One worry of mine, and it's tied into a Prov upload, is that Mlinx has a planned ace up its sleeve to reduce crowding. An effective nuclear option if you will. That is: jack fares up 300%.
 
nfitz said:
I think most are aware that Richmond Hill is only north of Highway 7 - leaving only the proposed Line 1 terminus just north of the Langstaff GO in Richmond Hill. Three of the five proposed stations are in, or partially in, Markham, while a fourth (Richmond Hill Centre) is very close to the Markham border with Richmond Hill. The removed Royal Orchard station would also have been partially in Markham - which is still being discussed in recent YRT presentations.

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Traditionally this area is considered Thornhill rather than Markham. Today when people talk about Markham they usually refer to the area around Markham Civic Centre and Unionville, where most of the new developments concentrate.
 
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DRL all the way to Sheppard would do a huge favor to yonge in terms of diverted capacity, especially since it could operate at much higher speeds, attracting more riders. It would provide a 14-15 stop ride downtown from Sheppard at mostly full speed, compared to a 17 stop + transfer ride at many reduced and less than optimal speeds today.
 
Another thing the Relief Line North could potentially do is converge all buses east of Leslie/Don Mills to Don Mills/Sheppard-Victoria Park Station instead of Finch Station.

All this talk in this thread about the YNSE bring contingent on the RLN being built really shouldn’t be ignored. York Region politicians can say they agree that the RL needs to be built in order for the YNSE to be built, but at the end of the day, YNSE will be built and maybe even open before RLS. This is terrible for capacity, but unfortunately it gets votes.
 
44 North said:
One worry of mine, and it's tied into a Prov upload, is that Mlinx has a planned ace up its sleeve to reduce crowding. An effective nuclear option if you will. That is: jack fares up 300%.
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Won't quite be 300%. Richmond Hill to Union today is $6.62 (with Presto). That's actually cheaper than a VIVA ($3.75) + TTC ($3) combo.

There was some expectation that RER would allow reduced fares for GO both due to lower operating costs and increased ridership.

I can see them having a ~$5.50 (2018 $'s) fare for both GO and subway trips from Richmond Hill to Union in 2025.

Subway rates at Finch might be $4.25 (2018 $'s) to Union; so yeah I'd say a 50% price increase from terminal stations to downtown seems likely, particularly those that cross into 905 territory (TTC better not be subsidizing operations service after the upload).
 
44 North said:
So much focus on Yonge being at capacity, yet people forget Line 2 is too. They're both f*cked, been that way for years. Yet we have some brainiacs who've never ridden on public transit saying, gee I think there's some room. So annoying. Shorten both lines they'll still be full.
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DRL North Relieves Yonge.
This Scarborough Line relieves Danforth.
The only question is in the West.

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BurlOak said:
DRL North Relieves Yonge.
This Scarborough Line relieves Danforth.
The only question is in the West.

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The Spadina extension of Line 1 relieves some to the north-west of Yonge, especially north of Finch Avenue West. Would like to see the ridership numbers after a year of the extension by early 2019.
 
The Spadina branch of Line 1 isn't near capacity north of St George (Bloor), yet. It is well used but there is no problem getting onto the train at Eglinton West or St Clair West, unless a major service interruption just took place.

South of St George, it gets very busy. At some point, a western leg of RL up to Bloor should be considered.

Plus, RER / SmartTrack, or whatever that thing is called. Weston Corridor is wide and can add quite a bit of capacity.
 
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innsertnamehere said:
DRL all the way to Sheppard would do a huge favor to yonge in terms of diverted capacity, especially since it could operate at much higher speeds, attracting more riders. It would provide a 14-15 stop ride downtown from Sheppard at mostly full speed, compared to a 17 stop + transfer ride at many reduced and less than optimal speeds today.
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I also would add an extension to Dundas West would the line very optimal.

And we need to see some serious improvements to YRT local service if this is to happen. Especially with talk of an extension to Major Mac.
 
innsertnamehere said:
DRL all the way to Sheppard would do a huge favor to yonge in terms of diverted capacity, especially since it could operate at much higher speeds, attracting more riders. It would provide a 14-15 stop ride downtown from Sheppard at mostly full speed, compared to a 17 stop + transfer ride at many reduced and less than optimal speeds today.
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DRL all the way to RH would do even more, and by using metro rolling stock, not conventional subway, and then looping it up from downtown to the Georgetown corridor to points northwest (Bramalea +). In one fell swoop, that would massively relieve all subway lines while leaving the present subway system intact and able to operate with the load it was designed for and able to handle efficiently. The way to save the subway is to bypass it completely. That also adds redundancy to the overall system. If one system fails for whatever reason, the other(s) can cover in an emergency.

It also means that the only imposition on the present subway when building it would be pedestrian access at intersecting stations.
 
hw621 said:
^RER/SmartTrack is still happening?
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Yes. There are zero signs of a desire by government to either slow this project down or make significant changes in the implementation.

The only real fiddling done has been the Niagara segment, and even that's very minor (same stations, same track setup, no new equipment; just an extra mid-day crew or 2).

Ford has been quoted as wanting to be remembered as a transit premier and following through on Wynne's plans is by far the easiest way to achieve that.


Relief line, Scarborough extension, and Yonge North are looking like a strong 2nd-act for a re-election campaign.
 
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Aside from the 404/7 employment node, I'm not really sure a DRL from Sheppard to RH makes sense (though it's worth remembering that Transit City once had an LRT going up Don Mills to this point).

Also, I don't think there's anything particularly new here (certainly not the accompanying grainy photo) but the Star has an article on the not-at-all-surprising YR political support for subway uploading. Clearly there's no downside for them...
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...ck-plan-to-upload-ttc-subway-to-province.html

Also clear is that the political pinch point - having established that both the DRL and YNSE are worth doing - is the relative timing. As the article notes:
-TO council wants the DRL "in operation" before Yonge proceeds, which would put it about 20 years out
-YR agreed the projects should proceed "in lockstep"
-Scarpitti is now saying he wants the YNSE to go first.

As I've said before (and above, in response to the "What if it was open today?" hypothetical), I thikn Scarpitti has a point. I don't think that the system would be unduly overwhelmed on Day 1 by the extension and so it would be safe to do it first as long as the DRL was chugging along right behind it, even under construction at the same time if possible. But it would trigger massive development in short order so to do it without an absolute guarantee of DRL opening soon after isn't something I'd support.

This is going to be simmering in the background for a while and come to a boil once we find out what the PCs intend to do about uploading because then all bets could be off.
 
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