Is it likely there'll be a GO station here?
Where? At Mt. Dennis? Yeah it's right on the Georgetown corridor. Hence why I think it would make a good terminal station. There would be a lot of transfer options.
Is it likely there'll be a GO station here?
The Don Mills Station should be redesigned to include a rough-in for the Downtown Relief Line/Don Mills LRT. At the moment, it will mean they will have to dig up the area AGAIN, when (not if) construction for the DRL starts.
Build the box for a second set of platforms, that are left under-utilized for 70+ years, will likely ever be used for trains, and if they ever are, are so grossly inadequate that they'll have to spend just as much at they would have had to anyways, to widen the station?Yup. I think a Lower Queen type of deal would certainly be warranted here.
Build the box for a second set of platforms, that are left under-utilized for 70+ years, will likely ever be used for trains, and if they ever are, are so grossly inadequate that they'll have to spend just as much at they would have had to anyways, to widen the station?
TTC has been tossing around plans for an Eglinton subway station on Don Mills for almost 50 years already. And we still don't know where it's going to go.
Perhaps making sure they leave space for a future platform would be sensible (the same way they have left space for a future LRT underground station at Steeles West station) - but I don't see the need for anything else until the DRL design is advanced. And if is advanced significantly, they can issue a change order to build some connecting tunnels - the same way they are issuing one now at Finch West station to connect to the underground LRT platforms.
Doing anything more at this point would be fiscally irresponsible.
Has construction started on this line at any point along it yet?
What is Lower Queen over than a roughed-in streetcar platform?I'm not saying literally build a Lower Queen streetcar platform, but build a roughed-in subway platform.
And I don't think those that built Lower Queen thought it would be 25 years, let alone 70+. What's the net present value of something 25 years in the future? Very little.And I don't think it'll take 70+ years to get the DRL up to Eglinton. 25, max.
We have no idea when it would get there ... even if a DRL is built, the piece to Eglinton is likely not going to be Phase 1. But more importantly where would it get built? Likely Eglinton and Don Mills. And yet it's a pretty desolate spot. But what elevation? Centre of road? East of road? West of road? Perhaps it would elevated? Perhaps it would be on the surface?I see it as a 'pay me now, pay me later' thing. We know the DRL is going to end up there, so accommodate for it now so that you don't have to rip the station apart in 15-25 years to build it in.
Which hardly seems like a wise decision so far. But a little different. Leaving the space for a future 3rd platform in an existing station is one thing. Personally, I think the work they did to prepare for a future 2nd and 3rd platform on the YUS line at Sheppard-Yonge is far more valuable than that third platform on the Sheppard line.It's a very similar rationale for why they built Sheppard-Yonge as a 3 platform station.
Another example of a colossal failure. It was overdesigned in anticipation of a subway being built there in the short term. Surely if someone had told R.C. Harris when they were designing it, that it would be 55 years until there was a subway there, he too would have agreed that the huge extra expenditure spent during WWI wasn't wise. The present value of something 50 years in the future is near zero. And even then, they only used the Don Rivers span that they included the lower deck in. Other sections of the lower deck remain unused, a century later.Or why the Prince Edward Viaduct was over-designed in order to carry a lower deck.
Agreed. But no one would ever advocate spending money now, to save a bit 50 years from now (if ever).Sometimes spending a little bit more in the short term can save a lot of headache (and money) in the long term.
Agreed. But no one would ever advocate spending money now, to save a bit 50 years from now (if ever).
We have no idea when it would get there ... even if a DRL is built, the piece to Eglinton is likely not going to be Phase 1. But more importantly where would it get built? Likely Eglinton and Don Mills. And yet it's a pretty desolate spot. But what elevation? Centre of road? East of road? West of road? Perhaps it would elevated? Perhaps it would be on the surface?
If it really takes 20-25 years before we are building a DRL station, it doesn't matter how much it will cost then, the net present value of the future cost is bound to be far less than what would be wasted building a box now.Note that if the spot is pretty desolate now, but will be developed during the next 20 - 25 years, then building the DRL station at that time will be a lot more expensive then if the station box is built now.