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Which transit plan do you prefer?

  • Transit City

    Votes: 95 79.2%
  • Ford City

    Votes: 25 20.8%

  • Total voters
    120
So if the subway can be built for the same or less than the "cheaper" compromise of renovation or conversion plus a comparatively unnecessary extension, why aren't we doing it?
Because the majority of the $1.4-billion is to expand the existing SRT 5.5 km to Malvern. If you spend the entire $1.4-billion to only extend the subway to Scarborough Centre, you haven't achieved what most of the funding has been allocated for. It would be robbing Peter to pay Paul.
 
^ Except these days Peter carpools with Paul. It does not help Peter at all, if you buy Paul a smartfortwo to carpool with.

Again, nobody is debating what the mandate is. We fully understand that money has been allocated to extend the line. The debate here, is about the merits of that decision. Does it make sense to spend $1.4 billion on refurbishment and extension or should that money be used to extend the Bloor-Danforth line?

And I don't buy for a second that mandates can't be changed. Nowhere did the province say that the TTC would not get any money for this corridor unless they extended service to Malvern. Find me something that says funding was conditional on extension.
 
No, because both Peter and Paul are forced to make an unnecessary transfer at Kennedy and ride on an orphan line with the present plan. Both of them would benefit from the subway extension.
 
Methinks extending the subway to Scarborough Centre along an entirely different route than that of the SRT would be serving brand new areas of the city that before have had to contend with endless congestion and gridlock during rush hour. New stations at Brimley/Eglinton and McCowan/Lawrence would head off the brunt of bus traffic coming inwards from the desnely populated Morningside-West Hill and Cedarbrae-Woburn communities respectively. About as much, if not more people than all of Malvern. So don't think of it as robbing from Peter, or from anyone; you'd be catering to more commuters! One plan calls for the ill-conceived Kennedy Stn locale to be transformed into a permanent lasting hub where 3 LRT lines will intersect with the subway, when there is little particular demand by the majority of Scarbrough commuters to spend any time there. Interregional buses feed into SCC, not Kennedy, so if one's coming in from Markham or Pickering they'll now be forced to transfer twice just to get to the Bloor Line. Madness. We already have one LRT line going to Sheppard-Progress, remember. We don't need another when all it will do is produce out-of-the-way transfer points that very few will want let alone prefer to connect through a lot like McCowan RT Stn in relation to the main hub that's just across the way.

I don't even see why a simple cut-and-cover stacked tunnel method couldn't be applied down McCowan-Danforth which is 6-lanes wide with lots of lawn frontage surrounding it the whole length. Such construction method could even allow for 2 driving lanes to remain open during the construction period which I assume would be expedited.
 
The extension doesn't help Peter...it robs him and pays no one.

edit - and the conversion doesn't do anything for them, either.
 
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Other options is to convert the SRT into an equivalent of the Canada Line, but extending the other end as well to downtown and as more of an express route. Then you can eliminate the transfer at Kennedy without eliminating it.
 
Other options is to convert the SRT into an equivalent of the Canada Line, but extending the other end as well to downtown and as more of an express route. Then you can eliminate the transfer at Kennedy without eliminating it.
With GO service from Kennedy station to Union station currently taking 19 minutes and averaging over 70 km/hr - wouldn't increasing the frequency of this service be more cost effective and faster? GO is already saying they will increase the service to a train every 30 minutes off-peak in both directions by 2020.
 
The extension and conversion is worth $1.954 billion. Page 4 of the Benefit Case report (Option 3).

Haha. What a ridiculous figure. You are aware that you can make a report say anything you want, right? And did they study how much replacing it with a subway would be? I'll say it's $1.957 billion!
 
Haha. What a ridiculous figure. You are aware that you can make a report say anything you want, right? And did they study how much replacing it with a subway would be? I'll say it's $1.957 billion!
That's pretty paranoid to simply assume the reports are wrong. Point to the errors, rather than simply making blanket statements.

Of course the benefit would be higher for a subway from Kennedy to Malvern - but so would the costs.
 
Haha come on. We've seen mountains of reports that cite the same ridership figure regardless of mode. Look at all those Transit City reports. They actually claim that the same number of people would ride a line regardless of whether it was a bus lane or a subway. Paranoid? Everybody knows that you can make a report say anything. That's how you get two reports "proving" the exact opposite thing when political direction changes.
 
The extension and conversion is worth $1.954 billion. Page 4 of the Benefit Case report (Option 3).

Can you point out where in the Metrolinx BCA they studied a Bloor-Danforth extension? I'd like to see the equivalent figure for comparison.
 
Haha come on. We've seen mountains of reports that cite the same ridership figure regardless of mode. Look at all those Transit City reports. They actually claim that the same number of people would ride a line regardless of whether it was a bus lane or a subway. Paranoid? Everybody knows that you can make a report say anything. That's how you get two reports "proving" the exact opposite thing when political direction changes.

Not to mention that a huge chunk of their presumed economic benefits simply came from construction. By that logic, a subway would have been far more competitive than people think....probably why they didnt' study it.
 

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