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SmartTrack (Proposed)

Wow a lot of misinformation here that I need to correct.
rbt said:
Arguably Tory also put the Eglinton West extension into play as a subway option, and the city isn't paying for any of that (until the maintenance bills start; then it'll be a money pit for the city too).

IMO, Toronto has generally gotten a better deal than Ottawa. That said, the province is also a primary beneficiary of GTA mobility via tax revenue.
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That was just pure luck, as stated below the city was to pay for Eglinton West, but then Doug Ford came into power and took control of the projects again at a provincial level. If we really want a timeline it goes like this:

2007: Mayor David Miller plans Transit City, with Eglinton Line from Kennedy to the airport, paid for by the province.
2010: Premier McGuinty cancels portions of Transit City, including the portion of the Eglinton line from Mount Dennis to the airport. Still shows up on maps and plans as an Eglinton West extension TBD without funding, even during Wynnes time as Premier.
2014: Mayor Tory plans Smarttrack with a spur along Eglinton using ELECTRIFIED Multiple Unit heavy rails trains. No DMU's were ever planned for Smarttack.
2015: After being elected, the Smarttrack plan on Eglinton seems to be way too difficult and expensive (and stupid), so Tory and city council vote to pay to extend the Eglinton crosstown as a West extension as originally planned by the province as a surface multi stop LRT. However, there was next to 0 commitment from the province at the time to build or fund the extension. Plans were also looked at by the city to elevate and partially bury the line.
2018: Doug Ford becomes Premier and takes over control of various transit projects, including Eglinton West extension, which will now be majority underground and funded entirely by the province.

ARG1 said:
That was not Tory's plan, that was Wynne's plan. Tory's plan was "Smart Track" which would've used Heavy DMU trains similar to what we used on the UP Express and have it run alongside Eglinton.
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As mentioned above, yes the Elington West extension as surface stops was the provinces plan (originally David Millers) but Smarttrack never intended to use DMUs.
Amare said:
Tory didnt put the Eglinton West extension into play as a subway. He stupidly put his hand up and offered to take it off the Wynne government's books, and made the extension into a ridiculous surface LRT with excessive amounts of stops. With no plan to pay for it, it was placed onto the city's never ending list of "approved but unfunded" projects.

Ford came along and then took control over the Eglinton West project, burying the entire thing and jacking up the costs substantially while doing so.
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As stated above, while Tory did take over the Eglinton West extension, its not like the province at the time had any plans to build it, or offer any funding. It had been on the back burner since being cancelled by premier McGunity in 2010. Also the surface plan offered by Tory and the city was the original 2007 plan penned by mayor David Miller, to be funded by the province. Under the John Tory mayorship, plans were looked at to elevate or bury parts of the line, and the costs associated. While this was about to be finalized, Doug Ford took over the line and made the whole thing a moot point.

Interestingly this line has gone from Mayor (Miller) to province (McGuinty/Wynne) back to the city (Tory) and back to the province (Ford)
 
ARG1 said:
That was not Tory's plan, that was Wynne's plan. Tory's plan was "Smart Track" which would've used Heavy DMU trains similar to what we used on the UP Express and have it run alongside Eglinton.
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Tory's plan was never realistic because Doug and Rob Ford sold off the Eglinton ROW, so the "Smarttrack" section was converted to be the Eglinton West LRT. Or in other words, the western section of Smarttrack was scrapped but Tory was disguising it as Smarttrack to save his fantasy project.

robmausser said:
As stated above, while Tory did take over the Eglinton West extension, its not like the province at the time had any plans to build it, or offer any funding. It had been on the back burner since being cancelled by premier McGunity in 2010. Also the surface plan offered by Tory and the city was the original 2007 plan penned by mayor David Miller, to be funded by the province. Under the John Tory mayorship, plans were looked at to elevate or bury parts of the line, and the costs associated. While this was about to be finalized, Doug Ford took over the line and made the whole thing a moot point.

Interestingly this line has gone from Mayor (Miller) to province (McGuinty/Wynne) back to the city (Tory) and back to the province (Ford)
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That's exactly it, the Eglinton West LRT was in the province's plans but they had no timeline to actually build it. That's when Tory came in and offered to take it of the province's books and lets note when he did that: he didnt have a solid plan or timeline to build it either. As i mentioned earlier, it was just added to the city's never list of things "we'll one day build, but dont have any money to build, but will build it one day when money comes in". So in reality, he did the province a favor since they wouldnt have had to deal with the project.

Meanwhile when the city took it under it's control, they did their damn best to screw with the project to make the LRT as slow as possible by adding additional stops and coming out with reports which demonized elevated LRT in any kind of way.
 
It's always helpful to have citable references when we talk about the history of a program. Here's the history of how City Council processed the Smarttrack idea over the years"

January 15, 2015 City Council receives first staff report re "accelerating a Smarttrack program"

March 31 2016 City Council sets aside heavy rail option on Eglinto West in favour of LRT

July 12 2016 City Council confirms Smarttrack plan for Eglinton West LRT, 6 stations on GO

November 8 2016 City Council approves terms of reference for negotiating ST with ML and funding

December 5 2017 City Council approves joint work between City staff and Metrolinx

April 24 2018 City Council approves funding for Smarttrack plan agreed with ML

April 16 2019 City Council approves restatement of funding and scope of Smarttrack based on new Provincial government's redirection

June 18 2019 City Council accepts staff review of Province's new transit commitments

September 30 2020 - City Council receives report from Metrolinx on plan for Eglinton West subway/LRT


The 2016 report from the Chief Planner outlining the assessment of the options for Eglinton West is here.


- Paul
 
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Amare said:
Meanwhile when the city took it under it's control, they did their damn best to screw with the project to make the LRT as slow as possible by adding additional stops and coming out with reports which demonized elevated LRT in any kind of way.
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That elevated LRT plan was such a joke
 
Amare said:
Meanwhile when the city took it under it's control, they did their damn best to screw with the project to make the LRT as slow as possible by adding additional stops and coming out with reports which demonized elevated LRT in any kind of way.
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This was hilarious. They didn't even try to be subtle about it.
 
The only difference between ST and GO is that people would actually use ST because it would be a TTC fare and nobody will take the GO.
 
ssiguy2 said:
The only difference between ST and GO is that people would actually use ST because it would be a TTC fare and nobody will take the GO.
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Indented to be TTC fare.

I never think that it would have happened like an actual TTC fare per say.

What I think will eventually happen is that Metrolinx and the city will agree upon some singular fare by distance system for the whole GO/TTC network.

So basically fare zones, and whether you take a GO train or TTC train/bus in these fare zones (or a Brampton, Mississauga bus, etc) it doesn't matter, you pay the same amount for that fare zone.

Cross into another fare zone, you pay more. Cross 2 fare zones, more. Etc.

So, for example, taking the TTC train from Union to Downsview Park GO station would cost just the same as taking the GO train.

Same with say Danforth GO/Main St station to Exhibition GO/Ontario Line Exhibition.
 
ssiguy2 said:
The only difference between ST and GO is that people would actually use ST because it would be a TTC fare and nobody will take the GO.
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What GO needs to do is set up fare zones that align with existing transit authorities. POP is either a GO fare, or a local fare. Problem solved.
 
robmausser said:
Interestingly this line has gone from Mayor (Miller) to province (McGuinty/Wynne) back to the city (Tory) and back to the province (Ford)
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Very interesting indeed. Crosstown went from one project. To two phases. To three (airport connection). Heck we could throw in SMLRT (aka Eglinton east of Kennedy) and it'd be a four phase project. All drawn out indefinitely.
 
Allandale25 said:
This could go under GO Construction but since the tweet mentions ST putting it here.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1505982653639577611
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I don't recall if we've previously seen these renders for Finch (east) station and the underpass, so I'll bring them forward:

1647891273888.png



1647891420569.png


Very large looking complex, but not an architectural achievement to be sure. Not liking this T in a circle business. I want to know which transit can be found in a station. GO, Subway, Streetcar etc. A giant T could be an hourly bus route......
 
Mr Finish Line said:
People visiting the city are going to think it's 'T' for Toronto
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I'm not entirely sure that the logo wasn't chosen for it being a T surrounded by O (Toronto, Ontario) and T for Transit at the same time. They should launch the brand with a celebrity... "Don't be a fool, transit and carpool. Take it from me, Mr.T."
 
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