Toronto Overground
A modern, elevated light commuter railway system for Toronto
The Premise
Toronto's subway and future RER network will not serve Toronto's inner suburbs well. Subways are too expensive to provide adequate coverage in the suburbs, and the RER network simply does not have the capacity to handle demand from Toronto's inner suburbs. Public transit does not effectively enable travel between Toronto's suburbs (eg, from Scarborough to Etobicoke), or between the suburbs and downtown.
The Solution
A new mode of public transit specifically optimized for travel between Toronto's boroughs, and between the suburbs and Downtown. This system is designed to be complementary with the existing subway and RER network. This will leave Toronto with roughly three modes of rail transport: (1) Subways for medium-distance travel with the City of Toronto, (2) Toronto Overground for long-distance travel within the City of Toronto, and (3) RER for travel between the 905 and the City of Toronto.
The Overground is a modern system with operations completely separate from the exiting TTC system. The system utilizes fully automated light metro vehicles, similar to the ones used on the Vancouver SkyTrain or Toronto's Ontario Line. The system is built entirely elevated or at grade, except for the Downtown segments.
The route
The network layout is optimized for long-distance travel, with stations approximately 2 km apart.
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Travel times
Assuming 60 km/h travel speeds, commuters would be able to commute from Jane/Finch to University of Toronto Scarborough in just 38 minutes. This is faster than the same trip would take via the 401 during rush hour.
Between UTSC and Downtown, travel times would be just 24 minutes
Western Segment
Starting from Pioneer Village Station (Steeles), the route will run elevated down Jane Street with stations at Finch, Sheppard and Wilson. The route then travels along Black Creek Drive and Weston Road with stations at Lawrence, Eglinton (Line 5), Rogers Road and St Clair. At St Clair, half of the trains will continue to Scarbrough via Dupont, and the other half will continue to Scarborough via Downtown.
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Downtown "Loop"
At St Clair West Station, the route splits into two branches, which form the Downtown Loop. Both branches will reconverge at Laird Station.
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Northern Branch
The northern branch of the loop runs along Dupont Street, with stations at Dufferin, Bathurst (511*), Spadina (Line 1), Yonge (Line 1) and Laird. This branch is specifically designed to improve travel times between Etobicoke and Scarborough. I estimate this would save about 8 minutes in travel time, compared to travelling from Etobicoke to Scarborough via the southern segment of the loop.
There might be an oppertunity to use the Midtown Corridor to build the Northern segment. However, that is predicated on CN selling the Midtown corridor, which they might not be willing to do given how important it is to their operations. An alternative option would be to tunnel underneath Dupont Street. Given that there would only be four underground stations in this segment, this should be more affordable than most subway alignments of this length.
* Note that the 511 Bathurst Streetcar would be extended to terminate at Dupont and Bathurst, allowing for commuters on the Northern branch to continue their Downtown without any further transfers. A loop would have to be built at Bathurst/Dupont to facilitate this extension.
Southern Branch
The southern branch runs between St Clair West and Laird Stations via the GO RER/UPX corridor, King Street and the Don River. Between St Clair and Bloor the line would be elevated. The line would then be tunnelled under the RER/UPX corridor and King Street, while running at-grade or elevated alongside the Don Valley Parkway. Note that the Don segment of this line might require the permanent closure of the Downtown segment of Bayview Avenue.
Stations would be located at St Clair, Bloor (Line 2), Queen/Dufferin (501), Liberty Village, Bathurst (511), Spadina (510), Bay Street (transfers to King and St Andrew Stations are provided via PATH) and Laird. Opportunities for Line 2 transfers at Danforth Avenue are
not provided due to elevation differences between Danforth and the Don Valley.
The Southern Branch will enable commuters to quickly access the Downtown Core, where they can transfer to subway and streetcar for local travel in the core. Liberty Village will benefit substantially with a very fast connection straight to the downtown core. Stations are not provided east of Yonge due to overlapping coverage with the Ontario Line.
The 504 King would retain full service, despite sharing a corridor with the Overground, due to the wide stop spacing.
Thorncliffe and South Scarborough
Starting from Laird, the line will continue alongside the rail corridor to Eglinton Avenue, where it will intersect with Line 5 and the Ontario Line. This would be a very difficult interchange station to build given that the ECLRT is elevated/at grade while the Ontario Line is elevated. I'm not certain that a station would be physically possible at this location, but lets ignore that for now
The line then continues at grade in the Gatineau Hydro Corridor towards University of Toronto Scarborough and Sheppard Avenue East. Stations are provided at Victoria Park, Kennedy, McCowan (Line 2), Markham, Midland (UTSC), and Sheppard/Morningside. This should be the cheapest and easiest segment of the line to build.
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Sheppard East
The line is elevated along Sheppard East, with station at Morningside, Markham, McCowan (Line 2 and Scarborough Centre), Kennedy and Victoria Park. The Sheppard Subway will then be decommissioned, and its tunnels utilized by the Overground. All existing Sheppard Subway stations will remain (Don Mills, Leslie, Besarrion, Bayview and Yonge).