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spmarshall
Guest
ICTS has proven itself in places like London's Docklands and Vancouver. All that's proven in Toronto is that something better is warranted given crowding and reliability issues.
Right, ICTS technology wouldn't be useless if it was all over the city, but that's not a good reason to expand it...the subway is the only real option.
Yes but what you fail to understand is that while everyone is holding out on hope and whims for the construction of a subway extension which may never mateialize, in the meantime we could have been adjusting and adapting to modern solutions like building a fleet/series of ELRT hybrid technology across the city landscape.
I don't know why you think this network will be so cheap and easy. The TTC has proposed spending over half a billion dollars to upgrade the SRT, and even a bare bones city-wide network of LRT of any sort will cost much, much more.
500 million is alot yes and could go towards several projects (Sherway, Queen, DRL, Eglinton, Centrepoint) but it's not alot in constrast to upwards 2 billion a subway would cost and comprise several negatives I've previously listed.
platform screen doors (since the trains stop at almost exactly the same spot at each station), etc.
Oh socialwoe read the SRT report, that's why he's fallen hook, line, and sinker for the idea that $500M "leaves money available for other projects" while $1.2B "preempts other projects," as if there's exactly $1B lying around waiting to be spent.
Well in all fairness, the longer we delay on the blind notion that subway conversion is higher than probably the TTC's fifth priority, the more expensive things will cost.
And for the umteenth time, I don't mind BD heading to STC, just in the same alignment run on the surface.
Using the SRT only guarantees the areas beyond STC get something too, which is far mor than what your suggestion offers.
I stress again not every commuter through Scarborough wants or needs STC.
Giving these 000s alternatives (independently run Sheppard and Eglinton to serve the southeast bloc) only improves Scarborough transit on a larger scale.
The Milliken area has over 100,000 people, Malvern has 60,000...does Malvern deserve rapid transit more than other larger areas because they're "underprivileged"?
Who says the TTC is right? They move like molasses and have the creativity of a block of cement. It's not like light rail costs aren't going up, either. $500M+ is a ridiculous amount of money to waste on an SRT "upgrade" when an infinitely better option costs only slightly more than double.
And again, there's absolutely no reason why it must go along that alignment. Maybe it's better than going through Brimley & Lawrence where there's nothing but bungalows, but the Brimley & Lawrence option would be cheaper and more direct to STC...and most people use the RT to go downtown from STC.
The McCowan alignment may also serve more people better than the RT alignment (STC passengers + 54 transfers; those two groups make up almost the entire ridership), not to mention it'll be able to utilize the existing Kennedy station as is.
Midland and Ellesmere stations are expendable, especially since an extended Sheppard subway would have stops very close by.
Using SRT guarantees them nothing but an additional transfer and all the other wonderful quirks of the RT. The $500M+ does not include extensions beyond STC.
If extended, the SRT replacement will probably end up costing about as much as a subway extension, only Scarborough residents will get a superior technology and the respect that a serious investment brings after a generation of disrespect.
When you say "beyond STC" you mean Malvern, yet less than half of the RT's riders end up in Malvern and building rapid transit there is a slap in the face to people in Milliken and along Ellesmere, none of whom benefit in the slightest from rapid transit to Malvern that will be criminally underused. The Milliken area has over 100,000 people, Malvern has 60,000...does Malvern deserve rapid transit more than other larger areas because they're "underprivileged"?
You're just so stupidly obtuse. The RT replacement process doesn't affect anyone south of Eglinton or west of Kennedy. For everyone from Midland to UTSC, including all of Malvern, a route that goes through STC is the most direct path to downtown via the TTC.
For those not going downtown, the hub at STC gives them the opportunity to transfer to a dozen other bus routes, or the ability to get to the only real mall in Scarborough. It's called Scarborough Town Centre for a reason.
So you'd rather wait for those funds to materialize
No matter what you say, you can't convince me the houses, yes houses, that lie in the diagonal path from Kennedy to STC won't have to be bulldozed for the subway.
Why you think only parking spaces, not buildings are over the path of BD?
Also what a bigger waste of money it'd be to throw away 22 years worth of history not to mention to have to build stations and tunnels from scratch.
Yes the 54 reaching the subway sooner would benefit someone from Rouge Hill but this also would obliverate any chance of a Morningside/Lawrence subway since the TTC is only so gracious to find excuses not to build anything.
The problem with Ellesmere/Midland is the split of passengers between the two.
Elimination of the Ellesmere area stops only placates into the STC-bound Sheppard proposal.
A generation of disrespect when the STC at the time was just a vacant lot? No wonder you think VCC will be a winner! Respect for Scarborough would be decentralization of investments, consolidating all developments in STC is why you object to the other nodal zones getting subways/RTs of their own. Eglinton-Lawrence has potential as does Sheppard East.
-9 routes head into Malvern, 4 of which originate from STC.
-Malvern's geopolitical importance as the cut-off NE corner of the city, surpasses present-day population census as a determining factor
Oh and I know people who use STC everyday and only have been inside the mall once or twice a year.
Oh and I know people who use STC everyday and only have been inside the mall once or twice a year.
I know someone that wasted an afternoon making a terrible subway fantasy map.