News   Jul 12, 2024
199 Church Showcases Heritage Facade and Artwork at Street Level
 1.1K     0 
News   Jul 12, 2024
Six Points Plaza Redevelopment Advances With 36-Storey First Phase
 998     1 
News   Jul 12, 2024
Trading Spaces: Can Real Estate Conversion Help Boost Housing Supply?
 371     0 

Toronto Crosstown LRT | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx | Arcadis

^^^

Building a tunnel that runs on third rails is much easier than for overhead wires. The main difference being tunnel height.

If you build a tunnel to support overhead wires, then installing third rail afterwards shouldn't require much modification at all.
 
picture.php


Caledonia Road isn't even in the above picture, but it is off the image to the right. The right (east) most entrance would be about 240m west of Caledonia Road.

They are studying for a proposed bus loop for the 47B Lansdowne via Caledonia bus. That means the Caledonia buses would be turning west to loop at Croham Road (across from the former Gilbert Loop).

I thought that the Caledonia station could be shifted more to the east, under the railway at least. Half that distance (120m) would still have the western entrance by Westside Shopping Centre.

I'm assuming that it was placed where it is in the image because the western (left) entrance would be closer to the apartment buildings at Gabian Way.
 
Caledonia Road is off to the right, but barely. Another inch or two and we'd be able to see it. Not a good choice of pictures by the TTC (embarrassing some might say).

The walk from the east end of that stn location to Caledonia is a 1-2 minute walk.

I assume one reason they chose this location is for a potential future GO connection, but another is that the Westside bus stop (two stops really) is busier than Caledonia.
 
I suspect the Caledonia location has a lot to do with the fact that there's a large empty space there with a lower elevation than the street. That makes the station a lot cheaper to build, and it will cause virtually no disruption to the neighbourhood. Besides that, the area just to the west is fairly dense. However the folks who live between Caledonia and Dufferin are going to complain about the distance between stations. With this location, if you compare it to the Dufferin-Keele section of the Bloor line, it's as though they left out Lansdowne.
 
golodhendil said:
Notice the raised platforms that cover most of the station; the only things that need to be done is to fill in the depressed portions (which happened progressively while trams were still running, until the final fill-in), removing overhead wires, changing the rails and adding third rail (which required closing down the system).
This is as, if not more, conversion-ready as Eglinton would be.
Click to expand...

I do not understand why the rails would have to be changed. TRZ quite clearly stated that LRT and HRT can run on the same rails. Or to be more specific, subway and streetcars rails are the same, except for the third track for subways.

Someone else already mentioned that some subways can have overhead wires, so that's not really a problem either.

My understanding is that the only BIG thing they'd have to do to convert Eglinton to subway is to raise the platforms (which as you can see in your pictures, would not be difficult at all). And they can do a third rail as well. TRZ said it can be done at night without any disruption to service.

Based on that, and knowing the Eglinton LRT is being designed with future conversion in mind, I feel confident that we won't be screwed over this time. That's not to say we'll NEED Eglinton to be a full subway. But we'll be ready if it is necessary. What to do with the above ground portions however, I don't know :)
 
GenerationW said:
The walk from the east end of that stn location to Caledonia is a 1-2 minute walk.

I assume one reason they chose this location is for a potential future GO connection, but another is that the Westside bus stop (two stops really) is busier than Caledonia.
Click to expand...

It's not far from Caledonia at all, but really why not call it something else?Especially when the the Westside mall is going to be the primary source of trips for this station (or at least I assume so). Certainly the Donerpoint and the Honda dealership at Caledonia & Eglinton won't be drawing that many people. Perhaps calling it Westside, Gilbert, Fairbank, or whatever else would be somewhat more accurate.
 
The distance is 750 feet, three minutes at typical walking speed. It's the same distance as Bay to Yonge at Bloor.
 
lesouris said:
But aren't there subway systems that run off of overhead power instead of a third rail? If the TTC really wanted to make the transition on Eglinton easier, couldn't they just use the same kind of trains as those systems? It would be an orphan technology I guess, but it might be worth looking in to if the demand is ever there.
Click to expand...

A third rail can be installed over a couple weeks, that is if a redundant (switched off) one isn't installed when the LRT tunnel is built.
 
Page 8

Alright, so I've been reserving my comments on Eglinton until now. The TTC has finally given us some limited information on travel times. Unfortunately, this is pretty bad. From Kennedy to Yonge, they're projecting a travel time of 30 minutes, down from 43 minutes on the bus. The B-D subway from Yonge to Warden, a comparable distance, takes 19 minutes. From the airport to Yonge, they're projecting 48 minutes. It's clear that virtually all of the travel time savings are coming from the underground segment. Travel times from Keele to Brentcliffe will fall to 19 minutes from the existing 48 minutes on the bus. For the billions of dollars being spent, that's just not good enough.
 
That's terrible how long it's projected to take from Yonge to the airport. You are very right.

Anywho, I have a few questions someone wouldn't mind answering.

Will stop lights severely slow down travel times?

And how fast will the LRT go up to?

Thanks.
 
The good news is the travel times inside the tunnel. The bad news is definitely the travel time outside the tunnel and the intersection impacts. Both could probably be solved with a barrier to prevent pedestrians and cars from the possibility of getting onto the tracks and underpasses at intersections. The round-about way to turn left is something I have seen before in the US but usually it is used for suburban divided highways without interchanges, not in a place they are trying to improve walkability and the urban environment. With U-Turn signals there is no safe pedestrian crossing time... a green for through traffic has cars going through the same crossing as a green for U-Turns. Doing something to prevent cars turning left across the tracks is certainly required because too often cars and trucks will end up going when they aren't supposed to.
 
Cooool said:
Will stop lights severely slow down travel times?
Click to expand...

Yes. They often count as an aditional stop which seriously reduces average travel time. By removing left turns they will be able to remove a couple of phases from the stoplights but still a full wait at a stoplight is longer than boarding times of a regular subway stop.

Cooool said:
And how fast will the LRT go up to?
Click to expand...

They can go 70km/h. Not when there might be cars and pedestrians on the tracks because the stopping distance of a LRT going 70km/h would lead to serious accidents. The subway can go 88km/h but averages 30km/h due to stops. In the tunnel sections the LRT will have the same average speed.
 
Rather than putting in all these bizarre Michigan lefts that will double the number of traffic lights along the street (and I guarantee the streetcar will wind up stopping at most of them), why not simply install crossing arms that block left turners when the streetcar is approaching like they do in Calgary?
 
I'm kind of learning about this kind of transportation, but couldn't they make the streetcar go UNDER the intersection. But I guess that would defeat the purpose of even having an LRT on the surface route.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top