Toronto Galleria On The Park | 143.86m | 42s | Almadev | Hariri Pontarini

I know advocating for new streetcar lines is usually a non-starter in Toronto but, if we're going to build 40 storey buildings this far from the subway and in an area that's already got heavy transit usage, then streetcars with proper dedicated lanes (drivers be damned lol) would be ideal here.

If the 505 and the 512 were extended to Scarlett Rd., a service running from a new loop there could run down Dupont to Bay to the harbour (and maybe become the Waterfront East LRT? Though that seems like too long a route). Another streetcar could be run on Dufferin between the new Eglinton Line and the Dufferin gate loop. Give these lines priority and you could move a fair number of people.
 
Easy. DRL up Dufferin, ending at Dupont for Galleria, and bus transfers direct to the core from Dufferin and Dupont buses.

Expensive? Doesn't tax increment financing pay for things like this?
 
Looks like segregated bicycle lanes hopefully.

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Would the City have any incentive to give something in exchange for being able acquire enough land to shift Dupont south, if not wholly then at least in the last 100m to each of the Dufferin and Emerson intersections, in order to eliminate the approach angle? Done the whole way along, maybe the lands adjoining the railway line could then be replanned for a higher use than the gas stations and car washes squeezed in there now.
 
dowlingm said:
Would the City have any incentive to give something in exchange for being able acquire enough land to shift Dupont south, if not wholly then at least in the last 100m to each of the Dufferin and Emerson intersections, in order to eliminate the approach angle? Done the whole way along, maybe the lands adjoining the railway line could then be replanned for a higher use than the gas stations and car washes squeezed in there now.
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This has been discussed at least a couple of times before in this thread. It would be difficult to achieve, and the financial cost would be extremely high.

It might be more feasible to at least fix the approach angle at the Dufferin and Emerson intersections, as you propose, although I am not sure what that would entail.
 
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Skeezix said:
Sorry, I didn't say that to criticize you. There is no subject index for the thread - you couldn't have known. I said it as a means of explaining my laziness for not going into the reasons.
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Nope - it's only a 9 page thread, shouldn't have been lazy. There are a couple of other things that did occur to me about shoving that 420 metres of Dupont a little bit south:
  • opening one or more additional underpasses (e.g. Lightbourn, Primrose-Emerson) to allow local traffic - at least pedestrians, cyclists - permeability to the commercial spaces and at least partly break up the block size
  • Just east of Lansdowne is the point at which CP North Toronto straightens out and could be a station location in a midtown heavy rail transit line (Dupont-Spadina subway is 3km east)
That NW-SE diagonal street, lacking a cross-street heading east, basically funnels traffic onto Dufferin which any time I've been on it certainly doesn't need it! It is also shown as intersecting Dufferin at an angle which again makes sightlines more complicated. Are there any traffic standards about creating new streets at an angle like that, especially when it is a design choice to not straighten out just before and not a necessity?
 
I know this is looking pretty far ahead, but maybe if the missing link gets built and CP sells the North Toronto sub to Metrolinx for passenger rail, the lands between Dupont and the rail corridor could be used as part of a station at Dufferin. Heck, maybe we could even take advantage of air rights and get a station integrated with a development straddling the rail corridor. That's certainly decades away, but it's worth considering.
 
smably said:
I know this is looking pretty far ahead, but maybe if the missing link gets built and CP sells the North Toronto sub to Metrolinx for passenger rail, the lands between Dupont and the rail corridor could be used as part of a station at Dufferin. Heck, maybe we could even take advantage of air rights and get a station integrated with a development straddling the rail corridor. That's certainly decades away, but it's worth considering.
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Unfortuantely - I would think it very unlikely that CP would sell the North Toronto Sub to Metrolinx - it is part of the CP trans-Canada mainline - connects all points east of Toronto, plus the Finch / Markham Road yards, to Ontario west of Toronto, western Canada, and the United States. A railway company would just not be willing to surrender control of such a key element of their network, even if they retained running rights over that segment of track.

The Lakeshore West segment Metrolinx was purchased from CN, with CN retaining running rights. CN now has (to my understanding) one local pick up and delivery freight a day on this line, in the overnight timeframe. The local freight does not even come down the Don Valley and through Union Station, as it used to until a few years ago - it now makes its run eastwards, servicing the industrial sidings from Burlington to Etobicoke. Big difference from a core network component, with much through traffic running on it.
 
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