News   Nov 08, 2024
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Transit City Plan

Which transit plan do you prefer?

  • Transit City

    Votes: 95 79.2%
  • Ford City

    Votes: 25 20.8%

  • Total voters
    120
Does anyone have any updates/information on the revised options Metrolinx will present to the city concerning Transit City (Eglinton, Sheppard, SRT)? When do you think these options will be presented to the public?

It may surface just before Metrolinx BOD meeting on Feb 18.

At the BOD meeting, the ranking of RTP projects is to be known as well a time line for them.

Watch TTC March 1 meeting line up.
 
Expect Bombardier to be in the backroom. Remember a lot will depend on whether or not Bombardier is willing to wave the cancellation fee for it's LRT cars without a huge penalty. Queen's Park isn't going to be, nor should it, be coughing up any funds to cover the cost. Metrolinx couldn't use it as a bargaining tool for future subway cars because despite the bidding process they hold for the TV cameras we all know that all contracts will go to Bombardier. This is I think if Ford refuses to budge on any at grade on Eglinton you could see an extension of STC from Kennedy west to use the SkyTrain as the Eglinton crosstown. You can bet that if Bombardier decides to wave a cancellation fee they will want something in return. I think they will demand SkyTrain as it would be a large transit operator expanding the system to give it more of a precense in NA.
 
This is I think if Ford refuses to budge on any at grade on Eglinton you could see an extension of STC from Kennedy west to use the SkyTrain as the Eglinton crosstown. You can bet that if Bombardier decides to wave a cancellation fee they will want something in return. I think they will demand SkyTrain as it would be a large transit operator expanding the system to give it more of a precense in NA.

Haven't several people already questioned your assertions with respect to what Bombardier would love to do?

Can you point to any statement any of the parties involved where they mention Sky Train or ICTS Mark II technology for any of this replacement plan? Or are you purely speculating as what you personally would like to see?

I still don't see how it would be in BBD's interest to let go of contracts to supply vehicles for well over 30km of lines (Eglinton, Sheppard East and Finch West) to instead provide vehicles for lines of about half that distance or less.
 
The formulation of the new transit plan is being negotiated behind closed doors between Metrolinx and the mayor's office. That's it, no one else. The new plan will be released whenever they have managed to horse-trade an agreement on what is to be built. Apparently, that is now the preferred method of planning long-term transit in Toronto.
 
Anything is possible, but I don't think that will because a) The optics of converting a subway to an LRT look bad no matter how justified it is and b) accessibility is the big selling point for the low-floor vehicles.
 
Q: Would it be possible to change the order for the Transit City trains (which are different from our new streetcars) to high floor at this point? This could make conversion of the Sheppard subway into LRT far simpler.

Like pretty well many things in the world, it likely is possible. But it would come with a price tag attached, with respect to both the order itself and all the other things such a change would impact.

So, questions that would need to be evaluated:
- Is it worth the extra cost?
- Would there be any real willingness on the part of the TTC or the city to convert the Sheppard line to LRT?
- What would be the added cost of that conversion? When would it be done?
- How would high floor LRVs impact functionality of all the non-Sheppard lines? (Noting the difference in loading times in climbing the stairs in the legacy streetcars vs a low floor bus.) Or would you just switch the Sheppard order, leaving the others as-is and add yet another vehicle type to the maintenance pool?
 
Q: Would it be possible to change the order for the Transit City trains (which are different from our new streetcars) to high floor at this point? This could make conversion of the Sheppard subway into LRT far simpler.

Wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to lower the height of boarding area of the 6 subway statiions rather than changing to high floor LRTs?
 
Q: Would it be possible to change the order for the Transit City trains (which are different from our new streetcars) to high floor at this point? This could make conversion of the Sheppard subway into LRT far simpler.

So you would make the possible and unlikely (you do realize that Ford is now the mayor right?) conversion of the subway easier in exchange more making the rest of the system more expensive and harder to build? Not to mention that much of the planning would have to be updated to adjust for high floor platforms in the middle of the street.
 
Haven't several people already questioned your assertions with respect to what Bombardier would love to do?

Can you point to any statement any of the parties involved where they mention Sky Train or ICTS Mark II technology for any of this replacement plan? Or are you purely speculating as what you personally would like to see?

I still don't see how it would be in BBD's interest to let go of contracts to supply vehicles for well over 30km of lines (Eglinton, Sheppard East and Finch West) to instead provide vehicles for lines of about half that distance or less.

I don't think he' speculating. The idea of light metro arose back in 2008 when Metrolinx RTP was leaked to the press, back then they wanted too originally put a full HRT subway down Eglinton, once the RTP was leaked they decided to downgrade the corridor to a light metro. During that period David Miller and Giamborne had already made it clear that demand didn't warrant a subway or light metro, despite this Metrolinx still pushed for a light metro, the former chair of Metrolinx even went as far as critising the current LRT plan for Eglinton by saying it was too slow. You can find the exact quote somewhere on Steve Munro's forum.
Anyhow because David Miller and Giamborune had already had a strong argument for their LRT plan they won the battle on got the funding for their Eglinton TC plan.
Going back to your original comment.............Light metro has been floating with Metrolinx since their original plan. Now that we have a Mayor that is pro subway I'm pretty sure Metrolinx will pitch a light metro plan. The only speculation is what type of light metro. Bombardier is not the only company that make light metro. Example The Canada Line in Vancouver. That being said the only logical way we can get out of the LRT contract is if we purchase another one of their products.
I hope that made sense to everyone .
 
That being said the only logical way we can get out of the LRT contract is if we purchase another one of their products.
As I said earlier in another thread (or maybe this one), ALRT is not the only "light metro" on offer from Bombardier; they have another ready-made, tried-and-true line(s) of high-floor LRV products (Flexity Swift, as used in various German stadtbahn systems and the Rotterdam metro). Of course, some would again say having three types of rolling stock is too inefficient or too much for our ineptitude to handle.
 
Haven't several people already questioned your assertions with respect to what Bombardier would love to do?

Can you point to any statement any of the parties involved where they mention Sky Train or ICTS Mark II technology for any of this replacement plan? Or are you purely speculating as what you personally would like to see?

I still don't see how it would be in BBD's interest to let go of contracts to supply vehicles for well over 30km of lines (Eglinton, Sheppard East and Finch West) to instead provide vehicles for lines of about half that distance or less.

If you note I said that "if Ford won't budge on any at grade route on Eglinton". If he would allow some at grade it must be LRT but if he says no then it either has to be elevated from at least Don Mills to Kennedy on the Eglinton line. SkyTrain makes more sense in that it could becomee a STC/Egl/Pearson crosstown. East of Kennedy they could extend the BD to Kingston. It would save the huge cost of tearing down the STC mjust to replacee it with an expensive subway. The billion cost of tearing down STC and putting up at subway would build about 6km of new SkyTrain and there would be no disruption in service. SkyTrain is automated so it is much cheaper than LRT and faster and can run every 90 seconds where even 3 minute service using LRT would be pushing it. As for this "it doesn't work in the snow and ice" that is just crap. It is not an issxue if they put in the very cheap heating mechanism.
 
SkyTrain is automated so it is much cheaper than LRT and faster and can run every 90 seconds where even 3 minute service using LRT would be pushing it. As for this "it doesn't work in the snow and ice" that is just crap. It is not an issxue if they put in the very cheap heating mechanism.

I know I'm beating a dead horse a bit here, as this has been stated MANY times, but....LRT can be automated. For example, the tunneled portion of ECLRT is/was to be automated.
 

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