doesn't change the fact that we are spending $4 billion on a 10km long tunnel (longer than Scarborough) for a transit line that will peak at roughly half the demand during rush hour.
Reminder of current and projected demands for different projects:
Line 1 today: 28,000
Line 2 today: 22,000
Full DRL (Eglinton to Dundas West): 14,000
Yonge extension to Highway 7: 11,500
DRL phase 1: 11,000
Scarborough Subway: 9,500 - 11,000
Spadina Extension: 7,500
Fully built Sheppard subway: 6,500 - 7,000
Eglinton LRT: 5,600
Sheppard / Finch LRT: somewhere around 3,000
Eglinton: In a perfect would it would be scrapped, but this is the only way to get higher order transit on the corridor.
Spadina: Most of the extension should be scrapped
Sheppard: Scrap it
Scarborough: Scrap it
DRL: Reevaluate taking into account RER alternatives and consider scrapping. However it shouldn't be scrapped if Yonge North is built
Yonge North: build it
Honourable mention:
John Tory's Eglinton West Subway: KILL IT WITH FIRE. Die!
Comparing Eglinton to Scarb is a little nonsensical. Unlike Scarborough, Eglinton does not have a plethora of cheap rapid transit corridors at our disposal. If it did, then the Eglinton Crosstown should be immediately scrapped. Unfortunately Eglinton is too important a corridor to go without higher order transit.
Usage on Spadina is low and I think we would have been better off terminating the line at a Finch West (only because it serves as relief for Yonge and the FWLRT). Vaughan Centre could be served by RER.
Sheppard Subway is the most wasteful municipal project in recent history in Toronto. Should have never been built.
Usage on the Scarborough Subway is low and there are cheaper alternatives available. The 11,000 pphpd estimation appears to be conviniently fudged by assuming that thousands of Markham residents will use the line, rather than using the more convinient RER rapid transit lines in Markham. Also, the 9,000 and 11,000 pphpd estimations fail to take into account two of the new rapid transit lines that run through Scarb. This will certainly reduce actual usage on the subway. Assuming that RER is built as planned, this subway will be in the same league as Sheppard in terms of wastefulness.
The DRL certainly needs to be built with Yonge North. Without Yonge North, we should consider cheaper RER alternatives. But RER probably won't provide the relief or coverage we're looking for, so RL will still need to be built.