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Eglinton East LRT | Metrolinx

My first comment is "what's wrong with articulated BRT in dedicated lanes with priority signals"?
Have you every ridden a triple Articulated Bus????
 
A seasonal bus shuttle running from McCowan-Sheppard or Scarborough Centre to Toronto Zoo with a stop at Morningside would make way more sense. There just isn't a high demand for a 3.5 km LRT extension for which its ridership is reliant on a single point of interest with nothing else in the area.

300px-Toronto_Transit_Commission_route_194_map_%282003%29-a.gif

From CPTDB: February 25, 2004 - Due to unacceptable financial performance, staff received a report recommending that future operation of the 194 Zoo Rocket to be discontinued during the TTC Board Meeting.[1] This recommendation was rejected but the Commission directed staff to "maintain Saturday and Sunday service on the 194 ZOO ROCKET for one more summer, including improved advertising of the route".

It was discontinued that summer. But it tells us that if a bus has terrible ridership, an LRT branch to the Zoo would be a terrible idea. at the very least, should be on the low-low list of priorities we have.
What were the service levels like for the zoo rocket? What was the duration of the trip?
 
It's been a while since I read this, so I may be misremembering, but I seem to recall that prior to the King and Spadina night cars being instituted, there were claims that it wouldn't be possible to do because, outside of Friday/Saturday nights, there was insufficient demand for the service, being paralleled by the Queen and Bathurst night routes, and some sort of arrangement with the union made it so that it wasn't possible to have a special schedule done up for a route to exist only two days of the week.

And yet, that's exactly what happened with the 194 in its second year of operation. It only ran weekends and holidays while the Zoo was open. Was I misinformed as to the existence of this arrangement? If not, how come an exception was made for the 194?
 
Yes, in Barcelona and it was awesome:

I found them wiped lash in Hamburg and reused to ride the 3 section after my first trip in the rear.
 
It's been a while since I read this, so I may be misremembering, but I seem to recall that prior to the King and Spadina night cars being instituted, there were claims that it wouldn't be possible to do because, outside of Friday/Saturday nights, there was insufficient demand for the service, being paralleled by the Queen and Bathurst night routes, and some sort of arrangement with the union made it so that it wasn't possible to have a special schedule done up for a route to exist only two days of the week.

And yet, that's exactly what happened with the 194 in its second year of operation. It only ran weekends and holidays while the Zoo was open. Was I misinformed as to the existence of this arrangement? If not, how come an exception was made for the 194?

no idea about the reality of any specific claims, but that’s the kind of thing that absolutely does change between contracts.
 
So close, yet no spur to the zoo?
If their proposed (as noted in the 2022 Master Plan) maglev does move forward, you could theoretically have a spur go through the proposed yard with a cross-platform connection down in the valley. That would require a lot less track work, but be much more disruptive to the park. You might also be able to get away with a single track along Morningside, depending on the frequency. Single track might allow you to keep it on the west side of the right of way and allow you to use the existing bridge
zoo lrt.png
 
I’d be inclined to think that given no plans for LRT service east of Mornginside are in the current iteration that the most realistic approach would be to hold off on the Zoo until a Meadowvale extension (which I’d suggest should itself wait until it can be funded south to Rouge Hill) with an extension to whatever internal system the Zoo ends up doing on the west side of Meadowvale (as shown above for an LRT spur option). Slightly longer extension to the Zoo system, but less dedicated Zoo infrastructure and service on the TTC project and probably more compatible with actual zoo peoplemover operations (as in much easier to separate the internal circulator and peoplemover ops).
 
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