[gweed123]

I don't have a source, but the last official rumbling I heard was to add a south-side platform to lower station. This would move the staircases further south on the upper station and distribute passengers better. It would mirror what they've been doing with the passenger management barriers and helper staff.

The ideal would be to add platforms/tracks to the upper station, but this is technically difficult due to where the support columns for the HBC skyscraper are. I would expect adding platforms/tracks to the upper station to cost a lot more than $340m.

Makes sense. Basically repeat what they're doing at Union on the Bloor-Danforth tracks at Bloor-Yonge. I used to take that transfer every day, and the Bloor line platform is dangerously narrow for the number of people that it carries.

Of course, I still think that this should happen AFTER the DRL is open. $340 million is 1km of the DRL. Not a huge amount, but not insignificant either.

 

[adeel]

RH Centre will be somehow integrated with the GO station. The precise plans for how to incorporate all in a single "train station" has yet to be nailed down. Or at least Markham isn't thrilled with the plans as they stand.

is there an actual GO train stop in the area? I know there are buses...

Also, i find it interesting markham isnt happy with it...any idea why? (Seems like the kind of thing Richmond Hill should be complaining about...)

 

[dowlingm]

Subway Fleet and Infrastructure Plans 2011 - stevemunro.ca

At Bloor-Yonge Station, the scheme for adding a third platform between existing tracks on the Yonge line has been dropped in favour of a simpler change on the Bloor line. As at Union, a new platform would be added south of the existing structure to give Eastbound service its own dedicated space. This would also allow expansion of the mezzanine connection between the two lines and greatly widen the space over which passengers moved between the BD and YUS platforms. In effect this would build into the structure the ad-hoc redirection of passengers now done in the AM peak at Bloor, but with considerably more space.
Potential construction challenges include the need to occupy Bloor Street east of Yonge at least to deck over the structure for excavation, as well as the fact that part of Yonge Station lies physically inside of the Hudson’s Bay building. (Yonge Station is on a diagonal from roughly the SE corner of The Bay at Park Road and Bloor to Yonge Street beside the Starbucks which was formerly Britnell’s Book Shop.)
The Bloor-Yonge project is budgeted at $200-million, but has not yet been presented to the Commission or City for formal approval. It is shown in the 10-year budget for 2014-17.

 

[unimaginative2]

The whole point of the Downtown Relief Line was to prevent the need for this project. I'd hate to see them proceed simultaneously and have hundreds of millions wasted after the DRL opens and draws thousands of riders away.

 

[gweed123]

The whole point of the Downtown Relief Line was to prevent the need for this project. I'd hate to see them proceed simultaneously and have hundreds of millions wasted after the DRL opens and draws thousands of riders away.

Yes and no. The DRL will draw riders away, but the Yonge line has so much latent demand on it that most of those spots will be filled again shortly after, especially if the DRL opens in conjunction with the North Yonge extension.

The DRL should happen first though, and the situation should be re-assessed once both of those lines/extensions are operational.

 

[rbt]

The DRL should happen first though, and the situation should be re-assessed once both of those lines/extensions are operational.

Even with a DRL the Yonge line will still have issues with passenger distribution and Bloor will still have issues with thin platforms next to the stairwells.

At very least they need to do the design and put easements in place to ensure it will be possible to do at a later date.

 

[gweed123]

Even with a DRL the Yonge line will still have issues with passenger distribution and Bloor will still have issues with thin platforms next to the stairwells.

At very least they need to do the design and put easements in place to ensure it will be possible to do at a later date.

I'm not saying that it shouldn't be done, I'm just saying that on the list of priorities, it's 3rd (DRL, North Yonge, Bloor-Yonge Capacity Improvements).

And yes, I have no problem with them studying it and doing engineering designs now. It's not like the station is going to be changing significantly on its own. Get all the background work done now so that when it does come time to do it, the tendering process can start right away.

 

[nfitz]

Even with a DRL the Yonge line will still have issues with passenger distribution and Bloor will still have issues with thin platforms next to the stairwells.

That narrow platform at Yonge station is a safety hazard. They need to add a second platform no matter what else is built, just like Union is now being fixed. The DRL would save the need for the much more expensive and disruptive addition of a third platform to Bloor (and perhaps a third platform for Yonge).

 

[TJ O'Pootertoot]

is there an actual GO train stop in the area? I know there are buses...

Also, i find it interesting markham isnt happy with it...any idea why? (Seems like the kind of thing Richmond Hill should be complaining about...)

This is a pretty good image, though the designs have been refined a bit since this map. The big development at the bottom is Markham's Langstaff Gateway. Above it is 407, then Hwy 7, then Richmond Hill Centre lands.

You can see the Langstaff station box (in orange) in the bottom left and then the three subway alignments they considered. They went with the one on the right, parked directly under the existing Silver City. You can also see the existing GO station as the green box that runs under the highways.

The trick is to link that, and the subway, and the existing bus terminal (just north of the train station) AND that huge community to the south in a sensible way. Part of Calthorpe's solution was to create a covered promenade along the train tracks, supplemented by community shuttle buses and (blue sky!) eventually a PRT system. Markham doesn't want its people having to go so far to the subway and they don't want the 407 Transitway coming so far off the highway to get to the station, negating some its rapidness. (The blue line here shows it interfacing with the GO station but the refined design takes it up to the subway and then back down.)

As for the assertion elsewhere that the DRL somehow negates the extension, I don't get that at all. They are two separate problems and while the DRL certainly makes it easier to accommodate the extension, both are necessary to create a viable transit network.

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

There is always going to be sub optimal alignments when it comes to transit stations that are built in the same "area" but are not built "together" to be integrated. As it stands there doesn't seem to be that much of a walk from the subway platform to the GO platform and bus terminal (at least no further than the walk from the Finch bus terminal to the subway station).

The Langstaff Gateway neighbourhood would be well served by having a bus route running along that main street along the south of the development. Residents would then have good access to transit.

To reiterate a previous question. What exactly is Markham unhappy about regarding this development.

 

[TJ O'Pootertoot]

To reiterate a previous question. What exactly is Markham unhappy about regarding this development.

You make legit points and I don't dispute them. But that's WHY Markham is upset about it, whether they're RIGHT to be upset is another matter...(Upset might be too strong a word at this point but they do have concerns about some of the preferred alignments anyway...)

 

[BMO]

New Funding and Planning update for the Yonge subway extension.


http://www.york.ca/NR/rdonlyres/mdfik77wzospzv76do5vg3nft73en77fydgohohk6ipfcaczrdr574wfd7dhsbgdw6fz6qc6cgtzm2xuio36vzjiza/nov+1+yonge.pdf

 

[Solid Snake]

New Funding and Planning update for the Yonge subway extension.


http://www.york.ca/NR/rdonlyres/mdfik77wzospzv76do5vg3nft73en77fydgohohk6ipfcaczrdr574wfd7dhsbgdw6fz6qc6cgtzm2xuio36vzjiza/nov+1+yonge.pdf

Extending the subway past Steeles is the last priority on the list. The whole Transit debate made Torontonians more aware of the transit plans and their implications. More and more was I hearing, reading and listening to more citizen wondering "WTF??? why a subway to Vaughan, with our taxes??? That money could have paid the Scarborough Subway and start the DRL."

My point is, selling Torontonians the idea of building subways past Steeles will be a very tough sell in the future. I predict citizens massively opposing that project as long as the DRL, Eglinton to the Airport, Danforth Line to STC and Sheppard are built first...

Extending the line to Steeeles will happen but beyond? Let's say things won't go as smoothly as when Vaughan got their "Metropolitan Station"

 

[EnviroTO]

Extending the line to Steeeles will happen but beyond?

If extending it to Steeles happens then extending to Richmond Hill will definitely happen. The extension into Vaughan was paid for by York Region and the Province, the city gets no say once it hits the border with York Region unless they want to play hardball on operating costs and risk Metrolinx taking the whole thing off their hands.

 

[M II A II R II K]