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Intuitively, I'd agree that deep stations are problematic for ridership. The TYSSE stations take a substantial amount of time to navigate by foot, and the RL South stations were planned to be even deeper, if I recall correctly.

No doubt. This is why these Metrolinx News blogs can be so misleading. Generally speaking it makes a lot of sense. But when we look at all the factors (capacity, etc.), deeper stations make sense in this particular situation - that or evaluating an above ground section for East Harbour.
 
While you're at it, how about you don't destroy the SRT, and just upgrade it with modern signaling and rolling stock, and maybe cover it up with winter shelters? That would be even better than converting it to LRT.

It might cost too much or take too long (or both) to build custom railcars that fit into the SRT guideway, stations, tunnels (between Ellesmere and Midland), and handle the sharp curves. Nobody makes such small cars anymore.
 
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Thompson is right when he tries to find a good interim solution; that's his duty to the voters.

However, soon it will be discovered than no affordable solution exists, other than buying enough buses and creating bus-only lanes to facilitate their travel between Kennedy and STC. Thompson and other local councilors will have to accept that reality.
 
They should've just called the Scarborough LRT the Scarborough Electric Bus. It would already be up and running. :p

Interesting take, especially at the end - the idea of keeping the RT with the SSE.

Who would've thought that renaming the "Scarborough LRT" to the "Scarborough Electric Bus" would've gained universal approval from City Council. It would already be up and running. :p
 
There was a 'ton' of support for the LRT as well.

The article is addressing the failure to actually build useful transit for Scarborough based on what people need. The SSE isn't going to do much to address those current issues.

Ford's drastic reduction of City Council makes it far more difficult for people's voices to be heard via local representation.


Yet "Metrolinx News" consistently justifies those decisions, based on their own reasoning (if you could call it that).

That's why criticism of their "news" is very reasonable.

I thought their voices were heard and that's why they are getting a subway?

It doesn't matter how many billions are being spent if the core issues aren't being addressed.

The LRT plan was well on it's way to being built, with considerable support from the community - even with a transfer.
As someone who lives in Scarborough, I struggle to believe that it had support anywhere close to what the subway has, whether it is warranted is another question (I don't think it is).
They have not been ignored. They got the subway they asked for. Yet they will continue to feel ignored, as the subway does nothing to address the root of the transportation issue in Scarborough.

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
- Henry Ford, allegedly

This subway is the proverbial faster horse.
Yes, and the LRT would be worse than the RT in nearly every way - while costing a lot.
And the active consultations regarding the SRT replacement have been carried out since 2007/8; enough time to design and build any option, it could be running already if the city and the province got their acts together.
Before people magically discovered trams in 2007 the TTC themselves suggested just upgrading the RT
 
It might cost too much or take too long (or both) to build custom railcars that fit into the SRT guideway, stations, tunnels (between Ellesmere and Midland), and handle the sharp curves. Nobody makes such small cars anymore.
Ah yes, the cost of fixing one tunnel (which goes under tracks and basically nothing else) and a small set of bespoke railcars is more than heavy construction on 6 stations, total signaling and electrification change out, a new or rebuilt maintenance facility, AND a new fleet of trains. . .

Lots of systems have non-standard trains and most rail companies will happily build you trains for them, of course they are more expensive but everything else is not equal. Worst case scenario, we could do what Denver does, and built brand new SRT cars with the exact same design as the original ones. Or more smartly, use the profile of the old trains, but add modern design features and touches . . . and then you wouldn't even need to rebuild anything.

TLDR: The cost for fixing the SRT is either fixing the curves (way less than the cost of rebuilding the line for trams), or getting bespoke trains (way less than the cost of rebuilding the line for trams).
 
I'm not sure the LRT's on the table would be that much better for addressing the local trips. In the corridors where LRT runs, yes. Eglinton East, the section of Kingston Rd, Sheppard East all would see improvements with LRTs. But the majority of local trips would still be either entirely on buses as they are today, or partly on a bus and partly on a small section of LRT.

Local trips are not that easy to improve; need the majority of arterials equipped with transit lanes. The LRT projects currently on the books for Scarborough would / hopefully will advance in that direction, but well below 50% coverage so far.

Hmm, the problem with LRT is that when it runs on the street its not all that much better than a bus. If you want local transit to be better than just put paint on the road and you get most of the benefits of an "LRT" at much lower cost.

I am going to do something a little wild here and propose my own idea. Since Scarborough is covered in high quality local bus routes as we know I think we should have some sort of express transit line. Maybe such a line could use trains because they are big and more efficient than buses in a number of ways. If we used high floors they'd also really be accessible. We could also build stations spaced father apart so that people wouldn't be stopping 20 times on all of their trips. Maybe we could put this train underground, hmm sort of "sub" surface if you will. Sort of a sub-way. But alas, Scarborough has lots of space and wide roads, maybe we could run the train above ground - then it would be way cheaper than this proposed sub-way, and way faster than the proposed Streetcar++ plans, we could call this aerial train in the sky a "sky"-train.

I'll accept payment for my brilliant ideas asap
 
^If only we had done an elevated+cut and cover line 2 extension back in the 80s. Frankly, elevated would still work given the wide suburban arterials as you mentioned. If I had a vested interest in this line, I would push for elevated: invest the cost savings into more stations and greater length/coverage.
 
It might cost too much or take too long (or both) to build custom railcars that fit into the SRT guideway, stations, tunnels (between Ellesmere and Midland), and handle the sharp curves. Nobody makes such small cars anymore.
Even if you redesigned the curves to allow for Mark 2s to run on the tracks, and made the necessary changes to allow for Mark 2s to run, it would still be cheaper than redesigning the entire line modify the entire lines to support low floor LRVs like what was proposed in Transit City. With that plan you'd have to replace every single station with a low floor station which would require replacing escalators, elevators, or completely modifying the track. Like many things in Transit City, it was a plan that was extremely poorly thought out and was more of a product of a politician pushing his own ideals rather than studies showing if its possible or make financial sense.
 
As someone who lives in Scarborough, I struggle to believe that it had support anywhere close to what the subway has, whether it is warranted is another question (I don't think it is).

It doesn't really matter what you or I believe - plenty of polls showed strong support for the LRT.

Yes, and the LRT would be worse than the RT in nearly every way - while costing a lot.

How is it worse than the RT in nearly every way?
 
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