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The Urban Jungle
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TTC: Bloor Danforth Line 2 West Extension(s)

innsertnamehere said:
If you think you need 15k an hour for a subway we will never build another subway line again. That number is simply absurdly high. The DRL doesn't even hit it when fully built out from Eglinton to Dundas West.
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I think the TTC's threshold for subway justification is 10k peak hour per direction. According to the TTC's downtown rapid transit study, the full DRL would have achieved 14 900.
 
WislaHD said:
I feel like if Toronto had more access to revenue tools and greater ability to fund its projects, an extension to Square One wouldn't even be debated, it would just be done.

But that is not the case so I suppose the debate should therefore be how much of a priority is this especially over other projects?
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What revenue tools do you think they need access to?
 
RyanM12 said:
I think the 2% sales tax that Harper cut should be reinstated by the city, tied directly to transit infrastructure
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I think the retailers at Vaughan Mills, Square One, Bramalea City Centre, etc. would approve of that idea ;)

That said there are a variety of measures that the City of Toronto has been granted that no other city has and they have not used those....so I am not sure the city (even if it were allowed) would implement a higher sales tax in Toronto than elsewhere in the province.
 
Yes, it seems particularly foolish to increase sales taxes in Toronto to build a subway to Square One, a large shopping mall not subject to said tax.
 
Not just Toronto. Should be all of GTA, southern Ontario, or all of Ontario. Everyone wants to make big plans and draw fantasy maps but nobody wants to pay for it.

Sales tax is the fairest, and the biggest money maker. It could fund a full DRL from Roncesvalles to steeles, as well as Yonge, Scarborough, Mississauga, Sheppard. Probably GO RER also. Hell maybe Queen AND King. (Financed over many decades, but as it should be, since future generations will be the ones benefiting the most, once it's all built out).

I say do it, otherwise we'll spend another 30 years saying nothing gets done.
 
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RyanM12 said:
Not just Toronto. Should be all of GTA,
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Toronto....not the GTA...was the only municipality granted the ability to raise revenues outside of the normal municipal sources...and sales taxes (unless charged on tobacco, alcohol or entrance into entertainment venues) were not part of those.

RyanM12 said:
southern Ontario, or all of Ontario. Everyone wants to make big plans and draw fantasy maps but nobody wants to pay for it.

Sales tax is the fairest, and the biggest money maker. I say do it, otherwise we'll spend another 30 years saying nothing gets done.
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Well an increase in the provincial sales tax may not prove very popular with Ontario residents that do not live in the 416/905 and (if I am not mistaken) the HST agreement the province made with the Feds did not allow them to just increase the pst portion to take up the slack of the reduced GST portion. (I would have to look that last part up but it is what I recall).
 
BurlOak said:
I was there this spring or last fall - can't remember. I did not trespass, but I consciously looked at the condo area.

I attach a sketch from City of Toronto website. From the property line, I drew 8.6m and it is well away from the building. The subway is 3m wide x 2 direction, plus 2 x 0.75m wall thickness for the retaining structure = 7.5m wide strip needed.

What is needed is a retaining wall about 60 to 100m long. This would vary in height, reaching about 8m maximum. Instead of this though, I would propose "tunnel" that is retaining the embankment on the north, covered above, and open to the south (or discrete columns with openings). This serve to retain the embankment, reduce noise to condo, and open on the south so it doesn't count as a tunnel along with the pedestrian egress requirements of a tunnel.

Construction would be a sheet pile wall (that will be left in place, or possibly pile and lagging) against the embankment, then some excavation of the embankment and building concrete "tunnel" structure. This would progress westward in small increments until the entire structure is built.

The old Canadian Tire and the next factory over are more in the way, but if this area is expected to redevelop, they will be gone.

Plus: The cost of this "tunnel" would be about $20M

View attachment 37554


View attachment 37556
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According to this photo I shot, the building is a few feet from the corridor fence. I couldn't get a shot of that area due to various thing, mostly trees.

There is no issues for the west side of the old CT land. Again maps and plans show something different that what there in real life.
14740554166_df0dc84045_b.jpg
 
RyanM12 said:
Not just Toronto. Should be all of GTA, southern Ontario, or all of Ontario. Everyone wants to make big plans and draw fantasy maps but nobody wants to pay for it.

Sales tax is the fairest, and the biggest money maker. It could fund a full DRL from Roncesvalles to steeles, as well as Yonge, Scarborough, Mississauga, Sheppard. Probably GO RER also. Hell maybe Queen AND King. (Financed over many decades, but as it should be, since future generations will be the ones benefiting the most, once it's all built out).

I say do it, otherwise we'll spend another 30 years saying nothing gets done.
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All cities in the US use some sort of sale tax added the main tax tax for transit and is voted on during various elections. The past election saw 14 out 21 tax proposal for transit pass in the US. About 75% of all tax proposal for transit get pass these days. The rate various from 1/8 to .5 of a cent increase.

At some point we must increase taxes to cover cost of building transit and other things. There is nothing stopping having different tax rate in the GTA, other than Queen Park. Some cities have added special taxes to cover various items on the tax bill to show where that extra tax is going to.

A 1 cent sale tax increase across the board going to the various cities would do a lot of good for them and deal with the backlog of things that should have been done 10-20 years ago.

Cutting taxes does more harm than good.
 
drum118 said:
All cities in the US use some sort of sale tax added the main tax tax for transit and is voted on during various elections. The past election saw 14 out 21 tax proposal for transit pass in the US. About 75% of all tax proposal for transit get pass these days. The rate various from 1/8 to .5 of a cent increase.

At some point we must increase taxes to cover cost of building transit and other things. There is nothing stopping having different tax rate in the GTA, other than Queen Park. Some cities have added special taxes to cover various items on the tax bill to show where that extra tax is going to.

A 1 cent sale tax increase across the board going to the various cities would do a lot of good for them and deal with the backlog of things that should have been done 10-20 years ago.

Cutting taxes does more harm than good.
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Nothing other than, say, provincial law?
 
CDL.TO said:
A one-stop extension of the BD line to East Mall/427 could be combined with dedicated on/off ramps to/from the 427 directly into the station's bus terminal. Even with just just ramps to/from the north, we would see CONSIDERABLE time savings for the 191, 192, and a whole bunch of Mississauga Transit routes (including the busway route).

I wouldn't be surprised if building this would save 10 minutes on each bus trip using the 427 in the peak periods.
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drum118 said:
According to this photo I shot, the building is a few feet from the corridor fence. I couldn't get a shot of that area due to various thing, mostly trees.

There is no issues for the west side of the old CT land. Again maps and plans show something different that what there in real life.
14740554166_df0dc84045_b.jpg
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I am not sure, but it looks like that strip has already been taken by GO. That area is not needed by GO for through tracks. It may be needed if major changes are needed to Kipling GO station. If the subway is extended to East Mall, and the transit hub is built there, then Kipling Station would not need major change and that space could be given to TTC. Extra GO Tracks could be added to the south side.

I will have to take a look sometime.
 
I think that a dedicated tax should go towards TRANSPORTATION and not just transit and this is where Translink got it right.

If there is a province wide increase than they can certainly state that a certain percentage go towards transit but there are many areas of the province that have no transit at all and it makes sense. Some areas are simply to small to support it except limited service for handi-dart. Their share should go to where it's needed most like roads. All areas should be able to employ some of those funds towards bike lanes and pedestrian path/sidewalks. In urban areas they could use some of those funds for HOV lanes.

In smaller urban areas they could {ie Sarnia/Kingston/Guelph} stipulate that a certain amount go towards transit while in the larger centres {ie GTAH/London/Ottawa} they could stipulate an even larger percentage.

It is unreasonable and a poor usage of funds demanding all areas use the same percentage of those funds towards transit. The funds should reflect the needs of the area so that Leamington is not expected to spend the same amount of the funding on transit than London is. The funds should reflect the different needs of transportation in the different areas. It maybe a stunner for Torontonians but only about half of the province's population live the GTAH.
 
Just resurrect the Crosstown GO route from Erindale to mid-Pickering, and throw in an Etobicoke RT which can connect at Long Branch, Sherway, Line 2, Pearson, and more.
 
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