Transit Fantasy Maps

[Coolstar]

This is my first serious transit fantasy map I've ever made - it's an alternate universe design for the Eglinton Crosstown Line. In this design, light metro is used and the line also replaces the SSE. I believe in the overall transit plan for Toronto, implementing this plan would have been cheaper, faster and just better than the current Crosstown LRT + Crosstown LRT West and Scarborough Line 2 extension. I'm not at all a transit expert, but some of you are, so do point out errors/places of improvement. I also made infographics to go with the map, I hope that's allowed? It explains everything behind my ideas for this line in a nicer format than me typing out long paragraphs

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Amazing map! This is what the Crosstown should've been. I'd rename Martin Grove considering that there already is a Martin Grove Station on Finch West. Willowridge perhaps?

 

[ARG1]

yea, I don't think it was worth putting an underground station in a spot where not a lot of people live nor any important transit connections exist Seemed like a low ridership station. Had to make some cuts to keep the line at zoomzoom speed

As many people have proposed, maybe have the station located on the south side of the intersection similar to Mt. Dennis? Pretty sure there is plenty of room around here.

 

[afransen]

As many people have proposed, maybe have the station located on the south side of the intersection similar to Mt. Dennis? Pretty sure there is plenty of room around here.
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They must have a good reason for not doing this. I can't imagine what that would be, however. If they just didn't think of it, shame on them. This isn't a high school project.

 

[Rainforest]

This is my first serious transit fantasy map I've ever made - it's an alternate universe design for the Eglinton Crosstown Line. In this design, light metro is used and the line also replaces the SSE. I believe in the overall transit plan for Toronto, implementing this plan would have been cheaper, faster and just better than the current Crosstown LRT + Crosstown LRT West and Scarborough Line 2 extension. I'm not at all a transit expert, but some of you are, so do point out errors/places of improvement. I also made infographics to go with the map, I hope that's allowed? It explains everything behind my ideas for this line in a nicer format than me typing out long paragraphs

View attachment 295191
View attachment 295193

Great map!

Regarding the network, one concern at the time was that a lot of Scarborough riders will stay on Line 5 instead of switching to Line 2 at Kennedy, and overload Line 5 approaching Yonge, as well as Yonge south of Eglinton.

The fate of DRL / OL was unknown 10 years ago. Without that connection to Line 3 at Science Centre, the overload concerns were pretty real.

 

[robmausser]

They must have a good reason for not doing this. I can't imagine what that would be, however. If they just didn't think of it, shame on them. This isn't a high school project.

Its been discussed in detail here but the cliff notes:

1. In the original design they simply didnt think about it, Transit City was "median city", running the trains down the median of the street, always. (we can debate why that is but I have my own opinions on it ill leave out for now)

2. As projects progress they go through many revisions. In revisions and a more detailed EA to Crosstown, several alternatives were floated, including putting the stop and tracks on the south side of Eglinton.

3. Rob Ford attempts to bury all of the Crosstown underground.

4. In order to stop this, council votes to go back to the original designed plan of the Crosstown. It passes.

5. Because of this, any modifications to the original design of the Crosstown would allow Rob Ford to reopen the debate and attempt to get the line buried again.

6. In the best interest of moving the project forward and stopping any more political interference, its decided to do the plan as-is, flaws and all.

 

[afransen]

Its been discussed in detail here but the cliff notes:

1. In the original design they simply didnt think about it, Transit City was "median city", running the trains down the median of the street, always. (we can debate why that is but I have my own opinions on it ill leave out for now)

2. As projects progress they go through many revisions. In revisions and a more detailed EA to Crosstown, several alternatives were floated, including putting the stop and tracks on the south side of Eglinton.

3. Rob Ford attempts to bury all of the Crosstown underground.

4. In order to stop this, council votes to go back to the original designed plan of the Crosstown. It passes.

5. Because of this, any modifications to the original design of the Crosstown would allow Rob Ford to reopen the debate and attempt to get the line buried again.

6. In the best interest of moving the project forward and stopping any more political interference, its decided to do the plan as-is, flaws and all.

So, a very Ontario reason. Appalling.

 

[Voltz]

Its been discussed in detail here but the cliff notes:

1. In the original design they simply didnt think about it, Transit City was "median city", running the trains down the median of the street, always. (we can debate why that is but I have my own opinions on it ill leave out for now)

2. As projects progress they go through many revisions. In revisions and a more detailed EA to Crosstown, several alternatives were floated, including putting the stop and tracks on the south side of Eglinton.

3. Rob Ford attempts to bury all of the Crosstown underground.

4. In order to stop this, council votes to go back to the original designed plan of the Crosstown. It passes.

5. Because of this, any modifications to the original design of the Crosstown would allow Rob Ford to reopen the debate and attempt to get the line buried again.

6. In the best interest of moving the project forward and stopping any more political interference, its decided to do the plan as-is, flaws and all.

Not quite, they did start to change the design so the tunnel went all the way to Don Mills after Rob Ford's plan was trashed, partially because it was easier to launch the TBM's there, but a local community group, the Leaside Residents Association I think (the same group that later complained about surface construction activity near the portal) inexplicably got up in arms about the plan since it would mean no stop at Leslie. As well, there was an upcoming provincial election and it looked like the Liberals were going to lose, so they reverted to the original design and put it to tender. If they had not awarded construction and the Liberals lost then the entire line east of Yonge could have been lost.

If they had not wasted all that time with Rob's all underground plan then they could have had the chance to refine this section.

 

[slapped_chicken]

Amazing map! This is what the Crosstown should've been. I'd rename Martin Grove considering that there already is a Martin Grove Station on Finch West. Willowridge perhaps?

Ooh, nice catch. When naming the West extension stations, I had been focused on differentiating them from the station names on Line 2 but I forgot about Line 6 :S

Edit: renamed it to Willowridge on the map^^

As many people have proposed, maybe have the station located on the south side of the intersection similar to Mt. Dennis? Pretty sure there is plenty of room around here.

This would be the best way to implement it but I don't really think it's necessary to have this station at all. I mean, didn't ML axe it in favour of tunnelling all the way to Don Mills (before putting it back in) because of how poor its ridership projection would be? lol it literally is chilling in a valley surrounded mostly by trees. Those few hundred people living in the 3 apartment buildings north of here can all catch the Leslie bus or just fight me

Great map!

Regarding the network, one concern at the time was that a lot of Scarborough riders will stay on Line 5 instead of switching to Line 2 at Kennedy, and overload Line 5 approaching Yonge, as well as Yonge south of Eglinton.

The fate of DRL / OL was unknown 10 years ago. Without that connection to Line 3 at Science Centre, the overload concerns were pretty real.

Thanks and that's true - although, this line would have a max capacity of~20k pphpd, which is quite a bit higher than the LRT. I think that's sufficient to deal with an increase in ridership caused by connecting the line to STC. It could also relieve Bloor-Yonge station, but the Yonge Line would just be even more crowded than before, so not much of a net benefit. So yea, I think this reimagined Line 5 wouldn't be overloaded but Line 1's situation would definitely be worse until a Line 3 was built

 

[44 North]

This is my first serious transit fantasy map I've ever made - it's an alternate universe design for the Eglinton Crosstown Line. In this design, light metro is used and the line also replaces the SSE. I believe in the overall transit plan for Toronto, implementing this plan would have been cheaper, faster and just better than the current Crosstown LRT + Crosstown LRT West and Scarborough Line 2 extension. I'm not at all a transit expert, but some of you are, so do point out errors/places of improvement. I also made infographics to go with the map, I hope that's allowed? It explains everything behind my ideas for this line in a nicer format than me typing out long paragraphs

Very cool including an infographic like that. I think if building it as a subway then 54m is too short. That's like the same train length as current Line 3. Then again if the Prov is projecting extremely high 40k pphpd with 100m trains for OL, this roughly follows that belief. Which I think is pushing things a bit. Still I'd get on board with this retroactive proposal.

 

[slapped_chicken]

Very cool including an infographic like that. I think if building it as a subway then 54m is too short. That's like the same train length as current Line 3. Then again if the Prov is projecting extremely high 40k pphpd with 100m trains for OL, this roughly follows that belief. Which I think is pushing things a bit. Still I'd get on board with this retroactive proposal.

Truee, but these trains won't be like the ole rusty RT - longitudinal seating, for one, no operator cab, and open gangways. This system does use short trains, but I intend to make up for it with very high frequencies. With headways of 75 seconds (realistic bare minimum, I think, for an automated metro) it can do around 20k pphpd. Keeping the trains short saves me station construction costs (54 m vs 90 m platforms) which is important because I want to highlight that this plan might actually be more cost-effective than the mostly-tunnelled LRT. I think many are correct to say Eglinton doesn't really support a full-blown heavy rail subway line, so I think this mini-metro has fair capacity, I guess?

 

[Undead]

Might not even need anywhere near 20k PPHPD any time soon. Even the central section is expected to be under 7k for the foreseeable future, no?

 

[slapped_chicken]

Might not even need anywhere near 20k PPHPD any time soon. Even the central section is expected to be under 7k for the foreseeable future, no?

Yea, 20k pphpd is the extreme maximum. Running these light metro trains every 3 minutes would have a capacity of ~8k pphpd; I don't think there's going to be a need to run these hypothetical trains more than every 2 minutes for a looong time - but the option would always be there, if for some reason the demand materializes - or - some special event like a full Line 2 emergency shutdown.

 

[kamira51]

What a fantastic map you made, it makes me sad that this technology wasn't explored.

 

[KhalilHeron]

Ok I've now completed editing the subway & streetcar map for the next 9 years! The completion dates of projects are definitely going to be later than I put due to delays but I just did it according to Metrolinx's given dates and my guesses when there are no dates provided. Here's the link the the Imgur album just so they can be at a better resolution:

https://imgur.com/a/weXDvoO

That's the last map I made for 2030^ The last thing I'm going to add is the Ontario line along with an extension of Broadview streetcar service to commissioners and a revised 505 streetcar. This current map wasn't designed with the Ontario Line in mind and it shows so far it is not the prettiest thing to look at. They're really gonna have to redesign this map when it opens and I might tackle that as my next project. If I made any mistakes it'd be great if u could point them out so I can fix them and try not to make similar mistakes in the future. Thanks!

 

[Tuck]

This is my first serious transit fantasy map I've ever made - it's an alternate universe design for the Eglinton Crosstown Line. In this design, light metro is used and the line also replaces the SSE. I believe in the overall transit plan for Toronto, implementing this plan would have been cheaper, faster and just better than the current Crosstown LRT + Crosstown LRT West and Scarborough Line 2 extension. I'm not at all a transit expert, but some of you are, so do point out errors/places of improvement. I also made infographics to go with the map, I hope that's allowed? It explains everything behind my ideas for this line in a nicer format than me typing out long paragraphs

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Way better than what we're getting, good job. Though personally I'd prefer remaining on Eglinton and going up to Morningside.