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Transit Fantasy Maps

Here's a plan I call "$100 Billion Dollars", a map showing the rail I would build for that money

PHRknwPl.jpg

Click for huge

Heavy Rail Builds:
1 - North Extension to VMC
1 - North Extension to RHC
2 - West Extension to Dixie and Dundas
2 - East Extension to Sheppard and Progress
3 - DRL from DW to Don Mills at Finch (Red)
4 - West Extension to Downsview/Sheppard West Station

LRT/Streetcars:

5 - ECLRT from Airport to Kingston Rd (Light Blue)
6 - FLRT from Airport to Don Mills via Racetrack, Humber College (Navy Blue)
7 - SELRT from Don Mills to Meadowvale (Indigo)
8 - Kingston LRT from Victoria Park Station to Meadowvale (Olive)
9 - Jane LRT from Jane Station to Pioneer Station (Cream)

501 - Extended to Long Branch, connects to Hurontario LRT (Peach)
505 - Extended to Highway 427 station (Light Purple)
512 - Extended to Scarlett, loops along Dundas (Pale Green)
514 - Queensway to Sherway Station from Humber Loop (Peach)
515 - Bremner from Trinity Bellwoods Park (Strachan) to Union Station (Pink)
516 - Beaches from Union Station via Commissioners, Lakeshore to Queen (White)
529 - Replaces 29 south of Eglinton, loops around Automotive Building (Bright Green)

BRT along Steeles, Lawrence, Kipling, Islington, Keele and Kennedy
 
TheTigerMaster said:
1. The Don Mills and Scarborough branches each have approximately half the capacity they would have had if they were separate lines. What do we do if decades from now, when ridership the Don Mills and Scarborough branches may be too high for the branching solution to handle. For this, I'd recommend roughing in an interchange station under Dundas Station on the DRL so we could easily split apart the two lines if needed.
2. A delay on one branch of the line will affect the others. We had issues with this back when we used the "wye" in the 60s. But I'd imagine that auto train control and platform screen doors could mitigate these issues.
Click to expand...

This isn't such a big deal. You could still get ~16 trains per hour on each branch, which is plenty good.

With modern signalling the delay issue wouldn't be as big, either. Transit Toronto's piece on the wye suggests that delay propagation was more the result of incompetent TTC management than anything inherent to the wye.

The bulk of the system delays were the result of the TTC halting all trains at the wye if a particular train missed its entry time. The TTC was more interested in preserving the sequence of trains and train crews rather than the schedule.

In Mimmo's words: "Approximately 2/3 of all trains were held for sequencing, up to 2 mins at times. The holding platforms were: Bay Downtown/Bay Eastbound (both levels) -- trains would be released alternately; St. George Downtown/St. George Westbound (both levels) -- trains would be released alternately."

In June 1966, the operation was changed to "first into the wye, first out", and the delays disappeared. Trains were resequenced at the termini instead.
Click to expand...
 
With Automatic Train Control headways will be excellent throughout the whole line. I estimate about 210 seconds on the Don Mills and Scarborough branches and just over 90 seconds from Bloor-Dundas to Dundas West. This would be more than enough for the forseeable future.
 
I didn't have time to put it together in illustrator, but I've made some edits to my previous fantasy map:

5P3CXNQ.jpg


Rapid Transit Lines
Line 1: Bloor-Danforth Subway (from Sherway Gardens to Victoria Park)
Line 2: Yonge-Univesity Subway (From Vaughan Centre to Union to Langstaff)
Line 3: Eglinton Crosstown LRT (From Renforth Gateway to UofT Scarborough)
Line 4: Sheppard-Scarborough LRT (From Downsview Park to Malvern Centre) (Follows Scarborough RT Corridor)
Line 5: Wellington-Don Subway (From Dundas West to Don Mills)
Line 6: Downtowner REX (From Brampton/Pearson to Union to Markham)
Line 7: Lakeshore/Spadina LRT (From Long Branch to Port Lands)
Line 8: Finch LRT (From Pearson to Downsview)
Line 9: Main-Hurontario LRT (From Brampton to Long Branch)

BRT Corridors
Mississauga BRT
Brown's Line BRT
Black Creek BRT
Kingston Road BRT
Markahm Road BRT

Where lines meet or terminate, expect there to be an interchange station (except at the 427, the transfer would be made at Sherway Gardens)

I understand that council voted for a Scarborough Subway, but I'm of the opinion that a combination of LRT, BRT and electrified regional express rail using existing rail corridors would do a better job of moving people around instead of just overloading the Bloor-Danforth with people bound for Downtown.
 
Last edited:
I understand wanting something different than what's happening, but it really does make it a "fantasy" map if you ignore what council voted for and is doing.
 
TheTigerMaster said:
30dOQLpl.png
[/URL]
Click to expand...

I like this map.

A few minor comments:

1) South end of Jane street is narrow, and building an LRT there will be difficult. Furthermore, density is higher north of Eglinton than between Eglinton and Bloor. If DRL West goes to Jane anyway, then it may be enough to build Jane LRT only between Steeles and Eglinton. Riders who want to reach Bloor, will transfer via DRL west.

2) On the other hand, west end of the city would benefit from one more north-south LRT line (Kipling or Islington). Either street is wide, and LRT should fit on surface for the whole length.

3) In the east, the current plan is to end Scarborough subway at Sheppard / McCowan. Perhaps it is better to keep it that way, and bring Finch East LRT down McCowan to Sheppard. That would create a non-revenue connection between the Sheppard and Finch lines, and allow the Finch line to use Conlins yard.
 
gweed123 said:
What about doing something like this for the western branch?

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43869799/MoveToronto_v8.jpg

Rather than doing a short-turn, put a spur along Lake Shore to serve that growing neighbourhood in there, as well as the Ex.
Click to expand...

That's an option, and may even be a necessity.

We know that Metrolinx wants to build a new GO terminal at the western edge of downtown, in the Front / Bathurst area. I will call it "Front West GO Terminal", although the actual name may be different. The concept is viable only if a subway line connects this terminal to downtown, and Metrolinx even pictured a DRL line whose western end terminates at "Front West".

So, if DRL alignment through downtown is north of the rail corridor, a dilemma will arise: either veer DRL south to serve "Front West" GO, but built it in such a way that does not preclude extending it further north-west. Or, split DRL into two branches somewhere west of University, so that one branch veers south to the GO station, while the other branch continues west and eventually north-west.

If a branched operation is anticipated east of downtown, then it seems logical to branch in the west as well. For example, we can have a "Scarborough - Dundas East - Downtown - Dundas West - Jane St." service, and a "Don Mills - Thorncliffe - Dundas East - Downtown - Front West GO Terminal - Exhibition" service.

With a shared central section but totally different termini at both ends, the two services will not have to mesh perfectly. They need to mesh reasonably well, but an occasional pair of trains going to the same destination will not mess up the whole operation.
 
Rainforest said:
That's an option, and may even be a necessity.

We know that Metrolinx wants to build a new GO terminal at the western edge of downtown, in the Front / Bathurst area. I will call it "Front West GO Terminal", although the actual name may be different. The concept is viable only if a subway line connects this terminal to downtown, and Metrolinx even pictured a DRL line whose western end terminates at "Front West".

So, if DRL alignment through downtown is north of the rail corridor, a dilemma will arise: either veer DRL south to serve "Front West" GO, but built it in such a way that does not preclude extending it further north-west. Or, split DRL into two branches somewhere west of University, so that one branch veers south to the GO station, while the other branch continues west and eventually north-west.

If a branched operation is anticipated east of downtown, then it seems logical to branch in the west as well. For example, we can have a "Scarborough - Dundas East - Downtown - Dundas West - Jane St." service, and a "Don Mills - Thorncliffe - Dundas East - Downtown - Front West GO Terminal - Exhibition" service.

With a shared central section but totally different termini at both ends, the two services will not have to mesh perfectly. They need to mesh reasonably well, but an occasional pair of trains going to the same destination will not mess up the whole operation.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I was thinking too. It's 2 quasi-independent lines sharing the same central trunk (from say John to Pape). This also solves the "northern vs southern" alignment debate on the west side of downtown, because the two branches cover both north and south of the rail corridor. The alignment that I have for the southward curve of the spur is around Spadina, but I suppose it could be shifted slightly further west in order to cover the "Front West GO Terminal".

This also gives a good opportunity for new branding of the project. We know that Ford Nayshun hates anything with "downtown" in it, so in this you can have the Scarborough Subway, the Don Mills Subway, the Central Subway, the Exhibition Subway, and the Dufferin Subway. Brand it as the "Central Crosstown Subway" or something like that.
 
TheTigerMaster said:
Made some changes to my map from a few pages back. Tried to make it a little more "realistic" :rolleyes:

1. Toronto Crosstown's western terminal is now at Jane. Having that line go all the way to Pearson was a ridiculous fantasy. Loads of cost savings with this.

2. Bloor-Danforth terminates at Victoria Park. The track from Victoria Park to Sheppard-McCowan that was previously part of the Bloor-Danforth is now part of the Scarborough Express (branch of Toronto Crosstown).This means that only 3 km of new track will have to be built between Dundas (DRL) and Eglinton-Brimley. And it's much cheaper than what I previously proposed.

3. Bloor-Danforth is extended west to East Mall. The Toronto Crosstown's rail yard would go here.

4. Spadina gets an LRT! This is a modification of the current 510 Spadina streetcar to upgrade its operations to what we find on Finch West and Sheppard East. It would mainly involve installing signal priority, better management of vehicle bunching, the removal of some stops and upgrading of the remaining stops. My hope is that this would help to relieve crowding on the Yonge-University

5. Waterfront East gets an LRT! Running from Union, along Queens Quay and up Cherry Street to connect to River Station.

6. Now that Council has voted for a Scarborough Subway extension, the elevated guideway from Midland to McCowan has been repurposed to be a BRT. From there, the line runs east to Centennial (dedicated corridor, similar to the one for York U) and then north to Malvern (in ROW). North east Scarborough would finally have some higher order transit.

7. I estimated the capital cost to the City of Toronto for the old version to be about $30 Billion. Because of the Scarborough Express reconfiguration and the removal of the Toronto Crosstown west of Jane, this should be a little cheaper.

Old:
25617_Map.png


Large image

New:
30dOQLpl.png


Large image

PDF
Click to expand...

I like your idea of turning Spadina into a LRT route. Pretty easy to do with the new streetcars. Reduce 2-3 stops (I like the stops you have on your map, mainly removing Sussuex and Richmond), add priority lights and we have a quick win that may draw a few more rides away from the subway system.

Some other quick wins I can think of are:
- King St: only streetcars and commercial vehicles (i.e. taxis, delivery vans) between Parliament and Shaw between 7:00 to 9:30 AM and 4:00 to 6:30 PM). Bicycles are also allowed. One of the concerns of closing King St entirely is how it will affect businesses (no delivery trucks) and cabs, so let them continue on this route, but ban all personal cars during the rush hour. Also stricter enforcement (both parking and cars that cheat).

- Bay bus: Once 6 Bay gets the new Artc. buses, have diamond lanes on the right lane and reserve that lane for buses between 7-9:30 AM and 4-6:30 PM). Again, gives riders more option from transferring off the Bloor line to the downtown core.
 
Coruscanti Cognoscente said:
I understand wanting something different than what's happening, but it really does make it a "fantasy" map if you ignore what council voted for and is doing.
Click to expand...

Essentially, Council just voted to kick the can down the road by a few more years. If you believe the vote meant something, we still do not even know what alignment the subway would take, and if the EA is going to look at what route is best to serve Scarborough, we could have almost anything become the preferred alternative.
 
BurlOak said:
Essentially, Council just voted to kick the can down the road by a few more years. If you believe the vote meant something, we still do not even know what alignment the subway would take, and if the EA is going to look at what route is best to serve Scarborough, we could have almost anything become the preferred alternative.
Click to expand...

The advantage with the "stop B-D at Victoria Park" option though is that even if the Scarborough Subway gets built as Council approved, the section between Victoria Park and Main St can be reconfigured later.

Heck, there's even the option of stopping every 2nd B-D train at Victoria Park, but having the DRL and B-D lines running interlined into Scarborough. That would keep B-D accessible for Scarberians without having to transfer at Victoria Park.
 
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