Chicago Downtown Subway Stations...and NYC observations...

ShonTron said:
There are two long, narrow tunnels providing access between the State Street subway (CTA Red Line) and the Dearborn Street subway (CTA Blue Line). On both downtown subways, it is (or was when I was in the subway last, in 2009) legally possible to walk in the tunnels between closely-spaced stations there too. It's certainly quite possible to shoe-horn a paid connection to King Station; slightly more difficult to St. Andrew, most difficult to Union, but that shouldn't matter too much with Presto or passes. Paris and Mexico City have some very long connecting tunnels as well.

I'm in favour of the Wellington alignment personally, but Adelaide works for me as well.
Click to expand...

ST: Those two Chicago Downtown island platforms in both the State Street Subway and Dearborn Street Subway are 3500 feet long
and trains stop three times in each section - they are in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's longest continuous
subway stations...I recall that these stations could be useful during inclement weather to walk between points above by using them...

NYC has some long connecting passageways of its own...Instantly coming to mind is the paid-area connection between Times Square
42 Street/7th Avenue (1,2,3,N,Q,R and S TSQ-GCT Shuttle) trains and 42 Street-8th Avenue (A,C,E,7 trains)

Any connecting passageways that would allow convenient transfers in central Toronto between current or future TTC Subway lines
is a welcome addition in my opinion...

LI MIKE
 
Last edited:
The closest that we have is the walk between the Kendal exit and the Walmer exit, all within the same subway station.
 
A Wellington Station could have interchanges linking with both Union and King, and a new St. Andrew station could be south of the current one and have convenient access to the Rogers Centre and stuff.
 
M II A II R II K said:
A Wellington Station could have interchanges linking with both Union and King, and a new St. Andrew station could be south of the current one and have convenient access to the Rogers Centre and stuff.
Click to expand...

What I've envisioned with this is the "Financial Station" platform running from just west of Yonge St to just west of Bay St, with the eastern end of the platform using the existing King Station exits (maybe some new integration into nearby office buildings), and a new west concourse, which would feature a walkway to Union Subway Station, and exits to the street and various nearby buildings.

St. Andrew would get a new E-W platform under Wellington, running from University to west of Simcoe. Eastern end of the platform connects to the existing St. Andrew Station, the middle of the platform would feature exits to the RBC building and Roy Thomson Hall, while a new west concourse would extend a bit past the end of the platform and access the CBC building and Metro Hall. I would also have an underground walkway connect to a street connection at Wellington & John, to allow easier access to the Rogers Centre and CN Tower.

Those two stations would provide pretty decent coverage to the CBD, while connecting to and efficiently using existing station infrastructure.
 
M II A II R II K said:
And any new Wellington or St. Andrew station would both get the Spanish treatment.
Click to expand...

Very true. Unlike YUS which has 5 (some would say 7) major offloading points downtown, the DRL would really only have 2. And of those two, I think Financial would take the lion's share of that load. Financial would definitely need to be a 3 platform station, but I don't know if St. Andrew would need to be as well. When I visualize the ridership pattern of all CBD-bound traffic, I see Financial taking about 60% of it, with St. Andrew taking about 25%, and St. Lawrence taking about 15%.

Financial I would say yes, almost regardless of cost, but I think St. Andrew would really depend on the added cost of doing so.

Note: The percentages I gave above may change slightly when the DRL West opens, because then for more people St. Andrew will be the station BEFORE Financial, not the station after, as it will be when the DRL initially opens. It may shift slightly towards St. Andrew, but I don't know if it would be enough of a justification to build St. Andrew as a 3 platform station from the get-go.
 
Last edited:
You have to remember however that the DRL will be getting much lower ridership figures than the YUS line and won't have as much of a strain. A standard 2 platform setup should be more than adequate.

Even with the DRL, Bloor Yonge is going to have to be rebuilt in 25ish years. That is when I would expect to see our first true spanish solution. (Beyond the half built one on the Sheppard line)
 
Last edited:
The walkthroughs between the new and old stations should have a expansive mezzanine space to also easily connect to the major sites as well, and places as far south as the Rogers Centre and stuff.
 
Another problem with a Queen alignment is that it may not relieve "lower" Yonge if people are still switching onto the #1 line to get into the heart of the financial district and closer to South Core and sporting facilities.
 
With the DRL looking a lot likelier to actually get built in the medium term, I expect the battle will now shift to how it's conceived.

Given Tim Hudak's pitch of the line as 'an express from Scarborough to Etobicoke' or some such, I could see the PCs trying to push through a design with, at most, 1-2 stops between Pape and Union in the east, and a similar set-up in the west if it gets that far. Unfortunately, there are examples in North America of 'subways' that are basically useless to large numbers of people in the cities they are supposed to serve -- I'm thinking of BART and to a lesser extent the DC Metro -- and that might suit the Tories' suburban base just fine. Byford, if he's still around, and whoever is mayor will have to fight hard for a line that actualy serves downtown residents, not just commuters from the outer 416.
 
It wouldn't be ideal at all, but if they cut out stations and build the entire thing from Pape to Dundas West with only 5/6 stops in between, it'd be far easier to add stations later than to extend it.

Similar to North York Centre station.
 
T-Bor said:
It wouldn't be ideal at all, but if they cut out stations and build the entire thing from Pape to Dundas West with only 5/6 stops in between, it'd be far easier to add stations later than to extend it.

Similar to North York Centre station.
Click to expand...

While that is true, and an express subway to downtown could have some utility, if that's the mode of transport we're trying to serve with a DRL (instead of local trips as well), then subway is an expensive and wasteful choice of technology. Bring on the GO REX tunnel, please.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top