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Potential for Hydro Corridor Transitways?

jaycola

jaycola

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In November last year, the first Bus only transitway opened up between Dufferin and Keele. Intended to speed the trip from Downsview Subway to York University, the 6 KM transitway costsomewhere between $30-$40 million to construct.

The project appears to be a success with transit times reduced significantly and potential capacity increased.

Travel times of the 196 have improved significantly, at least on paper. Less buses are providing faster and more frequent service. A service summary from before the completion of the busway required 20 buses for the morning rush on the main 196A branch (Downsview station to York U), every 2 minutes, 15 seconds, with an average speed of 23.3 km/h. In November 2009, 16 buses, running every 2 minutes even, now have an average speed of 32.8 km/h.
Click to expand...
Source: Spacingtoronto.ca

In the Map below, I have outlined some of the major hydro corridors which span the northern part of the city along with a couple routes which intersect the subway at it's outer edges.

Assuming that the cost to construct a bus only transitway at around $5 million per KM, could this not be a cost effective option to move large numbers of people across the city, taking pressure off of the roadways and subway system?

4786475122_2a2811255e_b.jpg
See the map on googlemaps
 
jaycola said:
In the Map below, I have outlined some of the major hydro corridors which span the northern part of the city along with a couple routes which intersect the subway at it's outer edges.
Click to expand...

I don't think the crown corporations which own those corridors (Hydro One presumably) will have much interest in selling or leasing that land. Take a look at GO Transit transactions for railway within Toronto to see what kind of fee they are likely to charge (minimum) for a 99 year lease. That purple Scarborough chunk may well run $500M for a land lease. The city cannot expropriate from a provincial crown corp, nor can the province force them to subsidize the transaction for the city (separate finances, control, and it goes directly against their primary instructions to maximize value of the corporation).
 
From the same Spacing article:

"This is one case in which a bus-only road makes some sense, as the route provides rapid service between very limited points with very little in-between (the busway might qualify as Toronto’s ugliest road, running under hydro towers and between fuel tank farms). But busways are not very well suited to serving neighbourhoods."
 
jaycola said:
Assuming that the cost to construct a bus only transitway at around $5 million per KM
Click to expand...

The cost is only that low when you put traffic lights at intersections. The moment you start thinking of bridges or ditches or any other sort of grade separation, it stops being $5 million. This means that the speed won't be much faster than that of a local bus. It helps buses bypass traffic jam gridlock, but that's about it.

Hydro corridors are located in places where you aren't serving local users. For example, you can't replace the local Finch bus with a Finch hydro corridor bus. If you wanted to, you could do a Bathurst or Bayview bus that goes express to Finch station via the hydro corridor. However, this has the problem of increasing the number of things feeding into Finch. The new Finch West station would be a better destination for that sort of thing.

Note that the purple line through the Don Valley would require a crazy expensive amount of bridges. I wouldn't be surprised if it came to $100m per km or more even for BRT.

The 407 Transitway proposal has the same no-walk-in-traffic problems, but it would allow for much higher speeds than anything built in the Finch Hydro Corridor.
 
There is also the problem that the hydro corridor is already occupiedin some areas. The most obvious being the Finch Regional Terminal, and the commuter parking lots.
 
The hydro corridor north of Finch could serve many thousands of local users. At least look a map, people. Finch station, Seneca, Jane & Finch, dense tracts of housing almost anywhere you could put a stop, and so on, it's all right there and walkable. No, it does not replace the Finch buses, but it doesn't replace them because there should be gaps of 2km or 4km or so between stops to make it useful for regional travel, not because there's no local users. A useful transit line would not be cheap since you'd need to grade-separate most intersections, go over the reservoir, find a way to integrate it with the subway and GO and 905 network, etc., which also implies more of a larger, regional effort, not a make-work project to replace buses on Finch.

Justin10000 said:
There is also the problem that the hydro corridor is already occupiedin some areas. The most obvious being the Finch Regional Terminal, and the commuter parking lots.
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...which won't be an issue after the subway is extended. But the Yonge extension is a necessity and will be successful, so it may never happen.
 
There also appears to be a hydro corridor with lots of greenspace running alongside the RT. Could make for building a new line while keeping the old one running until a new line is up and running.
 
I think that a rail corridor would be better than busways at least for the Finch corridor, but some kind of full transit ROW could be accommodated.
 
Yes, a busway in the hydro corridor north of Finch would be a waste. Some kind of GO-lite line would be great, something that wouldn't spend an entire 2 or 3km stretch slowly accelerating and slowly decelerating and never reaching any good speeds.
 
Drawbacks? Certainly, but instead of a DRL subway, which is still important, it is still a solution that should merit a serious look.

Getting TTC and Go to work together, and with YRT/VIVA, etc, would solve more situations.
 
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It would a make a great network if combined with frequent rail service...kinda like the originally envisioned GO ALRT system. I think there actually might be some merit to building an LRT network using these corridors, rather than Transit City. Cheaper and faster.

Or at least an absolutely amazing cross-town route. From Oakville to Whitby? Do this and you might be able to toll the 401!
 
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Coltaine79 said:
Isn't the 401 really the "NAFTA Superhighway" moreso than a commuter highway?
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Given that the 401 is only 3 lanes in each direction in Oshawa and 3 lanes where it enters in Mississauga, yet is 7 lanes through most of Toronto, then the majority of the traffic on the highway is local, rather than long-distance.

Not that I have any idea why one would be averse to tolling long-distance traffic - there doesn't seem to be any objection to this at most border crossings with the USA.
 
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