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

[howl]

Crazy yes, but that was the political mood back in 2012 - both on City Council and with the Provincial Government (i.e. Metrolinx). There was no thought to transit - just figuring out how to defeat Ford.

Up until early this year, I thought the best solution was to tear up a couple of hundred metres of the tunnel West of the portal and relocate the tunnel south a bit. It could then follow a south side alignment to Don Mills.
Now that the Don Mills station is under construction, I think the station is too deep and too far East to allow the LRT line to elevate over the DVP. Thus, redoing the portal cannot achieve full grade-separation and would only accomplish moving the turnback to Don Mills - and I am not sure that's worth it.

I think Voltz is correct here. The original EA had the above ground stop at Leslie. That is what had been designed and what had been approved. That became the default option. After that here was an 11th hour political push from the reduce-costs side to continue the tunnel all the way to Don Mills and eliminate the Leslie stop altogether. When that faced opposition from local political forces there was a period of hand-wringing and searching for some sort of hybrid solution, like building the Leslie station under the Don River, but none of those options could be developed, analyzed and approved before the tendering deadline. It was simply too late in the process. Therefore the default option was a go. If Metrolinx hadn't put a hard deadline on the process for finding an alternative the eastern TBM would probably still be waiting to start.

 

[GenerationLee]

Alright, not trying to deviate from whatever thing is going on above, but I don't see any update on what will soon be an excavation and removal of both BTM's at the Yonge and Eglinton intersection, so I'm posting this in assumption that no one has covered this quite yet. A fair part of the intersection is fenced off and looks to be soon ready for the removal of the TBM's, and also a photo of the demolition of the former bus terminal:

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

Hi guys, one question.

1) Do you think Crosstown and Crosstown East should be a run through project or a forced transfer at Kennedy?

 

[WislaHD]

Definitely run-through project.

 

[Hopkins123]

Hi guys, one question.

1) Do you think Crosstown and Crosstown East should be a run through project or a forced transfer at Kennedy?

UTSC to Pearson in an hour is the endgoal we all should be striving for. True crosstown rapid transit!

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

Definitely run-through project.

UTSC to Pearson in an hour is the endgoal we all should be striving for. True crosstown rapid transit!

A part of me thinks that Eglinton should have been a subway, tied in with the extension to STC and connected to Sheppard subway, interlined with Vaughan extension at Wilson.

I'm just worried about operational problems because the line is so long.

 

[W. K. Lis]

A part of me thinks that Eglinton should have been a subway, tied in with the extension to STC and connected to Sheppard subway, interlined with Vaughan extension at Wilson.

I'm just worried about operational problems because the line is so long.

A "subway" is defined as an "underground electric railway", which the Eglinton Crosstown LRT will be. Around the world, the vehicles used can be of various different sizes and configurations. Doesn't have to be a "heavy rail", of which there are also different sizes. And "subways" don't have to be all underground, several "subways" around the world are above ground.

 

[TransitBart]

Hi guys, one question.

1) Do you think Crosstown and Crosstown East should be a run through project or a forced transfer at Kennedy?

Absolutely run through.

 

[WislaHD]

A "subway" is defined as an "underground electric railway", which the Eglinton Crosstown LRT will be. Around the world, the vehicles used can be of various different sizes and configurations. Doesn't have to be a "heavy rail", of which there are also different sizes. And "subways" don't have to be all underground, several "subways" around the world are above ground.

Including our own, for example.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

A "subway" is defined as an "underground electric railway", which the Eglinton Crosstown LRT will be. Around the world, the vehicles used can be of various different sizes and configurations. Doesn't have to be a "heavy rail", of which there are also different sizes. And "subways" don't have to be all underground, several "subways" around the world are above ground.

Including our own, for example.

I should have said "using heavy rail tech"

Absolutely run through.

Ok then. I'm with you guys. I hope this all gets done before 2025.

 

[Steve X]

A part of me thinks that Eglinton should have been a subway, tied in with the extension to STC and connected to Sheppard subway, interlined with Vaughan extension at Wilson.

I'm just worried about operational problems because the line is so long.

Nah. A LRT is better. It eliminates the "fire at track level" issue that happens all the time on the actual "subway" network. Falling on the tracks would be much more difficult since one can just walk back up to the platform with one step. Evacuation would be easier too without the third rail.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

Nah. A LRT is better. It eliminates the "fire at track level" issue that happens all the time on the actual "subway" network. Falling on the tracks would be much more difficult since one can just walk back up to the platform with one step. Evacuation would be easier too without the third rail.

Interesting. Safety is a huge issue with transit. Would this not be a problem on the Scarborough line as well.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Still don't know if the Crosstown LRT will have screen platform doors or not, since they were considered "gravy" in the Ford administration days.

 

[SaugeenJunction]

Still don't know if the Crosstown LRT will have screen platform doors or not, since they were considered "gravy" in the Ford administration days.

I'm pretty sure it won't have PSDs as they don't appear in the latest design renderings and I remember reading an article about a blind man criticizing the project for being dangerous for blind people by having centre platforms. He was worried about blind people falling on the tracks, and the Metrolinx response said nothing about PSDs.

 

[smallspy]

Hi guys, one question.

1) Do you think Crosstown and Crosstown East should be a run through project or a forced transfer at Kennedy?

Absolutely, positively, should be run as two separate lines with a transfer at Kennedy.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.