M II A II R II K
Senior Member
A 427 LRT from Long Branch to the Airport would be great also.
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Etobicoke is weird. It's topology and natural barriers (including rail+highway+hydro corridors) indicate that travel should go east-west, yet the bus routes and commuting direction follow north-south.
I wonder if that commuting pattern would completely change with the Eglinton Crosstown and Finch West LRT, bringing true east-west travel corridors through central and northern Etobicoke.
A 427 LRT from Long Branch to the Airport would be great also.
I'd like to revive the original Etobicoke (L)RT plan which used the hydro corridor, but instead of sending it to the Airport, I'd send it up 27 instead, since Eglinton makes that connection redundant. Thinking out loud here, but maybe it would be useful to have a junction with select trips along Eglinton turning north or south here.
I'd keep the stretch along the hydro corridor at grade with prioritized crossings and stations at Bloor, Burnhamthorpe, Rathburn, Princess Margaret, Eglinton and Longbourne before flying it over the 401.
However a Highway 427 aligned RT would be faster and could serve all the way south to the lake. It might also be easier bureaucratically given Hydro One's track record regarding developments on their corridors. There would still be a branch along Dundas connecting to either a Highway 427 station or, preferably, given all the redevelopment between East Mall and Six Points, all the way to Kipling where that platform could be put to some use.
Was the Etobicoke RT anything but arbitrary lines on a map drawn for political purposes?
Was the Etobicoke RT anything but arbitrary lines on a map drawn for political purposes?
You've just described the origin of almost every transit line in Toronto.
The idea was a quick connection from the subway to the airport, similar to the Scarborough RT being a quick connection to the STC. It was supposed to be a relatively cheap streetcar line running up a hydro corridor. I don't believe it was a political plan actually, but based in actual planning.Was the Etobicoke RT anything but arbitrary lines on a map drawn for political purposes?
Was the Etobicoke RT anything but arbitrary lines on a map drawn for political purposes?
so I guess there's some tangible aspects too.
Not too different from today I reckon. It can take decades for land uses to catch up with transit lines and much of the suburbs would have already been built as sprawl prior to those lines, if those lines were even built.With all of the ideas for transit lines, if all were built, what would the city look like? I am not just talking the lines themselves, I mean the entire cityscape. What would Toronto look like with real transit?
Not too different from today I reckon. It can take decades for land uses to catch up with transit lines and much of the suburbs would have already been built as sprawl prior to those lines, if those lines were even built.
The trend to build downtown would still happen, development of the raillands and the waterfront would still be happening, STC and other regional sub-centres will still be failures.
Important to note too that it is not like that the large sum of Toronto is a transit desert. It might not be rapid transit, but all those suburban arterials contain very frequent, well-used bus routes with more than decent ridership levels. Transit already does exist, it is just bus rather than LRT or subway.