If Jane is proposed for an LRT, it's ridership must be high enough to warrant a stop. 1 extra stop at the airport (Convair or Silver Dart) doesn't bother me that much - especially if the feds pay some. Maybe another stop at T3 is needed though - since the link train can't handle much more.
I think this list is pretty good though:
Pearson -> Renforth Gateway -> Martin Grove -> Kipling -> Islington -> Royal York -> Scarlette -> Jane -> Mount Dennis (9 stops total)
I was okay with eliminating Jane on the basis that it is very close to Mount Dennis, and it's not that much of a jaunt for the Jane bus to go on Weston then back to Jane. Also on the basis that this is what Jane/Eglinton looks like, surrounded by nothing but park space:
Is $280M correct - maybe in 2008 dollars. I would have guessed it was well into the mid $350M's.
The only reason to spend $5+ Billion on a central core and use LRT is if multiple lines will share the tunnel. Transit City consider a full build-out of many LRT lines - but in no location was branching (interlining) even considered). In the West, maybe 1 branch could have been along Dixon and the other along Eglinton West. In the East, maybe 1 branch up to STC and another along Eglinton and Kingston Road. But since the grade-separation ended at Brentcliffe, I guess 1 branch would have to be Eglinton and other through Edwards Gardens park and along Lawrence? There is no doubt this was poorly thought out.
It's hard to argue with this. Not sure if any more buildings are planned. Maybe the Airport Link train needs be extended to serve these more minor stops (and also change to self-propelled trains so more than 2 can fit.
Some of my favourite fantasy schemes have a branch going up Jane or Don Mills. But considering the failure of the TTC's interlining experiment with the 100% grade-separated subway lines in the 1960s, I wonder how well this could actually be pulled off, operationally. Metrolinx had announced that the tunnel section would be running on ATC but the surface sections would be human-driven.
I don't think you would see many more buildings for the section near the airport, and generally you wouldn't want too much development near the airport because of the airplane noise, tall buildings in the flight paths, etc. There's a reason that the current area is all car rentals, airport hotels, and parking lots. I think it would make more sense to serve those by the Link train if needed: we don't need our $10 billion rapid transit line to function as a shuttle for the airport rent-a-cars. But there are also some low-density office parks north of the 401 that could maybe be better serviced by buses that stop at International instead of at Renforth, so I would accept one intermediate stop (but certainly not 3).
Do not forget that the mid arterial stops could be a upon request stop. If no one requests a stop, the light rail vehicle may not stop, unless there is someone waiting at the stop. The mid arterial stop would be at grade, reducing the cost to just the concrete and shelters.
The problem with request stops is that they introduce a certain amount of uncertainty into the schedule and increase the potential for bunching. And the fact that stops are easy to add causes them to multiply since everyone wants a stop at their front door, which is what happened when the Spadina streetcar was introduced.
In general, in a lot of these debates about stop spacing (and the problem with this EA is that) we are looking at a single trunk of a single line at a time. So in this EA, it may look like 17 stops between Jane and the airport is reasonable. But in the context of the entire Eglinton line, and in the context of Toronto's entire rapid transit system where people may want to be able to travel to point B on Eglinton from point A (say at Yonge/St. Clair), the cumulative additional time from the stops is much greater than the time saved by the local who has to walk an additional 5 minutes. Additional stops may make the line more useful for someone living near the new stop but reduces the effectiveness of the transit system as a whole.
Ideally, we want to be maximizing the number of jobs and people within a 45-minute "isochrone" map of public transit - a map of where it is possible to travel to within 45 minutes by public transit.
