The core network should be lines that are straight as possible. Get people close to their destination faster and build cheaper, then transfer to local service. The Places To Grow centres should be the target destinations for routes and in between the routes should follow a near straight line which would provide locations for eventual or existing development nodes 1km apart. There is little point in eliminating a transfer going to the airport from downtown because if fast service is a must there is AirRail.
The metro line (DRL) that I've prescribed has in entirety wider turning radii than several spots within the existing TTC subway system. Note the narrowest curve on the TTC is 116m; mine where the DRL swings north up Parliament St is 220m. Deep-channel subways through the central core of the downtown involve minimalist expropriation nor disruption to the surface life above it and if built in one shot can be substantially cheaper to build than the TTC's existing TBM/Cut-n-cover method.
It is much better to have an Eglinton line which crosses all north-south lines and bus routes for connectivity than a route which is east-west part of the time and north-south part of the time.
Except that the TTC refuses to build an Eglinton
subway that goes right across east-west all of the time. They want underground LRT through the median and the city cannot afford a subway right across nor is it politically feasible to invest so much money if we even had it on one single corridor. Tricking the status quo into extending the DRL east-west along Eglinton but at the same time appeasing their LRT plans however just might be achievable.
There is little value in two main routes which are never that far apart from each other to begin with to converge at Steeles and Finch,
Steeles and Finch converge?
If you meant Jane routing into Steeles West, my end-goal is to extend that line up to Vaughan Mills and Paramount Canada's Wonderland.
a waste of money to divert west to Don Mills and Steeles when the Places To Grow north of Steeles is Markham Centre
Why must you assume that's where I envisioned the line to end? It's a Toronto-centric map. I wanted to showcase my plans for Toronto
first before I expanded to the region. I have the maps up already for it, but I want the forum to digest the first image first. Also if I'm following the path of the 404 heading northwards, then my line is precisely where it should be for further expansion.
, goofy to go to Senlac on the way to downtown to avoid a transfer that would often take as long,
Wasn't it you who said that the lines must be as straight as possible? In order to make the curve back into Yonge fast and screech-free, you must extend to at least past Senlac. If I did not include the stop en route though then I would have been accused of not caring about Sheppard West. See, I cannot win.
expensive to wind routes all over downtown to avoid people having to walk a couple of blocks to brand name areas like "Chinatown", "Cabbagetown", "Kensington Market", etc.
Okay, this one is just absurd. Since when is Chinatown walking distance of Bloor or Spadina/Front (Spadina/Wellington) where the studied DRL is most likely to go? Or Cabbagetown in relation to Castle Frank or Parliament/Esplanade? Or Bathurst/Dundas in relation to Bloor/Bathrust or Fort York? It is the TTC that wants to create redundant transfer points in order for a bulk of travellers to access major destinations. Cityplace is only relevant for the 9 to 5 crowd whom have a preexisting rail corridor at their disposal upon which DMU local transit can be operated if warranted. All-day demand preexists for the areas outlined in my map.
Make routes go straight! Straight lines cross all other non parallel lines providing better transfers. Straight lines cost less. Straight lines get you places faster.
Why if I'm going to Dundas/Beverley of what good to me is a DRL if I still have to transfer twice after I'm done riding it (YUS + 505 or 510 + 505)? Also note the perils of surface transit when doing such backtracking with locally spaced stops and many signalized intersections in contrast to a traffic-free underground commute wherein adjacent buildings can be connected to a subway station.
I don't know whether you use the Downtown streetcar system that often, but for me it is obvious where the major transitional points are along the line, where most people get off and a different set of passengers start to board. I tried my best to locate stations where these congestion points exist in the street-grid and transit network.
I can see the thought process of the map and it simply doesn't make sense. make my hydro corridor BRT running only a major city block north of Sheppard look like it fits into the network, hit all brand name city districts with a single line, These are not the ways a transit network should be designed. The core network should be straight lines which intersect other straight lines and it is the non-core network that should take people to every nook and cranny of the city.
When the TTC can operate the surface network remotely as good as it can subways then I will agree with you. Til then, assuming the DRL is the last major subway line that'll be built in Toronto, why build it in a preexisitng transit corridor, even if saving money is the goal of that? Add GO stations to Liberty Village, Parkdale, Brockton, West Don Lands and Riverdale if you want to; but don't continue to shortchange Downtown residents whom have patiently awaited a new subway line their whole lives only to find out what's going to be built will have absolutely no meaning to them.
Every nook and cranny? Have you ever been to NYC or even took a gander at the map of the MTA above? Lol! Even after my version of the DRL, there'd still be wide enough a gap for a Queen Street subway.
The premise of the map is make the Sheppard subway valuable,
+1
I'll discuss BRT later, but I'm curious about what you'd have them do to the Sheppard Line. Does a daunting $500 million bridge across the West Don River alone not suddenly make the cries for a Sheppard West extension to Downsview seem completely unreasonable? But the tail-tracks presently peter out just east of Senlac where will be engulfed by NYCC's westward expansion. Saving customers the transfer will increase the number of people that use Sheppard subway everyday, bolstering the case to expand it eastwards. And guess what if warranted, any expansion out to Senlac could be done as such to eventually extend westwards. So my planning isn't as obtuse as many here would like to believe. I thought of everything.
and for the love of god don't allow another city line cross the oh-so-important 416/905 border.
I've planned subway-standard mass transit for both Mississauga and Thornhill/Richmond Hill. That it's not an Orion T1 pulling up at the stations is a pissing contest best to be left up to the thinking process of the ignorant and misinformed.
These are schematics of the Places to Grow points and the coloured lines represent the routes which are or could meet the needs of that network. The lines are not where the actual route would go but the actual route should try to accomplish the goal of that network segment as directly as possible.
Enviro, believe you me, you have no idea just how much I've combed over studies such as Places to Grow in the past several months and have come up with an integrated rapid transit network concept that will bring everyone from Oakville to Brampton to King City to Box Grove to Oshawa within an hour of Toronto regardless of where they live.
