I doubt it. The DRL would have high ridership, but it would not increase total system ridership as much as the Transit City lines will. The DRL will merely shift riders from the east who want to avoid Yonge-Bloor to a different interchange. It's really an addition of capacity to address a specific constraint: the limits of Yonge-Bloor. It's quite likely that if upgrading Yonge-Bloor wasn't a half billion dollar engineering nightmare, the DRL would be even more of a fantasy than it is today.
Once again CC, spot on. The problem with Transit City is not the fact that it uses LRT but where it uses it. At-grade LRT is really a capacity increase over a bus, not an increase in speed. So it's inadequate for Sheppard East when what Scarborough residents want is speed. Likewise, for the current SRT corridor where we need both increased capacity and speed (in part by reducing transfers and stops).
For Eglinton though, it should be noted that the tunneled portion of the line is for all intents and purposes a subway. It covers a significant portion of the old Eglinton west subway and it extends that to the east. There are challenges to be addressed for sure. However, we should understand what's being built on Eglinton. Just because its not HRT does not mean its not a subway. The LRVs will be longer than our subway cars. They will be the same width as Montreal's subway cars. The vehicles will be in a tunnel and with stop spacing (850m) approaching that of the Bloor-Danforth line. The LRVs will also be nearly as fast as our subway cars. How is that not a 'subway'? People should be reasonable in their critiques.
Criticisms should be directed where pertinent. Here's mine: The concern I have is over how the TTC will manage this line. What we have here are essentially three lines on one corridor. There is the tunelled portion which is a subway....heck, the vehicles are good enough to be Montreal subway cars. The east and western ends of the 'subway' have local LRT with stop spacing that is nearly half of what it is in the tunnel. I am worried over how the TTC will manage the line to avoid bunching, problems with blockages, etc. Problems on the local lines will impact the 'subway'. That's the problem.