RedRocket191
Senior Member
The 407 is not a PPP. It was the sale of a public asset to a private firm. There is no partnership between the public sector and the private sector.
I picked up a supplementary agenda at the TTC meeting on Wed. Dec. 17/08 about the Yonge extension to RHC and it gave some good arguements about how this overcrowding will be handled when(or if) the Yonge line is extended. One main item that will alleviate some of the ridership is the University/Spadina extension to VCC. This branch will be completed first and the report stated that a lot of the riders will be diverted to this line instead of going to Yonge. Another item that will alleviate overcrowding is the installation of Automatic Train Control. ATC will be put in different part of the line in stages but it will greatly reduce headways of the trains. The improvements to the Bloor/Yonge exchange will reduce dwell times at that station signifacantly. And yet another feature to help alleviate overcrowding is adding a 7th car to the trains! I imagine that some of the older stations will need upgrading to handle a 7th car but I guess the extended stations such as Steeles and all will be built to accomodate 7 car trains.
TTC awards contracts to the lowest bidder. TTC contracts also do no allow the consultants to charge anything they want - they require the consultant to provide salary information, and the charge-out rate is fixed based on the salary of those performing the work. No one is getting rich here - it's good work, but the profit margins are not excessive.
I have to agree, the Steeles bus estimate seems a little wonky.
Also isn't Steeles one of the Metrolinx LRT routes? Surely there's be separate LRT platforms carring most of the Steeles and Jane traffic.
The only route that will have any kind of significant traffic will be Steeles East and Steeles West, and surely 3 bus bays each would be more than sufficient. 28 bus bays would make it by far the biggest bus terminal in the network, and it isn't even a terminal station. And to top it all off, they're making the cost of those bus bays really count since they'll all be underground in the middle of the street. Has anybody considered how long Steeles will have to be dug up to build a two block long underground bus terminal?
^What the consulting engineer said.
The bit about not building the bus terminal on the surface because it would be outside the City of Toronto boundaries is appalling.
How does 28 bays compare to the other largest bus facilities connected to subway stations? Anyone have stats on say the top 5 or top 10?