Or not. Why should a subway be run to Jane & Sheppard and not, say, Jane & Finch? Or ended at Downsview? There's nothing on Sheppard west of Downsview, including bad traffic, or a busy bus route, or homes, or jobs, or stores, or anything that would suggest a subway extension is necessary there now or in the future.
I live at Sheppard and keele on sentinel road. Having the Sheppard line to Jane would drastically increase the ridership on the line.
-Jane has a very high density
-Jane bus is one of the busiest routes
-They would be connected to STC and NYC by rapid transit cutting the time to get there by easily half.
-Gives them extra options to get to the subway:
A) Bus to Steeles West to Spadina line
Access to Spadina line, Finch LRT
Useful for those living north of Finch
b) Bus to Sheppard line with choice to get on either YUS line
Useful for those living between Finch and wilson and those who need to go to STC or NYC
c) Bus to Eglinton LRT with connexion to both YUS line and airport
Useful for those who need the underground Eglinton line to get to YUS and to go to the airport
Good for those living south of the 401 to Alliance Avenue
d) Bus to Jane stn
For those who need the Bloor line south of alliance Avenue to Bloor via St.Clair Streetcar that connects to both YUS lines
Pros: With 4 Rapid transit options, this cut the travel time on the Jane bus very significantly.
This will relieve the Jane Route drastically since your commuters stays on the bus for a shorter period of time. This will decrease the amount of overcrowded bus, increase comfort and efficiency on the bus route.
How to finance the Sheppad Extension?
If you add reserved lane for the bus in peak hours, don't you agree that the Jane LRT doesn't become such a high priority anymore. If you need to dig Jane south of Eglinton, Jane would easily be over a billion dollar if Sheppard east is a billion. Maybe 1.5 billions for Jane. In short term, redirect this amount of money on the sheppard subway and have Jane change to LRT (if necessary in the future)
Et voila!
Like I said in other threads,
Poor management explains why politicians are always crying on lack of ressources for transit infrastructure. Better management would liberate extra funding for heavy rail technology. I use to be a city worker for Montreal. Since most of big city work approx. the same, I've seen mayors and councillors waste hundreads of million dollars of taxpayers money on stupid projects that nobody wanted or care for. Giving tax credit to companies that clearly didn't needed and don't get me started with corruption.
If the city found the money to pay the streetcars by redirecting funds from a less urgent project, NOTHING justifies that Sheppard east is not DONE AS A SUBWAY.
Its either lack of vision
Lack of imagination
Lack of political will
or all of the above