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Ontario Line Extension West of Ontario Place (Speculation)

^How does the Waterfront LRT fit into this plan for a relief line that extends west rather than north? How does this idea provide relief by reducing crowding at Yonge & Bloor?

I haven’t studied maps of population density, employment, income, development potential, etc. for the westward proposal but my gut says a northern trajectory (that intersects with Bloor around Dundas) will be far more beneficial to our City.

How about this: relief line west continuing west along queen into etobicoke and a second north/south line on dufferin from bloor to exhibition
 
WWLRT, we're not sure when or if it will be built. Same with this. But, if the Waterfront LRT is built, it will be intresting what will be the western terminus for the DRL west extention.
Probably Sunnyside (Roncesvalles).

^How does the Waterfront LRT fit into this plan for a relief line that extends west rather than north? How does this idea provide relief by reducing crowding at Yonge & Bloor?

I haven’t studied maps of population density, employment, income, development potential, etc. for the westward proposal but my gut says a northern trajectory (that intersects with Bloor around Dundas) will be far more beneficial to our City.
Few things.

A) We are moving forward with GO-RER and SmartTrack on that same corridor. Ideally, with fare integration, Bloor and Dundas will be well serviced.
B) Bloor-Yonge is relieved from the east, not the west. The Spadina Line is already the western "Relief Line".
C) Development potential in South Etobicoke is much higher than the stable neighbourhoods of the old city of Toronto that we refuse to touch for political reasons. Those peripheral downtown areas are also already transit rich, if you ask me.

In terms of population density and development activity, Dufferin is IMO a clearer winner over Dundas West for a northern trajectory, especially considering that the Dufferin bus is already reaching max capacity.

Personally, I think both options of South Etobicoke and a northern trajectory are fine. Our system is under-built, period. We could have an entirely separate line as @mikeydale007 mentioned above, or perhaps branching of the RL West might even be desirable to consider here.

As for Waterfront LRT, I think there are many opportunities there to fit it with the South Etobicoke scheme. Could break it up into separate lines with the Mimico-Long Branch section becoming a feeder into the Relief Line West, or you could have a short duplication of service between Humber Bay and Sunnyside, which I don't think should be frowned upon, it's called network redundancy.
 
As for Waterfront LRT, I think there are many opportunities there to fit it with the South Etobicoke scheme. Could break it up into separate lines with the Mimico-Long Branch section becoming a feeder into the Relief Line West, or you could have a short duplication of service between Humber Bay and Sunnyside, which I don't think should be frowned upon, it's called network redundancy.

I agree 100% with this. Between Humber Bay and Sunnyside is a narrow chokepoint corridor since Swansea is not ideal for through traffic. There needs to be some separated rapid transit from Line 1 to the segregated streetcar ROW at Park Lawn or Sunnyside. It makes much more sense to me to duplicate service south of High Park than to add yet another line to the Dundas West station.
 
I agree 100% with this. Between Humber Bay and Sunnyside is a narrow chokepoint corridor since Swansea is not ideal for through traffic. There needs to be some separated rapid transit from Line 1 to the segregated streetcar ROW at Park Lawn or Sunnyside. It makes much more sense to me to duplicate service south of High Park than to add yet another line to the Dundas West station.

I think they should be seperate lines. Maybe build a station at Park Lawn so people can transfer between them, or offer some transfer-free trips during rush hour ( kind of like how the 501 is where you have to transfer at Humber at some times, go through at others ).
 
So my understanding is that this project got funding to be studied back in 2016 when the Ontario Liberals committed $150 million to advance studies for the whole project. Here is the quote from QP Briefing (a Queen's Park news source used mainly by QP staffers. They're reliable):

ONTARIO COMMITS $150 MILLION FOR PLANNING OF TORONTO’S SUBWAY RELIEF LINE

Metrolinx spokeswoman Anne Marie Aikins told QP Briefing the larger area means studying plans to run the line north of the Bloor-Danforth subway corridor to the Sheppard Subway line and completing the western half of the proposed relief line "U" between downtown and Bloor.
 
So my understanding is that this project got funding to be studied back in 2016 when the Ontario Liberals committed $150 million to advance studies for the whole project. Here is the quote from QP Briefing (a Queen's Park news source used mainly by QP staffers. They're reliable):

ONTARIO COMMITS $150 MILLION FOR PLANNING OF TORONTO’S SUBWAY RELIEF LINE

Hm, but that's two years old. Since that time RL West has apparently dropped from Mlinx's 2041 vision. I was wrong a couple pages back when I said it was in the regional transit plan. Sure it *was*, to be in place by 2031. And it's still in Toronto's plan. But it's pretty well gone from the Prov's radar in favour of subways to wherever. And that was under the Libs. Also think we're behind schedule with the RLN, which leads me to wonder whether the $150M committed was actually *committed*, or "committed" (but not actually committed). Hard to tell with funding promises.

Unfortunate though. An rt line intercepting USRC in the east and west would relieve a lot of pressure coming into Union - on top of doing its thing of relieving Y/B, St George, the surface network, Gardiner and DVP.
 
Jam-packed Dufferin St. is Speeding toward rapid densification

Not an article directly related to the DRL West, but I believe it offers pertinent information on the changing built form of a potential route.

One problem is the busitution happening to the south with buses replacing the 505 DUNDAS & 506 CARLTON streetcars. Hopefully, once the track construction is completed and the full fleet of Flexity Outlooks will help to relieve some pressure there.

To the north is the 26 DUPONT bus. The problem with the 26 DUPONT is that it is very infrequent, compared with the 29 DUFFERIN bus. In addition, the 26 only goes to ST. GEORGE station. They would have to transfer to the 6 BAY (to be renumbered) bus to continue to downtown. The TTC should try extending the BAY bus over to Dufferin Street, to help draw some of the riders.
 
To the north is the 26 DUPONT bus. The problem with the 26 DUPONT is that it is very infrequent, compared with the 29 DUFFERIN bus. In addition, the 26 only goes to ST. GEORGE station. They would have to transfer to the 6 BAY (to be renumbered) bus to continue to downtown. The TTC should try extending the BAY bus over to Dufferin Street, to help draw some of the riders.

As someone who takes the Bay bus daily, it is already so overcrowded below Bloor (with people transferring at Bay Station because they are too lazy to walk to the subway or do not want to transfer at Bloor-Yonge) during rush hour that it is unuseable. I have started to walk home to avoid the frustration despite the route being extremely convenient for me.

This is probably a pipe dream, but the best solution would be to just bring back the Dupont-Bay streetcar route in a segregated lane, and extend it to Dufferin
 
As someone who takes the Bay bus daily, it is already so overcrowded below Bloor (with people transferring at Bay Station because they are too lazy to walk to the subway or do not want to transfer at Bloor-Yonge) during rush hour that it is unuseable. I have started to walk home to avoid the frustration despite the route being extremely convenient for me.

This is probably a pipe dream, but the best solution would be to just bring back the Dupont-Bay streetcar route in a segregated lane, and extend it to Dufferin
Of course it will never happen, but I’d love to see Bay rebuilt with a streetcar on its own ROW from Queen’s Quay up along Davenport and terminating somewhere around Bathurst and Dav. And I guess it has to be said, because Toronto, with sufficient streetcar numbers and vehicle monitoring to deliver frequent, reliable, un-bunched service. Of course, this is a pipe dream. It would cost money governments aren’t prepared to raise. It would be a radical change from how we do things in a city that can’t ever change. And it would -rightly - be characterized as the war on the car. So, business as usual, chaps.
 
Other then the existing buildings (I'm not trying to be dismissive)what is proposed on jane.dufferin on the other hand has proposals from yorkdale to the ex,is the fourth busiest bus route,and is one of the worst streets for cars.
 
The argument that a Dufferin alignment is too close to Line 1 University is valid. But are there any projections of when University south of Bloor will become overycapacity?

IIRC, University is at ~80% capacity southbound at St George during rush. This is before the Line 1 extension to Vaughan, and the opening of Line 5 and 7 which will act as feeders.

How much of this will be offset by SmartTrack via Dundas West?
 
The argument that a Dufferin alignment is too close to Line 1 University is valid. But are there any projections of when University south of Bloor will become overycapacity?

IIRC, University is at ~80% capacity southbound at St George during rush. This is before the Line 1 extension to Vaughan, and the opening of Line 5 and 7 which will act as feeders.

How much of this will be offset by SmartTrack via Dundas West?

They should add a SmartTrack station at Dundas/College/Lansdowne intersection.
 

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