live here to see the prejudice and you wouldn't know by reading the NDP friendly media. And it is truly fascinating and so extremely hypocritical that after decades of promoting only above ground (poorly designed) transit, the same group changed their fancy signs now promote underground transit.

To continuously wash over the bias in the media, to say there is no hypocrisy in these activist groups and to say our suburban voters have been fairly treated in media is complete horse-crap. It has very been problematic for the City for sometime and likely deserves it's own thread to throw all the articles out on the table and draw out the poltical connections so it can be better understood. This downtown centric, stop Ford at all costs reporting and activism has created great apathy in parts of the City and is truly one of the biggest reasons Ford and Tory have be running away with elections. Our suburban voters have no direct Mayor to voice for their concerns and no supportive Left wing voice in the Citys media which is leading outsiders being fed divisive one sided false narratives which are far out of touch from the reality and has been glossing over residents legitimate concerns.

It is very much political and make no mistake it is a big problem

I don't think anyone is suggesting Media isn't biased, and generally more Liberal biased (and I'm referring to Liberalism, not the party). But we also need to acknowledge the bias when readers are overreacting to what is simply journalism.

 

[Midtown Urbanist]

Except it is a bad plan, but elevating part of the line (if technically feasible with existing rolling stock) is not an aspect of the plan that makes it bad.

This downtown centric, stop Ford at all costs reporting and activism has created great apathy in parts of the City and is truly one of the biggest reasons Ford and Tory have be running away with elections.

This is the point of hypocrisy that I am seeing from the media and parts of the public. It doesn't really matter anymore (at least politically) whether or not the OL is a good plan or an inadequate plan for dealing with our transit demands and capacity needs. The question of whether the OL is capable of running enough trains per hour or has large enough trains to deal with future ridership projections is irrelevant to the conversation being had between the media and the public.

It is exclusively about "stopping Ford at all costs" as OneCity puts it, and the elevated part of the line as StreetyMcCarface references is the raison d'etre being used for why Ford must be stopped.

It is ironic to me, because as far as I can tell, Metrolinx is the one who came up with this plan and sold it to Doug. None of you actually believe that Doug is smart enough to come up with the Ontario Line himself do you? He essentially said as much when the OL was first announced.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

Except it is a bad plan, but elevating part of the line (if technically feasible with existing rolling stock) is not an aspect of the plan that makes it bad.

Oops, I meant to say its a bad plan, but not because of elevation. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

 

[Adjei]

This is the point of hypocrisy that I am seeing from the media and parts of the public. It doesn't really matter anymore (at least politically) whether or not the OL is a good plan or an inadequate plan for dealing with our transit demands and capacity needs. The question of whether the OL is capable of running enough trains per hour or has large enough trains to deal with future ridership projections is irrelevant to the conversation being had between the media and the public.

It is exclusively about "stopping Ford at all costs" as OneCity puts it, and the elevated part of the line as StreetyMcCarface references is the raison d'etre being used for why Ford must be stopped.

It is ironic to me, because as far as I can tell, Metrolinx is the one who came up with this plan and sold it to Doug. None of you actually believe that Doug is smart enough to come up with the Ontario Line himself do you? He essentially said as much when the OL was first announced.

If it had been the Liberals or NDP who brought the same Ontario Line there wouldn't be all this backlash. They fought against the underground subway for Scarborough because it was championed by Rob Ford and now they are fighting the Ontario Line since it is being brought forward by Doug Ford.

 

[MisterF]

The Scarborough Subway is going through Eglinton and McCowan to Sheppard. It's not using the SRT corridor. If it was, it would be in service already and we wouldn't be talking about this. And yeah there is hypocrisy. Just because you say saw otherwise doesn't erase the perception. The OL is still a bad plan.

I was talking about the SRT route, not the Scarborough subway route. Saying "yeah there is hypocrisy" doesn't refute my point.

I don't think anyone is suggesting Media isn't biased, and generally more Liberal biased (and I'm referring to Liberalism, not the party). But we also need to acknowledge the bias when readers are overreacting to what is simply journalism.

Three out of the four newspapers in Toronto lean conservative. That's not just my opinion, it's there in their election endorsements. TV news is a bit harder to pin down. Conservatives like to accuse CBC of having a left wing bias but it's very conscious of that perception and goes out of its way to be as impartial as possible, to the point of auditing themselves on the subject. The media criticizes the Ontario line because it's a bad plan and worse than what preceded it, not because of which party proposed it.

If it had been the Liberals or NDP who brought the same Ontario Line there wouldn't be all this backlash. They fought against the underground subway for Scarborough because it was championed by Rob Ford and now they are fighting the Ontario Line since it is being brought forward by Doug Ford.

Again, please take off the partisan goggles. It's been explained numerous times why that line about Scarborough is nonsense but it just keeps getting repeated. People oppose plans that they think will impact their homes. It's really that simple and it has nothing to do with political parties. Not everyone in the world is a partisan sheep.