Recent content by Rainforest

The planners and the politicians do not talk to each other directly. Responsibility for that coordination rests with the high-level managers at Metrolinx, TTC, or the City's Transportation Department. The planners have to perform the modeling and produce the best results based on their...

The track connection between the Yonge line and Sheppard is for non-revenue moves only. It was never meant to enable any kind of service interlining. With Sheppard being a short stubway and having no yard on its own, that track connection lets the Sheppard trains enter the service in the...

Still not a great design overall. With the amount of money spent, should have added 20% more and build a high-capacity subway line. Not needing that capacity today, or even 15 years from now? True, but what about 50 or 70 years from now. It will be quite hard to boost the capacity even then...

Well that's how it is supposed to be. Even when in street median and subject to traffic lights, but: not competing for space with any other vehicles, and the stop spacing is fairly wide. I am glad if this is going to work on Eglinton. And, still very confused why it can't / doesn't work on...

Yes, Line 5 will be the fastest during the rush hours. Even with the ridiculously slow operation on surface similar to what we see on Line 6. Those slow sections make 40% of the length. The other 60% is tunneled or elevated, and that will make the overall travel time competitive.

Even that is better than nothing. At least, the residents of Finch West would know that their transit has slightly improved, rather than became worse. Is 20 kph enough to justify LRT construction in the other corridors? I'd say, need to do better than 20 kph for that. The existing Finch LRT...

Speed of a true rapid transit line may not be achievable. But at least, this thing needs to run faster than a mixed-traffic bus. The mixed-traffic bus deals with all the same impeding factors: traffic lights, pedestrians wandering across. In addition, the mixed-traffic bus gets blocked by other...

Sadly, this is true. However, it is a good idea to address the TSP improvements first, simply because there exists a political consensus that it has to be done. And then, dependent on the outcome of TSP improvements, the TTC will have to decide if they want to: - Accept the outcome and do...

Removing stops is always controversial, and arguments can be made to keep each particular stop. Well, usually something has to be sacrificed in order to achieve something. The situation as it stands: - Surface LRT Line 6 turned out to be much slower than the forecasts. Those forecasts were the...

Actually, Line 5 has seven stops between Keele and Yonge, while Line 2 has nine stops between Keele and Yonge. Given that both those sections are tunneled, it is makes sense that the number of stops is similar. Yonge to Kennedy, Line 2 is considerably (about 3 km) longer because it runs...

There are several potential strategies for reducing the LRT's wait times. If some of them (shortening the cross-street green phase) can't work, others are still available. You can extend either phase, to increase the chance that the LRV can cross when it is ready to cross; of course that...

Au contraire, my view is that a better TSP and other improvements to the LRT operation should be attempted first. Finch West LRT is a perfect use case, anything that works there should work in other suburban LRT corridors. However, it is hard to plan or fund any new suburban LRTs until and...

St Clair and Spadina are fine. Those routes are short, and therefore their slow speed does not matter much, the total travel times are still acceptable. The needs are different for Finch LRT and for the other contemplated suburban LRTs. Travel distances are 2-3 times longer, a decent speed is...

LRT is the right technology for Finch - based on the experience of other cities that are capable of running their LRTs at a decent speed. However, if the next few months show that we are chronically incapable of operating our LRTs properly, then indeed there will be no new LRT projects launched...

I think both factors can contribute, but the quality of traffic control is more important. Some route designs may be more prone to bunching than others, and thus require more efforts from the dispatchers to avoid bunching. However, a good dispatch + cooperation from the traffic signal control...