Toronto Queens Quay & Water's Edge Revitalization | ?m | ?s | Waterfront Toronto

Most of those future residents in the eastern waterfront are likely to be employed in the CBD and that's where the QQ east line should take them. The super-sized streetcar loop as proposed under Union is just plain silly and would be money wasted. I would turn it into a through station and have the streetcar line go under the subway line emerging from a portal just north of Wellington. All the way to Bloor? I think a loop around old city hall would be plenty. The N-S tunnel is still good to avoid Lake Shore and whatever the Gardiner becomes.
 
whatever said:
You'd probably know this: how much of the underground work for the Fort York Line already exists? I was under the impression that both the Air Canada Centre's Galleria and Telus allowed provisions for it, and I was almost positive that they even built a tunnel box under Union Square while everything was hoarded up for Telus.

My first reaction to reading about the suggested closure of Bay was horror, but after thinking about it for a few minutes it makes perfect sense. Would it not be even better to take the tracks into the current GO terminal tho? Or take one set of tracks into the GO terminal, and then continue it eastward along the Esplanade and out to the Distillery.
Click to expand...

If you look back in history, streetcars ran on Front St from Bathurst to ? (I can't remember at this time). This included parts of the Esplanade, east of Church St.

There is a tunnel under the AC with provision of a portal on the west side of it. Fort York west of Spadina was built for tracks thou City Place saw no need for one nor did they want this type of road.

TTC wants to run a Bathurst car into Union once the line is built as well the the Waterfront line.

There is no way streetcars/LRT can run into GO Terminal as per your idea, as it would have to be underground 100% and that's big bucks. You need a larger radius turn and no room to do it.

TTC is calling for 8,000 riders a peak time for Union for all the lines, but I and other are seeing 12,000 plus and this is before the full Portland is fully redevelop in the next 30 years.

The Chief city planner current and past have said "how are you going to move 100,000 riders across Front & Bay as well move them up Bay, let alone Yonge, York or the Path without reducing traffic"? Closing Bay to traffic is the only answer and does not sit well with traffic engineers. There are calls now for wider sidewalks on Bay.

You every try walking north on Bay from Front between 4-6? It's a flood coming at you to the point that you have to walk on the road.
 
drum118 said:
There is no way streetcars/LRT can run into GO Terminal as per your idea, as it would have to be underground 100% and that's big bucks. You need a larger radius turn and no room to do it.
Click to expand...

Just to clarify, by GO terminal I meant the bus terminal, not Union Station. Would it have to be underground? If they were going to the underpass anyway wouldn't there be room to make the turn into the bus terminal's driveway? Just from memory it seems like two sets of tracks running along the current southbound lanes of Bay St would allow a wide enough turn radius to make it into the driveway
 
whatever said:
Just to clarify, by GO terminal I meant the bus terminal, not Union Station. Would it have to be underground? If they were going to the underpass anyway wouldn't there be room to make the turn into the bus terminal's driveway? Just from memory it seems like two sets of tracks running along the current southbound lanes of Bay St would allow a wide enough turn radius to make it into the driveway
Click to expand...

I understood bus terminal.

Regardless if the line is on the surface or underground, you going to need a 45' min radius for turning.

To take the line east on the surface from Yonge, you will need to take the line to the north side of the parking lot, even from the southbound lanes. You got to get pass the bridge support {10'?} before you can start a curve.
 
Why would you need any turning circle, are the new downtown lrt (streetcars) not double ended? Therefore instead of a turning circle you would only need a terminus, the operator would transfer to the other end of the lrt to resume service, like they do presently with the subways at Downsview Station. It makes a lot of sense to me to close traffic on the west side of Bay from Queen's Quay to Front St, and replace it with lrt surface track that would terminate under the Bay Street flyover. It would leave 2 way traffic on the east side of Bay. Sidewalks could be widened on the west side which would make it easier for pedestrian traffic coming south on Bay to Union Station
 
We weren't talking about a turning circle, the turning radius only came up in response to my question about having the tracks go past the underpass and into the GO bus terminal's driveway.
 
I did some asking around at TTC meeting about Cherry St and it was a mix bag of answers.

Since TTC has not produce the blue books, some don't know if the funding is there at this time to put the tracks in during the construction.

Other source say tracks are going in during construction, but no service until late 2015 or early 2016.

From reading "whatever posting", I understood the turning radius was being ask, not a loop. There is no way you can put a loop in the GO bus area. There is an issue for the turning radius.
 
drum118 said:
TTC still has the vision of running the Fort York Line into Union under Air Canada Centre and that will become a nightmare operational issues getting into/out of Union Station.
Click to expand...

How would they bypass/get under the MTCC south? That sucker is what, 5 stories underground? i assume just dig really, really deep?
 
SGHA504 said:
How would they bypass/get under the MTCC south? That sucker is what, 5 stories underground? i assume just dig really, really deep?
Click to expand...

would probably be above-ground on bremner until just west of lower Simcoe and go into a portal east of York and under bremner/maple leaf square and into Union.
 
BMO said:
would probably be above-ground on bremner until just west of lower Simcoe and go into a portal east of York and under bremner/maple leaf square and into Union.
Click to expand...

Your correct. When the ACC was built, provision was built for LRT under it to connect to the Bay Line. The portal would be west of the turning lane for ACC and the entrance to the Towers.

York Blvd (bremner/maple leaf square) will have a new ROW built in the centre so it can connect to the current ROW on the west side of Spadina.

I and others think this is a dumb idea including Concord, as the new connection would become an operation nightmare trying to get both QQ lines into Union as well 510 and 519. 510 and 519 would use the York ROW as well the future WWFLRT. The people on QQ west will see a decrease in service with the rerouting of the 510.

As an update on the construction of the QQ new ROW for the west, Waterfront Toronto has push back the schedule work for the new ROW to the fall and possible to 2013 and one reason it did not show up in the TTC CEO report this month.

TTC commission has approved the plan bus service to George Brown College and it was very close to what I saw. The only different was running the Bay bus both ways on QQ and wasn't sure if TTC wanted to do this. The Parliament extension is still been looked at, but a funding issue.
 
Palma said:
Should QQ not be extended west of Bathurst to Dufferin St? After all there is Liberty Village plus Ontario Place. The fact it stops at Bathurst does not make sense
Click to expand...

That's part of the WWFLRT plan. The plan is approved to take the exhibition line over to Dufferin St, but until the new Dufferin St bridge is built, its on hold, as well no funding in place for it until after 2020. If the new LRT were duel end, the line could be built to Dufferin now, since the line is to go west any how, but no duel end cars coming.
 
Where would you put it? It actually goes west of Bathurst to Stadium Rd where it dead ends at the Lake.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top