Monorail for Toronto

[Automation Gallery]

This thread has run its course .

Hahaha, i doubt it with over 25.000 views...the way i see it, there are many closet case monorail admirers on this forum that are worried to post because of getting lashed and ignored by certain stubborn elite forumers that also believe that their vision of transportation for Toronto is the only way to proceed, and that anything other wise planned for this city is water under the bridge.

Come-on, everything now-a-days here is about LRT, LRT, LRT.....
Gee, how times change... when just a couple years ago under "his blondess" the same people were disapointed that LRT (right-of-way systems) were being proposed over other means of transportation.

 

[leopetr]

I would strongly OPPOSE any tonka-toy circular route that I fear the Portlands Monorail may become.

Surprise:

Taken from GraphicMatt's site.

 

[Electrify]

Actually looks quite promising. For better or worse, it looks to be a 'light' monorail (ex: Palm Jumeirah, Kuala Lumpur) rather than a 'heavy' monorail (ex: Tokyo, Chongqing). Still, it looks like it could be a very promising rapid transit line, and if successful, could actually get the ball rolling for more monorail transit lines in the developed world! Also, I believe we are much more likely to see this line become a reality than the Sheppard subway extension.

 

[Tuscani01]

Thats not a 'Tonka Toy Circular Route'. Its actually a great routing. Vancouver has a loop in its system, as does the Mississauga/Brampton LRT plan along Hurontario that is simiar to this.

 

[leopetr]

Actually looks quite promising. For better or worse, it looks to be a 'light' monorail (ex: Palm Jumeirah, Kuala Lumpur) rather than a 'heavy' monorail (ex: Tokyo, Chongqing). Still, it looks like it could be a very promising rapid transit line, and if successful, could actually get the ball rolling for more monorail transit lines in the developed world! Also, I believe we are much more likely to see this line become a reality than the Sheppard subway extension.

Or we could just build the Queens Quay East, Cherry St, and so on streetcar lines as planned for less money and the same if not greater capacity. It even connects to the new streetcar garage.

Don't tell me that something that requires two elevators and two escalators per station is cheaper than something that requires tracks on the street and some cement.

 

[Marko]

Actually looks quite promising. For better or worse, it looks to be a 'light' monorail (ex: Moscow, Kuala Lumpur) rather than a 'heavy' monorail (ex: Tokyo, Chongqing). Still, it looks like it could be a very promising rapid transit line, and if successful, could actually get the ball rolling for more monorail transit lines in the developed world!

If it's 'monorail' at all and not some other form of elevated transit. It could drop to ground level through the portlands and be elevated only through the portion that extends west along Lakeshore through to Union Station (and beyond). If it does continue west from Union, there would probably be a stop to service the CN Tower/Aquarium/Dome and then another one for Cityplace, followed by the Direct Energy Centre/BMO and a termination at Ontario Place. That if has a loop on the port lands end doesn't make it a Tonka toy system since it's not simply circling one enclosed theme park or something, but rounding the area and then connecting them west to the transit hub of the entire GTA.

Also, I believe we are much more likely to see this line become a reality than the Sheppard subway extension.

Never though of it that way, but you're probably right. It could eventually move a whole lot more people too.

 

[leopetr]

Thats not a 'Tonka Toy Circular Route'. Its actually a great routing.

Do you build it before the condos and hemorrhage money operating it at acceptable frequencies (more frequently than once every two hours during rush hour on weekdays) while there's no demand or wait to build it until after the condos are ready?

I suppose Plan B is better because by then the Fords will be an unhappy memory and we can just dust off Waterfront Toronto's sensible plan for a streetcar line instead.

 

[nfitz]

Given what's on the map, I don't know why you just wouldn't take the planned LRT and simply elevate it. Then it could share facilities with the existing infrastructure.

If any Ford asks, you'd just tell them that it's a monorail when it's in the air, an LRT on the ground, and that you don't add the third rail until it's underground ...

 

[CapitalSeven]

A few questions about this. First off, is the the actual proposal?

The Union stop would seem to be at the south edge of the trainshed, filling nearly the entire space between the it and the AC Centre. How do we get up to the monorail, since there are railway tracks there? Climb out a window of the small office tower?

Then the track runs in the space between the railway berm and the Gardiner. So, it's not about tearing down barriers to the waterfront now, it's about building new ones so that we can, umm, go shopping, two miles away. Just a minute, isn't the Eaton centre a ten minute walk? Isn't a mall being built under Union Station even as we type?

One of the "several alignment options" (just two are listed, though) is integrated with development on Queen's Quay. Either that means whooshing through building lobbies (unlikely) or squatting over the sidewalk like the Canada Line in Vancouver. I actually think the latter is not a bad compromise for a suburban arterial. How glad will we be to see it sprout on the Toronto waterfront? And how would it get across the Gardiner, apart from doing a very good rollercoaster impersonation? By the way, where are the remaining several options? Too horrible to actually describe?

Does the fact that this line ends up at the new carhouse mean that it is an elevated LRT line, or does it mean that the carhouse has been repurposed as an LRT depot? It can't do both. It's only going to be big enough for maintenance facilities plus storage for half of the new LRVs. But the pictures clearly indicate monorail. Does this mean the monorail will be paid for by cancelling the new streetcars? (Let the commie latte pinkos ride buses.)

I can see where this is coming from. East Bayfront is being built by Waterfront Toronto. Let's sacrifice it on the altar of making a quick buck by selling the Portlands to plug the budget deficit for a year or two.

 

[drum118]

The Monorail for the Portland is basely following the 2006 Master EA plan for LRT.

The EA call for the Unwin line going east to Leslie St and north to Queen St.

The line going west of Cherry St that will line up with the existing QQ line at Bay St.

Cherry St ran north to King St.

There is a Broadview line extending south of Queen St that connects to both Commissioner and Unwin Line.

 

[nfitz]

The Monorail for the Portland is basely following the 2006 Master EA plan for LRT.

The 2006 Master Plan had the LRT running along along the south edge of Union Station, and then along the edge of Lake Shore to Cherry?

 

[Automation Gallery]

If it does continue west from Union, there would probably be a stop to service the CN Tower/Aquarium/Dome and then another one for Cityplace, followed by the Direct Energy Centre/BMO and a termination at Ontario Place.

Dont forget that it can continue west to service South Parkdale, Sunnyside, High Park, and eventually the Etobicke Lakeshore waterfront...which would include Humber Bay Park west to Colonel Samuel Smith Park.

 

[Justin10000]

Or we could just build the Queens Quay East, Cherry St, and so on streetcar lines as planned for less money and the same if not greater capacity. It even connects to the new streetcar garage.

Don't tell me that something that requires two elevators and two escalators per station is cheaper than something that requires tracks on the street and some cement.

No, no. We need a joke of a transit line to go with the joke that is the Ford plan.

 

[ssiguy2]

I thought we had grown up and moved beyond the Simpson's song?

No boys, listen clearly......................I am VERY much against such a ridiculous monorail line. Why?..........good god let me count the ways.
First, monorail for an urban setting should rapid and this won't be as it has far too many stations.
Second, the first section from Union to the DVP is fine but after that it is a ridiculous little meandering one-way route.
Third, it's going to cost a small fortune with that many stations. There are stations every two blocks and they must grade separated. Monorail, like subways and SkyTrain is a grade separated transportation system. Iy can run at grade but must have 100% separation as you cannot drive over monorail tracks.

This is the most ridiculous, ill thought out, expensive, and slowest proposal Ford could have come up with. This is not only a ineffectual transit line but is going to end up being a bloody expensive one. The only redeeming point is that with that number of stations the cost per km will be so obscenly high that no one in their right mind would invest in it.
If it were to be a direct line from Union thru the Portland to Ashbridge with 3 fewer stations thru the Portland section itself it could work very well. This would also allow for an interlining {although thhat's a four letter word with the manderines at the TTC} for a DRL with it verging north after the DVP using the existing GO rail ROW.
A childish, mickey-mouse, tonka-toy proposal which should be resisted with vigour unless it does generally the route I describe. Like I said thou, this will be so incredibly expensive it will never get built with any private investment.

 

[SlickFranky]

No need to get worked up...it's a fictional "plan" anyway. It's more of a conceptual representation of what the Glory of Private Money can provide. Someone assumed that yokels would think 'ooooh, monorails are futuristic and coooool' so it made the "plan".

BTW, you've referred to people as "manderines" several times here before....what are you trying to say? 'Cuz unless you're calling TTC exec's Chinese I really have no clue what you're going for there.