One thing I would love to see (though it never will with this city's political climate), is to make Toronto's system more radial as opposed to sticking with the grid. It makes sense for what has been built so far to work with the grid, since that's the city's overall built form, but this leads to lines getting way too much pressure put on them (as seen on the YUS and B-D lines). The DRL is a start, but a way to make the city even more widely serviced is to add NW and NE lines in addition to the current N-S, E-W ones.

Union is too jam packed already, and even this current renovation has been a huge mess, but a line going out of downtown and making stops through the Fashion District, Trinity-Bellwoods, Little Italy, Bloordale Village, the Junction, then following either Weston Rd. or Black Creek up would have a huge impact on moving around the city. On the other end you have one heading out of downtown and going through St. Lawrence, Moss Park, Regent Park, Cabbagetown, Riverdale/Danforth, and following Don Mills northwards.

While I'm at it having a "ring" line around the city would make it look more complete, connecting the DRL with Mimico, then up following Kipling through Rexdale to connect with the NW line I descriped and the Spadina line at York University, build the Finch LRT to the Yonge Line, then the Sheppard line can act as a connector to the NE/Don Mills line (I think a Don Mills and Sheppard terminus/connector) makes sense, and finally follow Sheppard to connect with the Scarborough line and DRL east.

I'll add the disclaimer that this is a complete pipe dream, but man would that catapult Toronto into another tier of rapid transit system.
 
Red October said:
One thing I would love to see (though it never will with this city's political climate), is to make Toronto's system more radial as opposed to sticking with the grid. It makes sense for what has been built so far to work with the grid, since that's the city's overall built form, but this leads to lines getting way too much pressure put on them (as seen on the YUS and B-D lines). The DRL is a start, but a way to make the city even more widely serviced is to add NW and NE lines in addition to the current N-S, E-W ones.

Union is too jam packed already, and even this current renovation has been a huge mess, but a line going out of downtown and making stops through the Fashion District, Trinity-Bellwoods, Little Italy, Bloordale Village, the Junction, then following either Weston Rd. or Black Creek up would have a huge impact on moving around the city. On the other end you have one heading out of downtown and going through St. Lawrence, Moss Park, Regent Park, Cabbagetown, Riverdale/Danforth, and following Don Mills northwards.

While I'm at it having a "ring" line around the city would make it look more complete, connecting the DRL with Mimico, then up following Kipling through Rexdale to connect with the NW line I descriped and the Spadina line at York University, build the Finch LRT to the Yonge Line, then the Sheppard line can act as a connector to the NE/Don Mills line (I think a Don Mills and Sheppard terminus/connector) makes sense, and finally follow Sheppard to connect with the Scarborough line and DRL east.

I'll add the disclaimer that this is a complete pipe dream, but man would that catapult Toronto into another tier of rapid transit system.
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http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/showth...-(including-fantasy-maps)?p=796415#post796415
http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/showth...-(including-fantasy-maps)?p=796429#post796429
 
salsa said:
St. George won't win any architectural awards, however I appreciate the ease of transferring between subway lines. In many cities you may have to walk hundreds of metres to do that. Also, if you've ever been on the Spadina or Sheppard line, you should know that the TTC has not looked to NY for station design ever since the construction of the BD line many decades ago.
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Actually, Sheppard does seem to follow the NY barebones look with its concrete walls and cheap tiles, but from a time when NY didn't build that many stations. If they did, they would probably look like the Sheppard line. They're nicer than the Bloor-Danforth line with art at every station and the occasional architectural flourish, but they lack the dedication to design seen in the Montreal Metro and some European and Latin American systems. They don't look that interesting.

nfitz said:
Until you try and transfer to a bus at one of them. Good luck finding the right bus stop on the streets around Lionel-Groulx station. It's amazing how far you have to walk from the station entrance to some of these stops ...
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That's a good point. The TTC has done a great job from the beginning with making transfers to surface routes quick and easy. Still, there's no reason that stations can't be both functional and beautiful.

Solid Snake said:
It's well known that Montreal copied Paris. You won't find many bus terminal there
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Montreal had consultants from Paris and took inspiration from the Paris Metro. There are some similarities in station design between Montreal and Paris. However, Montreal did architecture and art better than Paris with every station being unique.

nfitz said:
There's no question that Montreal's stations tend to look better. Not a surprise given that almost every station was designed by a different architect, who had a mandate to be creative. As compared to Toronto where many stations were designed by the same engineer with a mandate to be cheap. At the same time, the whining here by some about the new Spadina stations being a waste of money ... oh well, the boring Eglinton stations should be more there style ...
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I think those whining about the Spadina line are misguided and in the minority. The Eglinton stations shouldn't be cheap and ugly. People have gone to the consultations and said they don't want cheap and ugly stations. Metrolinx's documents have emphasized a high quality public realm.
 
nfitz said:
Until you try and transfer to a bus at one of them. Good luck finding the right bus stop on the streets around Lionel-Groulx station. It's amazing how far you have to walk from the station entrance to some of these stops ...

What's bizarre, is that when they built the station, there was plenty of space to build a proper terminal ... but they chose to make it park instead, and force people to walk long distances to play hunt-the-bus.

Still, at least you have a chance of finding the local buses ... as opposed to Snowdon - the other station that people here seem to have wet dreams about.

It's a great station, until you try and use it. Do you have any idea how long it takes to get from the very deep platforms, to the poorly placed entrance on Queen Mary? The platform design is brilliant. However, St. George is far more accessible to the surface than Snowdon is.
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Even their "improvements" are not that good.

In November of this year, they
have a new bus terminal at the Lionel-Groulx métro station near downtown Montreal. But riders will face long walks to stops and the waits could be chilly for about a month.
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See this link.

9152935.bin
 
Is there a map that shows where the station boxes on the 2 Bloor-Danforth line are located on Danforth Avenue from around Chester Avenue, Pape Avenue, Donlands Avenue, Greenwood Avenue, and Coxwell Avenue?
 
W. K. Lis said:
Is there a map that shows where the station boxes on the 2 Bloor-Danforth line are located on Danforth Avenue from around Chester Avenue, Pape Avenue, Donlands Avenue, Greenwood Avenue, and Coxwell Avenue?
Click to expand...
Actually, the station box for Greenwood station falls one or two blocks short of Greenwood Avenue.
 
W. K. Lis said:
Is there a map that shows where the station boxes on the 2 Bloor-Danforth line are located on Danforth Avenue from around Chester Avenue, Pape Avenue, Donlands Avenue, Greenwood Avenue, and Coxwell Avenue?
Click to expand...
Not one map I've seen recently, but if you dig long enough, you should be able to find various TTC documents on the second entrance and elevators for each of these stations other than Chester that show the boxes.
 
Will they not be doing a study on the western DRL (Dundas West to Downtown) and Eglinton as well ? The eastern part represents only $3.2 Billion of the $7.4 Billion that will be available for this project (DTRES)
 
They probably have to figure out which station it's going to hit on the Yonge Line first before they bother with a western leg.
 
Instead of going up Weston Road, I'd rather the UP express get more stops and be converted to two distinct services. UP Express and UP Local. In this scenario, I'd hope a DRL would be extended to Dundas West, although it's not strictly necessary. Extending the subway would allow GO service to be express from Bloor to Union
 
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