dunkalunk
Senior Member
Buffalo proper though. /sarcasm
Toronto Ontario Line 3 | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx
- Thread starter JasonParis
- Start date
Buffalo proper though. /sarcasm
dunkalunk
Senior Member
Kitchener-Waterloo is far from a one-horse town, and does not rise and fall on the success or failure of a single company; or even a single industry in the way Buffalo and other rust-belt cities did.
Last edited:
ehlow
Senior Member
I have doubts you follow the tech/startup industry closely if you believe that KW is doing badly these days.
dunkalunk
Senior Member
GO service to London would not primarily be about connecting London to the GTA, but about providing regional service between London, Hamilton, Brantford, Stratford, and surrounding communities; and doing so under a common carrier. If HSR is built to London, the days of VIA in southwestern Ontario are numbered (If I were Glen Murray, I wouldn't trust VIA to operate it). There is also nothing stopping Greyhound from discontinuing service if they are no longer able to compete on Toronto-London trips.
Is expanding GO service west a critical expenditure, probably not. Frequency increase and infrastructure improvements on GO's existing network are probably the most important at the moment. However, it probably will need to be seriously investigated in 10 years' time.
1overcosc
Active Member
They call it the 3rd crossing because nobody counts the Kingston Mills bridge, as its only 1 lane wide and is outside the urban area.
Judging from the fact that you just said 'Counter Street' and seemed unaware that's the location of the planned bridge, I gather you've been out of the loop in Kingston for a really long time now. Counter Street has since been renamed John Counter Boulevard, its being widened to 4 lanes (from Division to Sir John A just finished, they're now getting started on widening the rest out to Princess Street including a grade separation of the VIA crossing) and realigned so it took over most of what used to be Elliot Avenue, it now goes to Montreal Street directly. All that has happened in the last ten years or so.... Kingston's really changing fast.
The bubble system works for most winters, but for some winters (like the one we just had) icebreaking is required, and when it is, it adds a lot to the operating cost.
Judging from the fact that you just said 'Counter Street' and seemed unaware that's the location of the planned bridge, I gather you've been out of the loop in Kingston for a really long time now. Counter Street has since been renamed John Counter Boulevard, its being widened to 4 lanes (from Division to Sir John A just finished, they're now getting started on widening the rest out to Princess Street including a grade separation of the VIA crossing) and realigned so it took over most of what used to be Elliot Avenue, it now goes to Montreal Street directly. All that has happened in the last ten years or so.... Kingston's really changing fast.
The bubble system works for most winters, but for some winters (like the one we just had) icebreaking is required, and when it is, it adds a lot to the operating cost.
nfitz
Superstar
It's not much further out the 401. Sounds to me calling it the 3rd crossing has political motivations ... don't fall for it.
I'm well aware that it's been renamed ... though I'm out of the loop enough that I don't know what lead to such stupidity. But that doesn't mean I'm going to call it anything different. And I'm sure most people talking in the street don't call it anything different. My gosh, I heard Sir John A. MacDonald referred to as Palace long after that was renamed King Street - and that one made a bit more sense. If they want to do something sensible they should have renamed Taylor-Kidd ... I couldn't understand why they simply didn't call that Counter when they first built it.
I hear there's a new railway station on Counter Street, to replace the one on Montreal Street ...
1overcosc
Active Member
I really don't think there's political motivations... I mean calling it the '3rd crossing' vs. the '4th crossing' really doesn't change much. For all intents and purposes EVERYBODY in Kingston calls it the 3rd crossing. Interestingly enough back in the late 90s some documents referred to it as the '2nd crossing', trying to argue the 401 didn't count...
I've only ever heard one person, an 80-something year old man, refer to the intersection of 'Union and Palace'. Even the 'Traffic Circle' is something you very rarely hear people say and that really wasn't that long ago that they took it out. The city's logic in choosing the name 'John Counter Boulevard' was directly tied to the 3rd crossing plans, the idea was as Counter was destined to become a 4-lane route across the river thus forming a MAJOR traffic artery, the name made sense given the existing Kingston convention of using the full name of the guy followed by the word 'Boulevard' for its major arterials (Taylor Kidd Boulevard, Sir John A MacDonald Boulevard, etc.) In the early 1990s, back when the 15 through the city was still MTO-run the MTO had plans to widen it to 4 lanes. When the 15 south of the 401 was downloaded, the city initially wanted to go through with the 4-laning on their own (that was very quickly abandoned though, ironically in favour of the 3rd crossing which never actually happened!), and wanted to rename the road 'Flora MacDonald Boulevard'.
We're getting very OT, this is the DRL thread not the Kingston infrastructure thread
I've only ever heard one person, an 80-something year old man, refer to the intersection of 'Union and Palace'. Even the 'Traffic Circle' is something you very rarely hear people say and that really wasn't that long ago that they took it out. The city's logic in choosing the name 'John Counter Boulevard' was directly tied to the 3rd crossing plans, the idea was as Counter was destined to become a 4-lane route across the river thus forming a MAJOR traffic artery, the name made sense given the existing Kingston convention of using the full name of the guy followed by the word 'Boulevard' for its major arterials (Taylor Kidd Boulevard, Sir John A MacDonald Boulevard, etc.) In the early 1990s, back when the 15 through the city was still MTO-run the MTO had plans to widen it to 4 lanes. When the 15 south of the 401 was downloaded, the city initially wanted to go through with the 4-laning on their own (that was very quickly abandoned though, ironically in favour of the 3rd crossing which never actually happened!), and wanted to rename the road 'Flora MacDonald Boulevard'.
We're getting very OT, this is the DRL thread not the Kingston infrastructure thread
Last edited:
nfitz
Superstar
. Really! When MacDonald used to talk about driving the 15 to Ottawa all the time, I always imagined she took the 401 to 15, and only headed north from there ... ironically missing the bit of 15 that would have been renamed. But I guess that's only my assumption ... I'd have assumed that Montreal Street or Division would be fastest (Sir John A. not extending north of Counter back then). Flora MacDonald ... there's someone I haven't heard mentioned for a long time. Is she still ticking along? She's the kind of Conservative even I could vote for ... though last I heard, she was voting NDP with the PC party gone.
We have indeed ... but with discussion about the DRL going on since we had the referendum in 1946 to approve it's construction is there anything on-topic left to discuss until there's an EA in progress?
1overcosc
Active Member
She's still alive, although she's been out of the spotlight for a really long time now. The last anyone ever heard of her was back in the early 2000s when she opposed the PC-Canadian Alliance merger, and endorsed the NDP in the 2004 election.
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
June Metrolinx Board Meeting presentation:
http://www.metrolinx.com/en/docs/pd...26_BoardMtg_Yonge_Relief_Network_Study_EN.pdf
Basically ruled out a 4 track on Yonge as an option.
AoD
http://www.metrolinx.com/en/docs/pd...26_BoardMtg_Yonge_Relief_Network_Study_EN.pdf
Basically ruled out a 4 track on Yonge as an option.
AoD
ehlow
Senior Member
I find it really interesting that they have automatic train control for the Yonge line as 2016. I've also seen 2018 before I think.
If in 2016 auto-train control turns on and we get extra frequency on Yonge, that would be pretty damn awesome & exciting for those who use Line 1 I think. We would actually see real improvement and capacity increase in a couple of years. There's the possibility of installing platform doors to further decrease delays from people jumping/falling onto the tracks or garbage fires.
diminutive
Active Member
I'm pleased with their shortlist of high performing options, specifically how frequently GO/TTC integration was mentioned. Some specific questions
Was this ever proposed before? I've never heard of such a route.
Also, I guess TTC fare policy is out of ML's hands, but why no mention of congestion management schemes? These reports have the habit of presenting Yonge's congestion as a permanent, predetermined reality which can only be avoided by new services and routes, rather than a messed up pricing structure. We should be inducing more people to take trips outside of peak hour or to alight at stations on the University line rather than Yonge.
Was this ever proposed before? I've never heard of such a route.
Also, I guess TTC fare policy is out of ML's hands, but why no mention of congestion management schemes? These reports have the habit of presenting Yonge's congestion as a permanent, predetermined reality which can only be avoided by new services and routes, rather than a messed up pricing structure. We should be inducing more people to take trips outside of peak hour or to alight at stations on the University line rather than Yonge.
Tulse
Senior Member
Great, packing yet more people into YB station.
What I'm hoping this means is making the Richmond Hill line improvements part of the DRL, which would in essence turn the entire RH line into a subway-esque service. That, IMO, is the ideal solution, because it still gets the frequencies needed to transport Toronto passengers, while providing maximum relief to the Yonge line, because it relieves it at multiple points, including in York Region.
AlbertHWagstaff
Senior Member
ATC doesn't help much if there are long bottlenecks at the terminal stations... Awesome and exciting, with more people packed in? I think not. Platform doors are a pipe dream right now. Money is better spent building the DRL.