The same people that are designing the LRT would be in charge of designing your hypothetical BRT. If they didn't put them in on one, they won't put them in on the other. If you want heated stations, campaign for heated stations on the LRT.
Yeah, as if to say on-street, road median platforms and stops have the available space necessary to accommodate proper stations. If hypothetical BRT stations are treated as major interchanges same as metro they’ll have heated enclosures at minimum. The primary concern isn’t walk-in traffic, its transfer traffic from other parallel or intersecting routes. The 36, 39, 111, 112 would still exist per the introduction of BRT; BRT just gives long-haul commuters a break, relief from hour-long sojourns aboard local service buses or LRTs to the nearest subway. The overlapping of multiple routes along the single piece of ROW would result in every 90 seconds or better frequency during rush hour. I’m not to be blamed if the perception of BRT you’re getting from the Move Toronto report differs significantly from what I’ve posted all these months. I was not the author.
Flood plains and parklands: where a simple Tim Hortons could never possibly be built, but massive subway stations must.
Yeah, I don’t think you ever heard me advocate for a stop in the flood plain, I’d personally recommend having the subway bypass the Jane intersection and have all Jane buses feed into Mt Dennis Stn.
I wish that transit planning and construction were as simplistic as you imply, I really do. You're talking about building a 32km subway line from scratch. It would involve halting everything, throwing out all the work and planning done and going back to the drawing board, allowing community groups to weigh in, plans to be drawn up, considered and discussed, budgets debated and approved by three levels of government and two transit agencies, and then $15-20b ponied up once adjusted for inflation. Good luck. You're looking at 5-10 years to start and 15-20 years to finish.
I'm sure you and your pals will counter with more pie in the sky dreaming, but the reality is that no government would be able to fund your luxury line for a very long time.
Sheppard East LRT was fast-tracked what it not? Many here have stated they didn’t even realize that an EA process had been pushed through initially. When political will gets behind a plan, it’s a lot easier to manipulate the public to vote in your favor or at least just passively object. If a strong, influential candidate came forward like Jane Pitfield and found a way to navigate the bureaucracy as such to put a major subway project or two on the docket without disrupting the concept of mass transit for every ward, then that person would be viewed as a hero, as someone willing to invest long-term in the growth and sustainability of transit in the city. The people are angry and frustrated. Many view the TTC as a menacing bully whom during a recession is making it more and more difficult for transit riders to afford their system. Business-owners are scared for their livelihoods in the wake of the 512 St Clair fiasco. Residents in many areas are contemplating a move to the 905. And the reliability and speed of their surface routes today are a joke. You can make up as many apologetics for the bureaucracy or the transit agency as you please, but the fact remains, cities of lesser importance than Toronto are managing to fund the build of fully grade-separated or exclusive at-grade ROW RT systems in 2010. Vancouver, Richmond, Quebec City, Gatineau, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Montreal.
The pie in the sky dreaming really starts and finishes with Transit City, IMO, an election campaign scare tactic used to advance the careers and pocket-wealth of the few (private contractors, overpaid consultants, TTC personnel and City Hall, some apartment dwellers) but does little for everyone else. See how 120 kms for $6 billion three years ago became 75 kms for $12 billion today. Yup, let’s see just how much new ridership it’ll actually generate in contrast to new metros. Push come to shove, many might just stay in their automobiles.