Finch West Line 6 LRT

[GenerationW]

Come on, there was support to kill the FWLRT on council. This is because they don't like the LRT's. And they are not the only one's in the city that feel this way.

If the province wanted to prioritize the FWLRT, especially after the transit file was taken away from Ford in 2012, they could have done so. And from what I've been reading, it seems as if the biggest stumbling block may have been that Glen Murray wasn't sold on LRTs.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

If the province wanted to prioritize the FWLRT, especially after the transit file was taken away from Ford in 2012, they could have done so. And from what I've been reading, it seems as if the biggest stumbling block may have been that Glen Murray wasn't sold on LRTs.

Wow, we agree!!!

But seriously, you're right and I would go as far to say Glen Murray is why UPX is getting built not the western leg of Eglinton or have the DRL start. The Liberal platform said "transit solutions" on Sheppard East and Finch West during the election. It may be that. Or you may be right, we will end up with no LRTs, no DRL but Yonge North and Sheppard to STC, in which case says more about the people then Ford or Murray tbh.

 

[datamouse]

I still don't get why the Finch LRT will be given the number of Line 7 when it's due to open before Sheppard which will be given Line 6.

 

[dowlingm]

It seems to me the biggest yellers along Finch aren't residents but businesses, who write the sort of large cheques a guy like Mammoliti likes to get. If Finch West is so truck clogged, perhaps alternative transportation strategies are needed to determine where these companies are shipping from and to - perhaps they are the ones who should be using a hydro corridor access way rather than transit.

 

[dowlingm]

If the province wanted to prioritize the FWLRT, especially after the transit file was taken away from Ford in 2012, they could have done so. And from what I've been reading, it seems as if the biggest stumbling block may have been that Glen Murray wasn't sold on LRTs.

or Michael Schabas wasn't.

 

[gweed123]

I think you guys overestimate the power the mayor of Toronto has over this stuff...

The mayor is only one vote on city council and even if council wants something, they may not get it, it's up to Metrolinx & the province to decide whether they want to listen or not.

What the current transit plan looks like now is almost nothing like what the current mayor's election platform was in 2010.

Ford may only be 1 vote, but he had the influence to grind transit expansion to a near-complete halt for 4 years. No reason to think a future mayor won't be able to do the same, although hopefully the influence will be positive instead of negative.

 

[ehlow]

Ford may only be 1 vote, but he had the influence to grind transit expansion to a near-complete halt for 4 years. No reason to think a future mayor won't be able to do the same, although hopefully the influence will be positive instead of negative.

Right, but it was with the provinces co-operation that he was able to do that, and it did get reversed later.

And when he did do his MOU plan with the province, it didn't look very much like his original transit plan. The MOU plan had Eglinton as a fully underground LRT, but in his campaign plan Eglinton would've been cancelled. The MOU plan had the SRT converted to LRT and through-routed with Eglinton, but his original plan was replacing it with the Bloor extension. Not to mention all this was reversed when he couldn't get council support.

My only point is that just because a mayor promises something and is elected, it doesn't automatically mean that that's the new metrolinx plan.

 

[nfitz]

I still don't get why the Finch LRT will be given the number of Line 7 when it's due to open before Sheppard which will be given Line 6.

I'd suspect mostly because the dates keep changing. I don't think 6 and 7 are locked yet. Though look at Montreal. Right at the beginning they opened Line 1, 2, and 4. Line 3 (converting the CN Mount Royal Tunnel into metro-like frequencies) never happened. And yet when they built the next line, it became Line 5. When they briefly added the Pie-IX line (white line) to the maps in the metro cars it became Line 7, because Line 6 was to be the LRT east from the east end of the Green Line.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

It seems to me the biggest yellers along Finch aren't residents but businesses, who write the sort of large cheques a guy like Mammoliti likes to get. If Finch West is so truck clogged, perhaps alternative transportation strategies are needed to determine where these companies are shipping from and to - perhaps they are the ones who should be using a hydro corridor access way rather than transit.

That's interesting because there are not that many businesses to be that influential.

 

[W. K. Lis]

That's interesting because there are not that many businesses to be that influential.

I'm guessing that the Albion Centre (Albion & Finch West) don't like it because commuters may try to park in their free (at the moment) parking lot before hopping on the light rail to the subway. They'll have to really enforce their parking time limits.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

I'm guessing that the Albion Centre (Albion & Finch West) don't like it because commuters may try to park in their free (at the moment) parking lot before hopping on the light rail to the subway. They'll have to really enforce their parking time limits.

Of course. But if it was subway it would be even worse. Imagine Sheppard west going from from Sheppard West Station to Keele, Jane, 427, Interchange, and then crossing the Humber to stop at Thisletown (Weston-Islington) and then Albion Centre. The place would be packed by 7:30 am.

 

[W. K. Lis]

CodeRedTo has an interesting article on

Finch West residents need the full 10km of Rapid Transit as planned

at this link.

After reviewing reports from the City of Toronto and Metrolinx, our key findings:

• Given the current $1.2 billion budget committed by the province of Ontario, only about 3km of subway could be built, as opposed to about 10km of modern light rail transit (LRT).
• If only 3km of subway were to be built, it would not cross highway 400 into Etobicoke at all, and have just two new stations.
• The Finch West LRT project already has a completed Environmental Assessment, and will be under construction from approximately 2017-2020. Any subway would require at least 2-4 more years before construction could begin, with all planning starting from scratch.
• The City of Toronto and Metrolinx have a signed legal agreement to deliver this LRT line that includes the province paying for all construction costs. Any change to another mode would require renegotiation and penalties due to contract cancellation with suppliers.

 

[andrewpmk]

This article doesn't exactly come from an unbiased source.

From what I can tell it would be perfectly possible to build a subway in the hydro corridor from Yonge to 400 for low cost. West of the 400 the hydro corridor turns southwest and can't be used. I admit that I can't exactly see a tunneled subway being built west of 400 because it is too expensive.

I think that the Finch LRT and the much worse Sheppard LRT are dead because the leading candidate for mayor (John Tory) wants to cancel them. I think that Finch will be stuck with buses for the foreseeable future.

 

[robmausser]

This article doesn't exactly come from an unbiased source.

From what I can tell it would be perfectly possible to build a subway in the hydro corridor from Yonge to 400 for low cost. West of the 400 the hydro corridor turns southwest and can't be used. I admit that I can't exactly see a tunneled subway being built west of 400 because it is too expensive.

I think that the Finch LRT and the much worse Sheppard LRT are dead because the leading candidate for mayor (John Tory) wants to cancel them. I think that Finch will be stuck with buses for the foreseeable future.

My friend is John Torys campaign manager, he does not want to cancel them. That is a misunderstanding and reappropriation of what he said by his opponents.

 

[andrewpmk]

My friend is John Torys campaign manager, he does not want to cancel them. That is a misunderstanding and reappropriation of what he said by his opponents.

Notice that they are conspicuously absent from John Tory's "SmartTrack" map?

I also recall an article on Huffington Post, responding to Olivia Chow attacking Tory for wanting to cancel these lines. It claims that Tory is against Finch/Sheppard LRT because they will overload the Yonge line.

I'm pretty sure that Tory is trying to go after Ford supporters to some extent (Kouvalis) so he is against all the non-Eglinton LRT lines. As far as I can tell both Tory and the provincial government want to reallocate this funding to GO expansion, because this will suck up almost all transit funding for the foreseeable future. I can't see Tory having the same problems getting council to vote his way like Rob Ford did.