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

Back when the airport link was a public-private thing called Blue22, it was supposed to cost $22 per person and run non-stop between the Airport and Union station in 22 minutes. Now that's the private partner has buggered off and there are more stations, it might become cheaper.

They had always talked about it stopping at Bloor/Dundas West. The only new stop that has been added is Weston.
 
If $22, that royally sucks. Partially defeats the point of a rail link IMO.

At that price, most of the time I'd rather just take a taxi (except at rush hour peak), because my final destination will never be Union anyway.
 
On Tuesday night, April 26 Metrolinx and the TTC are holding a community meeting on the Eglinton-Scarborough Transit project. Here are the event details:



What: The Crosstown - Eglinton-Scarborough Transit Project Community Update
When: Tuesday, April 26 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Where: St. Clement's School, Auditorium 21 St. Clements Avenue (north of Yonge and Eglinton)


This meeting is for members of the community to learn more about the Crosstown, which will provide rapid underground transit across the Eglinton corridor, linking subway lines and replacing the Scarborough RT with modern, reliable service.


The update will be provided by the TTC and Metrolinx, followed by a moderated Q&A session.
This event is brought to the community by Councillors Josh Colle, Josh Matlow, Joe Mihevc, John Parker, Jaye Robinson, and TTC Chair, Karen Stintz.


We think this is a great opportunity to learn about the Eglinton plans and to express our disappointment with the Mayor and Premier's new plans that leave out any new rapid transit for Finch Ave West and Eastern Scarborough.


Please join us Tuesday night.
 
Metrolinx / Toronto Transit Plan - April 28, 2011

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19 km of tunnelled LRT along Eglinton connected with continuous through-running service along upgraded SRT alignment (5.7 km, elevated and at-grade, 0.5 km tunnelled) to Scarborough Centre

Opportunity for Metrolinx / GO express bus service from Jane / Black Creek to Pearson Airport via Renforth Gateway


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So the GO airport link from the Eglinton line is going to be bus.

And as some of you mentioned, there is also going to be maintenance and storage yard at Black Creek.
 
What about the option of trenching and at grade parallel tracks to the street to not have to tunnel the whole thing. You would think there'd be more places to do that than say Bloor or Queen.
 
What about the option of trenching and at grade parallel tracks to the street to not have to tunnel the whole thing. You would think there'd be more places to do that than say Bloor or Queen.
That'd still cause loss of lanes, which I presume Ford doesn't want.
 
Metrolinx / Toronto Transit Plan - April 28, 2011

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19 km of tunnelled LRT along Eglinton connected with continuous through-running service along upgraded SRT alignment (5.7 km, elevated and at-grade, 0.5 km tunnelled) to Scarborough Centre

Opportunity for Metrolinx / GO express bus service from Jane / Black Creek to Pearson Airport via Renforth Gateway


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So the GO airport link from the Eglinton line is going to be bus.

And as some of you mentioned, there is also going to be maintenance and storage yard at Black Creek.

Is there a possibility for extending the Mississauga Transitway over to Black Creek? The BRT would be cheaper than having on-street LRT there and if built to the Transitway standard, would actually provide quicker service to the airport than the on-street LRT would have.
 
Is there a possibility for extending the Mississauga Transitway over to Black Creek? The BRT would be cheaper than having on-street LRT there and if built to the Transitway standard, would actually provide quicker service to the airport than the on-street LRT would have.

Based on what was said at Mississauga Council meeting on April 20th, the answer is "NO".

If the BRT is running in mix traffic, it is cheaper than an LRT.

If it is in an ROW, it still cheaper on the front end cost, but it fails on the backend cost that is more important than the front cost.
 
Is there a possibility for extending the Mississauga Transitway over to Black Creek? The BRT would be cheaper than having on-street LRT there and if built to the Transitway standard, would actually provide quicker service to the airport than the on-street LRT would have.
It would be somewhat illegal for MT to build deep into Toronto, as there is a law somewhere that makes TTC the monopoly. But then again, they could make it work, just that they would have to make the fare higher than TTC, and most to all revenue will go to the TTC seeing how going east of Islington is pushing it
 
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Is there a possibility for extending the Mississauga Transitway over to Black Creek? The BRT would be cheaper than having on-street LRT there and if built to the Transitway standard, would actually provide quicker service to the airport than the on-street LRT would have.

Actually I would like either a TTC rocket route or an MT express route run to Black Creek until the Airport segment gets built. I don't think Mississauga wants to build and "invade" into Toronto (Dundas is the exception though).

It would be somewhat illegal for MT to build deep into Toronto

Yup. If Mississauga builds anything within Toronto, then it would require Toronto's approval. Same with the reverse.

as there is a law somewhere that makes TTC the monopoly

I think that's the main problem of Toronto when it comes to the region: not thinking outisde of its own "box". If they could do it with 196 for Viva, why not to 49 for 3 and 50 for 20, 26, 76? They can definitely work those out, just like what you said. Sadly, the TTC just walks off the table when working things out such as these.
 
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Based on what was said at Mississauga Council meeting on April 20th, the answer is "NO".

If the BRT is running in mix traffic, it is cheaper than an LRT.

If it is in an ROW, it still cheaper on the front end cost, but it fails on the backend cost that is more important than the front cost.

Isn't the 403 Transitway a "Metrolinx" project more than a Mississauga project? If so, I can see it being less of a problem running it to Black Creek with GO busses.

Also, it's interesting they even talked about it on council - since I don't expect Mississauga to be paying for the Toronto segment of the Transitway anyway and it would be outside their jurisdiction - and if Toronto or the Province does decide to build a BRT on Eglinton to hook up to the Mississauga one, I don't see how they can say no, especially with the recent talk of integration of transit systems.

I can understand that the operating cost would be more, but right now its the capital funding that is harder to come by, so I can see them building a low-capital alternative (BRT) and just let the agencies swallow up the operating costs later. With around 9 billion committed to transit from Ontario, its hard to see them committing much more in the next decade and extending the BRT from Renforth to Black Creek would be much cheaper than extending the LRT from Black Creek to the Airport.
 
The Mississauga Transitway has been on the books for decades. If anything, GO co-opted it as part of its highway BRT plans.
 
Actually I would like either a TTC rocket route or an MT express route run to Black Creek until the Airport segment gets built. I don't think Mississauga wants to build and "invade" into Toronto (Dundas is the exception though).



Yup. If Mississauga builds anything within Toronto, then it would require Toronto's approval. Same with the reverse.



I think that's the main problem of Toronto when it comes to the region: not thinking outisde of its own "box". If they could do it with 196 for Viva, why not to 49 for 3 and 50 for 20, 26, 76? They can definitely work those out, just like what you said. Sadly, the TTC just walks off the table when working things out such as these.

I put forth a business case in 2004/05 to both TTC and Mississauga, where Mississauga would assume control of 49 and 50 100%, but got shoot down by the Chair of TTC at the time.

TTC would have saved $1.5m a year in operating cost as well having 5 buses that could be used else where within the system.

TTC would have to cover 50% of the operation cost for 49 since the bulk of the ridership using 3 is to/from Toronto in the first place. It would be a blood bath for Mississauga if they had to cover the full cost. 50 was a break even to a profit using 26, 11, 20 and 76 servicing it.

The riders in Toronto would get more service by Mississauga than TTC currently offer.

Metrolinx supports and backs my business case and has used it as an example as what a seamless system could look like as well work both within Toronto and other area under their control. Since they have no control over TTC at a lower level, they cannot move on this case.

Toronto has the power to allow other transit system to built deep into TTC area, but to much in fighting at all levels is preventing this as well screwing riders 100% for both the 905 and 416.

TTC would have to offer Rocket service to meet the BRT as well to the airport. MT is planning an extension to the BRT to service the airport.

GO has had a plan to run service to meet the Eglinton LRT, but where it is these days is unknown, since it now part of Metrolinx these days.

If you look closely, all the transit systems/cities in the GTA have the same policy as TTC. The only different between them and TTC, they do allow other systems to service the various route for pickup and drop off for both direction.
 
Metrolinx / Toronto Transit Plan - April 28, 2011

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19 km of tunnelled LRT along Eglinton connected with continuous through-running service along upgraded SRT alignment (5.7 km, elevated and at-grade, 0.5 km tunnelled) to Scarborough Centre

Opportunity for Metrolinx / GO express bus service from Jane / Black Creek to Pearson Airport via Renforth Gateway


---

So the GO airport link from the Eglinton line is going to be bus.

And as some of you mentioned, there is also going to be maintenance and storage yard at Black Creek.
This is an excerpt of the email response from Metrolinx, to an email I sent them regarding the west end of the Eglinton line and a possible connection to the Air Rail Link:

"The exact terminus for the Eglinton line, which is in the Mt. Dennis area, will be determined through a future additional study due to the vertical and horizontal alignment (how steep the grades can be climbing out of the tunnel and which side of the road we will be on to approach the yard) between Black Creek Drive and Jane Street. The objective is to make the connection to the GO rail corridor (which includes the Air Rail Link)."
 

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