[nfitz]

It serves Crescent Town on a diagonal alignment. One can see the advantage of such an alignment, regardless of whether or not it was planned to serve Crescent Town originally.

There are some advantages to such an alignment ... it's frequently quicker to take the subway in that direction than drive, even in good traffic. But Crescent Town, on the very edge of that curve, is hardly an example.

The disadvantage is that it fails to serve the denser developments on Danforth Avenue or Danforth Road, and rather than serve the local community becomes a much more suburban type express system.

 

[Conrad Black]

Still could have connected easier to the rail line. Its too far to do at Crescent Town.

 

[ShonTron]

It leaves Danforth and serves Crescent Town but I'm not sure it leaves to serve Crescent Town. The station was built a year or two before the buildings IIRC. They could have had the subsequent development plans in mind, but then I think there were also supposed to be towers south of Danforth as well—that's where the Scarborough Expressway would have run. A subway at Danforth could have served both. Leaving Danforth probably has more to do with connecting to the old railway alignment used for the above-ground stretch of the line.

The alignment left Danforth Avenue east of Main Street so it could follow the former Canadian Northern Railway corridor - a useful alignment that allowed the subway to serve Scarborough the best way possible - to get as many buses as it could to feed into it by heading northeast to Warden and St. Clair (and later to Kennedy and Eglinton.)

 

[Electrify]

I think one problem with the Spadina line is the stop at Glencairn. Besides the fact that it is underused, it slows the train down too much to compete with Allen Rd. "Rapid transit" as an abstract tend to be faster than arterial roads, but slower than thoroughfares. This is why such services tend to operate along or near city streets rather than along highways. If the Glencairn stop was removed, the line could pick up extra speed and become competitive northbound (southbound it is naturally competitive due to the buildup at Eglinton).

Ideally it would only stop at Eglonton West, Yorkdale, and Downsview (or at least an express branch would) using the highway as an express conduit between The Annex/downtown and Downsview/York University areas, but that is unlikely to happen for obvious reasons. However the removal of Glencairn could work.

 

[ShonTron]

Glencairn is still busier than Summerhill, Old Mill, Leslie, Bessarion and three of the six SRT stops. Rosedale and Chester are only slightly busier.
The lousy 14 Glencairn bus doesn't contribute much ridership; I expect it's mostly walk-ups from the west (Marlee Avenue); to the east, it's becoming predominately EFIS-clad McMansions.

I only hate Glencairn as I was dumped there more often than I care to remember thanks to trains short turning at the crossover/pocket track to the immediate north of the station.

 

[ksun]

I have never seen more than 3 people entering/exiting a subway car at Summerhill station. We should just have one stop at McPherson between Bloor and St Clair. Do people living at the Rosedale valley really take the subway?

I guess building stations is very expensive. I wonder why Toronto chose to build so many closely spaced stations along the BD line, instead of fewer stations, and using the saved money to build another line serving somewhere else.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

I guess based of this situation there will be no stop at Brimley on the BD extension.

 

[nfitz]

I guess based of this situation there will be no stop at Brimley on the BD extension.

I'd expect there would be ... give it is also the intersection of Eglinton East and Danforth Road. For people travelling east from the east, it's about 1.5 km closer than Kennedy station. I'd think it would be quite well used - there's several routes that run along Eglinton from Kennedy station to Brimley.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

I think one problem with the Spadina line is the stop at Glencairn. Besides the fact that it is underused, it slows the train down too much to compete with Allen Rd. "Rapid transit" as an abstract tend to be faster than arterial roads, but slower than thoroughfares. This is why such services tend to operate along or near city streets rather than along highways. If the Glencairn stop was removed, the line could pick up extra speed and become competitive northbound (southbound it is naturally competitive due to the buildup at Eglinton).

Ideally it would only stop at Eglonton West, Yorkdale, and Downsview (or at least an express branch would) using the highway as an express conduit between The Annex/downtown and Downsview/York University areas, but that is unlikely to happen for obvious reasons. However the removal of Glencairn could work.

I agree that Glencarin in underused.

But why remove Wilson? IIRC that's a heavily used station, with many critical bus connections. I'd rather kill Yorkdale station that Wilson. At least Yorkdale doesn't have any important bus connections.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

I have never seen more than 3 people entering/exiting a subway car at Summerhill station. We should just have one stop at McPherson between Bloor and St Clair. Do people living at the Rosedale valley really take the subway?

I guess building stations is very expensive. I wonder why Toronto chose to build so many closely spaced stations along the BD line, instead of fewer stations, and using the saved money to build another line serving somewhere else.

Because back then subways were cheap.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

Glencairn is still busier than Summerhill, Old Mill, Leslie, Bessarion and three of the six SRT stops. Rosedale and Chester are only slightly busier.
The lousy 14 Glencairn bus doesn't contribute much ridership; I expect it's mostly walk-ups from the west (Marlee Avenue); to the east, it's becoming predominately EFIS-clad McMansions.

I only hate Glencairn as I was dumped there more often than I care to remember thanks to trains short turning at the crossover/pocket track to the immediate north of the station.

Glencarin: Almost as bad as Sheppard Subway

#KillGlencain2k14

 

[mrxbombastic]

At least Yorkdale doesn't have any important bus connections.

Except for the GO Bus terminal and Private coach companies ;P

 

[Electrify]

I agree that Glencarin in underused.

But why remove Wilson? IIRC that's a heavily used station, with many critical bus connections. I'd rather kill Yorkdale station that Wilson. At least Yorkdale doesn't have any important bus connections.

What mrxbombastic said.

I was referring to when the line was originally built though, which I'll admit I didn't make very clear. Ideally they would have had it go all the way to York, with express like stopping patterns along the Allen corridor. Today the only stop that could potentially be removed is Glencairn, and as ShonTron pointed out even then there are others which should arguably get the axe before hand.

 

[salsa]

If the Glencairn stop was removed, the line could pick up extra speed and become competitive northbound (southbound it is naturally competitive due to the buildup at Eglinton).

Removing Glencairn will only save you about a minute, which is hardly a groundbreaking improvement to speed and competitiveness.

I agree that Glencarin in underused.

But why remove Wilson? IIRC that's a heavily used station, with many critical bus connections. I'd rather kill Yorkdale station that Wilson. At least Yorkdale doesn't have any important bus connections.

Yorkdale is the busiest station on the Spadina line.

Wilson: 23,420
Yorkdale: 29,080

 

[ehlow]

I agree that Glencarin in underused.

But why remove Wilson? IIRC that's a heavily used station, with many critical bus connections. I'd rather kill Yorkdale station that Wilson. At least Yorkdale doesn't have any important bus connections.

Yorkdale gets decent/good ridership:
http://www.ttc.ca/PDF/Transit_Planning/Subway_ridership_2012-2013.pdf

There's also a regional (GO & Greyhound) bus terminal there.