SmartTrack (Proposed)

[BurlOak]

What mess, exactly, did Harper do? Honestly the only scandal I can think of is Mike Duffy, which is complicated and debatable and ultimately involves less than a quarter of the amount of money that Trudeau spends on a single budget report cover

Harper had the best GDP growth in the G7, along with the best job creation, and a close second in budgetary balance (least growth in debt), while increasing transfers to provinces and giving (then) record amounts of money to the provinces for transit.
That is something that is very much frowned upon by the current Canadian population.

 

[muller877]

The one that has no mention of electrification, and only promises to complete the two-way, all-day GO train service (for which must of the capital expenses have already been spent or contracted), and make no mention of the RER service?

The Fiberals are going that way too. Why do you thing they are pitching this Hydrogen alternative? They don't want to pay for electrification. They are going to study it for 4 more years and then have another election cycle where they will promise it again.

It will be intriguing to see how the Liberals do once the unions can no longer spend their kick-back money (i.e. 0% wage increase which actually gave a wage increase). The 6 months election clock will start to tick soon and that will limit their ability to spend for the Liberals).

But to be quite honest a DMU service to start would be (1) quicker to implement (2) confirm that the demand is there and (3) the cars can be used for other lines if and when electrification occurs. So RER is not dependent on electrification. Electrification is the subways-subways-subways debate all over again.

 

[robmausser]

What mess, exactly, did Harper do? Honestly the only scandal I can think of is Mike Duffy, which is complicated and debatable and ultimately involves less than a quarter of the amount of money that Trudeau spends on a single budget report cover.



SmartTrack is basically the idea that the City should pay $2 billion of its own money for something that the Province was going to do anyway.

Show me a single document prior to Smarttrack that Metrolinx was going to build a station at St.Clair, Liberty Village, Gerrard, Unilever, Lawerence and Finch. Even just one.

It wasn't in their electrification plans, it wasn't in RER.

Stop spreading this leftist BS from the rag the Torontoist. Theres no evidence to this, its just political partisanism.

MAYBE they might have had the thought of doing it. But maybe I also had the thought of investing in google in 1999. But the fact is I didn't. And they didn't put forward any plan to build what was proposed with Smarttrack.

 

[nfitz]

The Fiberals are going that way too.

Can we avoid such unnecessary terms - this isn't a political discussion. There's also no indication of that.

Why do you thing they are pitching this Hydrogen alternative?

To have it on the table and then eliminate, to avoid claims they didn't look at it. It might be an alternative to diesel for non-frequent service. It doesn't replace electrification.

They don't want to pay for electrification. They are going to study it for 4 more years and then have another election cycle where they will promise it again.

No indication of this.

 

[nfitz]

Show me a single document prior to Smarttrack that Metrolinx was going to build a station at St.Clair, Liberty Village, Gerrard, Unilever, Lawerence and Finch. Even just one.

Oh come on, historical GO plans are full of discussion about stations at King (Liberty) and Cherry (Unilever). And Gerrard dates back to the 1970s, along with Coxwell.

Stop spreading this leftist BS from the rag the Torontoist. Theres no evidence to this, its just political partisanism.

Such plans predate the Torontoist. And many of the were PC.

 

[robmausser]

Oh come on, historical GO plans are full of discussion about stations at King (Liberty) and Cherry (Unilever). And Gerrard dates back to the 1970s, along with Coxwell.

Show me a plan that wasn't just a conceptual idea and actually going to get funding and proposed.

 

[44 North]

I could see a use case for having some DMU's on the RH line instead of electrifying, yes.

Run them on the CPR Don Branch and add the stations highlighted in the Metrolinx report. (north of gerrard) to Langstaff Station.

Continue to use the regular route as express service with the current bi-levels.

Something like this was in the first Big Move running from Hwy 7-Union and its ridership was very high. It never specified if it used Leaside-Don Branch (I'd lean toward not), or if it was DMU. But it was listed as Express. Not sure if that genuinely meant express service, or whether that was the current branding for all GO services with very high peak frequency.

Leaside Spur has a lot of fun discussions. I think it *could* be used, and is obviously beneficial. But doubt Metrolinx - or even a Superlinx - would want to touch that for fear of political ramifications. Don Branch tho would naturally be reactivated for Seaton and Havelock services, and VIA-Ottawa HSR if that comes to be. They may have stations at Eglinton or Millwood, and I guess by default intercept some iota of Yonge-bound riders. Don't think it'd be much. But Leaside Spur seems moderately implausible for seeing service.

Somewhat o/t, one way I've thought about creating an express service across the east half of the city would be to place a wye between North Toronto Sub (CP) and Uxbridge Sub (Stouff) SE of Kennedy/Sheppard. Gradients might be a bit high, but seems like enough room for the curve. So south of Agincourt some services would take the planned milk run, others would split and take the faster and more direct express route to Union. Fantasy, but seems doable with CP on board.

 

[crs1026]

^Not so fantasy based. The GO Havelock/ Peterboro study looked at this very option to route Peterboro trains down along the Kingston Sub, removing the need to add capacity on the CP line over the Don Valley.

- Paul

 

[M II A II R II K]

SmartTrack is more of a program than an actual service, like Network 2011.

 

[robmausser]

But Leaside Spur seems moderately implausible for seeing service.

I think the only way that the Leaside Spur would get reactivated is if the service was some kind of electrified LRT Tram-Train.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tram-train

That way the service could be pitched as an LRT service along the Leaside Spur.

Its the only way you would get around the NIMBYISM for the people with their houses abutting the spur.

But then you get into issues of electrification, how you'd navigate around the CP mainline onto the Don Branch, and would the tram train go to Union, or would it go off onto Front Street and then along Front as an actual LRT, how would it share trackage north to Langstaff with GO trains, etc.

A tram train sharing tracks with mainline freight and GO/VIA trains is not something Transport Canada would even remotely consider.

The only other option I could see for Leaside Spur would be to trench and put a raildeck/st.clair subway type park overtop. Not cheap.

 

[salsa]

Councillor Matlow at the Eglinton LRT debate, calls out ST for what it is. About time.

 

[Rainforest]

Honestly, I absolutely don't care if Eglinton West is called a part of LRT network, a part of SmartTrack, or both.

As long as it actually gets built.

 

[WislaHD]

Councillor Matlow at the Eglinton LRT debate, calls out ST for what it is. About time.


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Matlow is getting more and more vocal. Looks like he is gunning for mayor in 2018 or 2022.

 

[Hopkins123]

Councillor Matlow at the Eglinton LRT debate, calls out ST for what it is. About time.


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Tory lied to us all in order to win an election. Opportunistic to a fault, meanwhile not even grade-separation across Eglinton West is a guarantee.

 

[sixrings]

Tory lied to us all in order to win an election. Opportunistic to a fault, meanwhile not even grade-separation across Eglinton West is a guarantee.

Yet there are those on here whom trust politicians when they assure us there are efficiencies to be found and that we all deserve rapid transit even if the densities and ridership numbers don't match. I thought by voting age we would be less likely to fall for such fantasies